Jacob van Maerlant Writing His Spieghel Historiael

Jacob van Maerlant was the most important Dutch-language poet of the medieval Low Countries, whose encyclopedic verse works helped establish the vernacular literary tradition. His Spieghel Historiael (Mirror of History) was a monumental historical chronicle. De Vriendt's 1889 painting depicts van Maerlant at work on this masterpiece, an act of medieval intellectual labor. As with the other figures in his Antwerp series, the painting served to establish a proud Flemish cultural heritage reaching back to the medieval period — literary achievement alongside military and ecclesiastical power.

De Vriendt sets the medieval poet in a scriptorium-like interior, with careful handling of candlelight or window light illuminating the writing figure. The medieval setting is rendered with the attention to historical accuracy expected of academic history painting.