Mercurio Mercimo Niorum Præsidi P. (BM 1873,0510.3600)

Plate 34: Mercury Departing from Antwerp; on a pedestal at the centre stands Mercury, wearing his winged helmut and sandals, readying for departure with a caduceus and purse raised in his outstretched hand; to the left the personification of a river god (River Scheldt) leans against a silenced cannon, sleeping, as a putto turns the bounds around his ankle; at right, Antverpia kneels on a block, with an anchor and broken oars beside her; in the background the stern of a ship rides the calm waters of the Scheldt with the standard of the Spanish Netherlands flying; after Peter Paul Rubens; illustration for Gaspar Gevaerts' "Pompa Introitus" (Antwerp, 1641)
Etching