under the title "Batavorum cum Romanis Bellum" after designs of the Netherlandish artist Otto van Veen, also known as Vaenius (1556-1629) and court painter to Alessandro Farnese. Van Veen was influenced by the Italian mannerists but had developed his own style anticipating the Flemish baroque of his pupil Peter Paul Rubens. The series consists of 36 numbered engraved plates and illustrates the armed struggle between the ancient Dutch tribes and their Roman oppressors as narrated in Tacitus' Histories. Each plate bears at the bottom an engraved legend in Flemish and in Latin while a detailed explanation is printed on the otherwise blank verso. Plate I, signed 'Ant.Tempesta f. Anno 1611', shows 'Roma' and 'Batavia' in battle dress with respective scenic backgrounds, symbolizing the two nations. Fifteen other plates bear Tempesta's monogram. The plates depict heroic events, sieges, and battle scenes. This historicist work was very popular in its time. Tempesta also drew many designs for tapestries. Gallery Notes References Text from Karel van Mander's Schilderboeck, p. 195: Daer is nae mijnen tijdt, oft noch teghenwoordich te Room, een Florentijn, Discipel van Ioan van der straet, oft Stradanus, geheeten Antonio Tempesta, die seer ghepresen wort, hebbende veel dinghen gheteyckent en ghehetst, als Iachten, Batailgen der Amasones: oock Ao. 1593. in platte forme, en in't groote, de Stadt van Room. Brief bio of Tempesta from Web Gallery of Art Grove Art Dictionary Eckhard Leuschner, Antonio Tempesta. Ein Bahnbrecher des roemischen Barock und seine europaeische Wirkung, Petersberg 2005 (in German). External links Lambiek Comiclopedia article. 1555 births 1630 deaths 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Italian Renaissance painters Italian printmakers Painters from Florence