Ontscheping van soldaten 1617 - 1660

This etching, "Ontscheping van soldaten" or "Disembarkation of Soldiers," was created by Matthieu van Plattenberg in the 17th century. Plattenberg, who was born in Antwerp, spent much of his life in Paris where he was admitted to the Académie Royale. Consider the identities involved in this vista of military logistics. We see soldiers, presumably men, who are disembarking from ships into a fortified port. The ships at the center, bristling with flags, speak to empire and trade, the undergirding forces that shaped much of 17th century life, and that facilitated the violence of the period. What does it mean to disembark from the ship of state? Plattenberg, as an artist, served the court of Louis XIII, and made a career depicting the tools and accoutrements of empire. It's easy to view this piece as an unremarkable illustration of the machinery of power, but perhaps it is also possible to see it as a meditation on the human cost of that power, and to wonder what the journey was for these soldiers, and what might await them in the port.