Plattegrond van Den Haag 1652

This is an anonymous engraving of "Plattegrond van Den Haag" which presents a detailed bird's-eye view of The Hague, composed with meticulous linework and an emphasis on spatial organization. The city’s layout is depicted as a network of interconnected shapes and pathways. The engraving's structure is a semiotic system. Streets and buildings are represented through dense patterns, each carefully rendered to convey the city’s texture and form. Walls create geometric enclosures, indicating boundaries and spatial divisions within the urban landscape. This formal arrangement visualizes power structures and social organization, turning the city itself into a text to be decoded. The strategic arrangement of lines and forms in the image destabilizes traditional notions of perspective, opting instead for a flattened representation. By emphasizing structural integrity over realistic depth, the engraving invites us to consider the city not just as a physical space, but as a complex interplay of social, political, and architectural codes.