Victory Surrounded by Prisoners and Trophies

In Victory Surrounded by Prisoners and Trophies, Frans Floris portrayed a standing female figure in the center, the personification of Victory, surrounded by a multitude of nudes and trophies (or spoils of war), which she has vanquished. The nudes were inspired by Roman friezes as well as figures that Floris had studied on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes during an extended trip to Italy in the 1540s. The etching is based on a painted composition (now lost) that Floris made a few years earlier to adorn a triumphal arch, one of numerous ephemeral arches featured in festive decorations throughout the city mounted for the visit of Charles V and the future Philip II in 1549.