Drie voorstellingen van gebeurtenissen uit de nieuwere geschiedenis 1792

Daniel Chodowiecki created this print, “Three Scenes from Recent History,” using etching around 1785. It’s now in the Rijksmuseum. The tripartite structure points to the Enlightenment idea of history as a series of distinct moments. Each scene presents a contemporary event through allegory. For example, one scene likely depicts the Peace of Constantinople in 1782 between Russia and the Ottoman Empire with symbolic figures standing together. Another seems to show a revolt of enslaved Africans. These are framed and interpreted through a European lens. Chodowiecki was a very successful printmaker in Berlin. His work was popular with a burgeoning middle class who bought them as wall decorations. These images, then, offer insight into the way people of the time and place understood politics, social justice and international relations. To better understand this artwork, one might research the European print market of the 1780s, or the political events referenced within the prints themselves. Works like this remind us that art always reflects particular contexts and that history plays an essential part in its interpretation.