Herman van Lin

Private Swedish collection.

The phrase ‘Dis Manibus Sacrum’, often shortened D.M.S., inscribed on the archaeological fragment in the foreground on the left, is found on Roman graves. Manibus were the spirits of the dead, so it can be translated as “Sacred to the Spirit-Gods” or, more loosely, “To The Memory Of…”. Because Roman law forbade burial within settlements, the roads leading to and from Roman cities were lined with tombs and cemeteries. What may strike us as unusual, or at least unusual to our understanding of modern burial practices, is that the age of the deceased was not always recorded on Roman burial memorials. This is not to say that this practice was rare, just far from standard across the Empire. 

Judging from the Italian style of van Lin's battle scenes and southern landscapes a trip to Italy can not be excluded, although this cannot be verified. Between 1659-70, he was active in Utrecht, his native town. RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorisches Documentatie), The Hague, only records sixteen known works by him. The present work is undocumented.  His earliest dated work is dated 1649 and his latest 1675.

Van Lin died at Schenkenschans in 1681, the famous fortress situated in Nordrein-Westfalen close to the Dutch border, one of Europe's strongest fortresses. The fortress played an important strategic role during the Eighty Years War, or Dutch War of Independence (1568-1648) and during the Rampjaar (”disaster war”) in 1672, when the Dutch Republic was conquered by invading armies from England, France, Münster and Cologne.