Slag bij Gembloers, 1578 c. 1581 - 1585

Curator: Here we have an engraving, dating from around 1581-1585, by Frans Hogenberg. It's titled "Slag bij Gembloers, 1578," which translates to "Battle of Gembloux, 1578." It is rendered with ink and is an example of a print. Editor: Wow, it's a visual feast of chaos! All these tiny figures embroiled in what looks like total pandemonium, a whirlwind of sharpened objects and frenzied movement frozen in time, if that even makes sense. What do you think, material-wise, contributed to the feeling the artwork provokes? Curator: The medium itself, engraving, lends a distinct quality. Think about the labor-intensive process: the artist meticulously incising lines into a metal plate, the repetitive action, and the inherent constraints of the technique. It emphasizes a very labor intensive image making tradition. Also how affordable it must have been to disseminate images during the time it was created. Editor: Definitely, you can almost feel the artist’s hand at work! The detail achieved with those fine lines is astounding. And speaking of affordability: the idea that a battle scene – so grand, so pivotal – could be reproduced and circulated… it's incredibly potent. But, back to the emotional tone, something about the uniformity, almost a flatness to it, desensitizes the viewer to the visceral horrors of the subject depicted in this way. Don’t you think? Curator: Indeed. By distributing imagery about conflicts like these in this printed format to a wide viewership suggests that one outcome of artmaking itself, during such an historical moment, was that its proliferation became something that normalised conflicts itself. The battle of Gembloux was itself a crushing defeat. Editor: It’s a funny old world when art and war become bedfellows. It strikes me though that its desensitizing flatness makes it digestible and educational by equal measure, even entertaining – although I admit a guilty tinge comes over me as I say it! Thanks for pointing me towards those avenues to better appreciate this scene. Curator: Of course! Delving into these art historical and process-based elements reveals some powerful context. I think examining an image of this kind with its laborious artmaking and subsequent viewership only heightens the very themes that are also at work during such tumultuous times.