A STILL LIFE OIL PAINTED BY HENDRIK VANDER BORGHT IN 1650 WITH ANCIENT COINS FROM DACIA: A HIGHLY EDUCATED WORK AND A POLITICAL MANIFESTO

Abstract

An oil painting by Hendrik Vander Borght and dated 1650 displays an assemblage of Roman vases (6 in clay and 2 in glass) and 11 ancient coins (3 Greek, 3 Roman Republican and 5 Roman Imperial), depicted with an astonishing accuracy, allowing a precise identification for most of them. From an archaeological point of view, such a grouping of coins can only come from ancient Dacia. It is argued here that the painting is organized in order to display a political manifesto for the good ruler, strong, but not autocratic. It may refer to the general uncertainty felt soon after the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) which ended the Wars of Religion, but it may also be more precisely related to Transylvania at a time when the young and adventurous George II Rakoczi was recklessly preparing to invade Poland, after having succeeded in 1648 his father George I, whose reign was remembered as a golden age for Transylvania.