Slag bij de Leffingedijk tussen de Staatse troepen van Ernst Casimir van Nassau en de Spaanse van Albrecht van Oostenrijk, 1600 1600

Curator: Before us, we have "Slag bij de Leffingedijk tussen de Staatse troepen van Ernst Casimir van Nassau en de Spaanse van Albrecht van Oostenrijk, 1600," a print made by Floris Balthasarsz van Berckenrode around 1600. It's housed right here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first impression is this looks incredibly organized for a battlefield! All these little boxes of soldiers… It's like a meticulously arranged board game, if board games involved so much death and drama. Curator: Exactly! This print offers us a strategic overview rather than an emotional portrayal of battle. The detailed rendering via engraving emphasizes process and technique. Look closely: each set of combatants, named—"Espagnoli," "Frisii"—reveals insights into military logistics and 17th-century modes of representation. The material artifact of the print itself connects us to this historical moment, doesn’t it? It was made for distribution, for consumption. Editor: I get that sense of detachment. Yet there's something charming, in a weird way, about how tiny and uniform everyone is. Each little scratch is someone's drama… reduced. The swirls around the image makes it feel both important, and yet a story far away from me now. Makes me feel reflective. I wonder if its flatness, its stark presentation, helps to tell a "factual" story more easily. Curator: The baroque aesthetic combined with intaglio prints were key here—intaglio's capacity to deliver exact details through reproducible lines directly meets the need for distribution to a wide audience in 1600. Each pull gives access to, ideally, unchanged information, enabling political discourse. Consider, as well, its Baroque aesthetic—this theatricality heightens the gravity, doesn't it? Editor: Maybe "theatricality" sells it better... But my eyes can only dart so much at all the busyness; I keep going back to thinking about what we consume today versus how knowledge like this was circulated then. What battle maps might be now—a real time tweet? I suppose it shows things haven't really changed, only the materials we use. Curator: A compelling consideration on art's ability to function as material culture through visual record, indeed. I will keep this question in mind as I investigate this intriguing artwork in the future. Editor: And me. It makes me wonder how the artist viewed the battlefield to make such an impactful document! Food for thought.