Artwork story
About Plate 35: Philip of Spain as Neptune, riding in a chariot drawn by two sea horses; from Guillielmus Becanus's 'Serenissimi Principis Ferdinandi, Hispaniarum Infantis...'
The artist and artwork
Pieter de Jode II engraved this crowded royal allegory in Antwerp in 1636. De Jode used precisely cut lines to translate a temporary festival painting into an image on paper. Philip of Spain appears not in contemporary court dress but as Neptune, enthroned in a sea chariot pulled by two sea horses. Triton-like figures, banners, masts, and architecture turn the sheet into a theatrical meeting of mythology, portraiture, and civic spectacle.
The world around it
The print records celebrations held in Ghent on January 28, 1635, for the ceremonial entry of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Spain, the newly appointed governor of the Southern Netherlands. Europe was deep in the Thirty Years' War, and Ferdinand was a Habsburg military commander. Ghent commissioned Flemish artists to decorate two triumphal arches in its main square, using classical heroes and gods to present Spanish dynastic authority as orderly and victorious. The following year, publisher Johannes Meursius issued an illustrated festival book that carried those political images beyond the decorations themselves.
A detail to notice
The title announces the most interesting transformation: a Spanish ruler becomes Neptune. The chariot, sea horses, shell-like forms, and attendants do not document an event that literally happened; they create an allegorical claim that royal command can be imagined as mastery over the sea. De Jode ties the fantasy to public ceremony with flags, rigging, distant buildings, and a dense supporting cast. The Met explains that most of the original painted canvases for Ghent's arches are now lost, while the engravings show what the series looked like. This repeatable work on paper is therefore not merely a copy, it is a principal witness to an elaborate public artwork designed to disappear. The Met holds thirty-four plates from the original set of forty-two.
Look closer: materials, scale, and subjects
The recorded object is print, fete, ornament & architecture made in Engraving and held in the Drawings and Prints department.
Recorded dimensions include Sheet (Trimmed): 11 5/8 × 15 1/8 in. (29.5 × 38.4 cm).
Subject terms include Mythical Creatures, Neptune, Fish, and Chariots. Treat them as guideposts, not a complete interpretation.
Collection history and public-domain source
The collection credit line is The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951.
The individual artwork page and official image were verified as Public Domain on 2026-08-23.
No Context Gallery independently uses the public-domain image. The source museum has not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated itself with these products.
Research sources
See the products currently available with this artwork. Product choices appear only when the exact item is published, in stock, and available to purchase.
