Portret van Willem van Oranje

William the Silent is depicted three-quarter length in finely detailed plate armor with a ruff collar, looking directly at the viewer. Beside him rest his helmet and gauntlet, while his coat of arms featuring the motto 'Je Maintiendray' is suspended to the left. The scene is enclosed within an oval border containing a Latin inscription and topped with a small, meticulously engraved fly.

This work represents the intersection of Northern Mannerist art and the political-religious struggles of the Dutch Revolt. Hendrick Goltzius was the pupil of Dirk Volckertsz Coornhert, a philosopher and secretary to William of Orange whose Stoic-influenced ideas on religious tolerance and 'perfectibility' were central to the intellectual development of the Dutch Republic.