Monument voor de Grote Brand van Londen (1666), 1726 1726

Curator: We're looking at a print titled "Monument voor de Grote Brand van Londen (1666), 1726". It's an engraving made in 1726, so quite some time after the event it depicts. Editor: It feels... deliberate. Very orderly. The monument stands tall, almost defiant, against a backdrop of very fluffy clouds and what appears to be a very staged city square with orderly houses. Not at all what I'd expect of an image memorializing something like the Great Fire of London. Where's the chaos? Curator: The "Monument" was erected to commemorate the Great Fire, but also, let's remember, to celebrate the rebuilding of London, aligning urban space and asserting control through architecture and civic engineering. The architecture around the column— the controlled rows of buildings-- underscores the attempt to restore order. Editor: Ah, so it’s less about the ashes and more about the phoenix rising? Is the emptiness of the square contributing to this sense of restored control? Are there many people down there at all? Curator: There are, actually. See the tiny figures milling about? The artist included them to give a sense of scale, but also, I suspect, to reassure us that life goes on. And in 1726, when this engraving was made, memory of the fire still served important civic functions, for example it might be evoked to encourage continued development. Editor: Right, a perpetual advertisement for renewal. Baroque art really is good at the art of public memory and identity shaping, which always involves a strong dose of idealized reconstruction. Curator: Exactly. The monument itself, while celebrating rebuilding, was also a symbol of Protestant resilience in a time of religious tensions. Editor: Interesting! It becomes more complex as you unravel it. From first glance, it’s stoic. The symbolism seems to reinforce how authorities attempted to project an image of recovered harmony during very troubled and complicated times. I guess there is an interesting conversation between chaos and order embedded in here after all. Curator: Indeed. History isn't a snapshot, it's a long exposure. The Monument tells that story.