From the exhibition
Op d'Afbeelding van Barent van Galen, Bisschop van Munster
· 1665

This Dutch etching lampoons Christoph Bernhard van Galen, the warlike Prince-Bishop of Münster, depicted as a standing warrior-cleric wielding sword and scales. The satirical text below catalogs his military and administrative officials—Kruyger, Boatswain, Rope-maker, Bond-breaker—mocking his mercenary forces and brutal reign. An early example of the Northern European picture-sheet tradition, this print combines engraved portraiture with pointed verbal satire to attack both clerical ambition and military aggression. The composition descends from sixteenth-century Reformation polemic and anticipates the caricature broadsides of Hogarth and his successors, establishing strategies of visual ridicule that would evolve into modern comic satire.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/