Spelevaart op het IJ, 1638 1638

Salomon Savery created this etching, "Spelevaart op het IJ," in 1638. The image captures a festive boat trip on the IJ River, a waterway central to Amsterdam's economic and social life during the Dutch Golden Age. This engraving offers a window into the collective identity and values of the Dutch Republic. The waterway is alive with boats, the flags waving, representing a society that saw itself as free, industrious, and prosperous. The boat trip itself was a social ritual, reinforcing community bonds and celebrating shared prosperity, though this prosperity was built on a strict class system. The image promotes a narrative of Dutch maritime power and commercial success, even while the labor and resources extracted from colonized lands are absent from the frame. Savery’s work is a reminder that representations of national identity are always carefully constructed. The emotional appeal of national pride is often used to mask the complex realities of power and inequality.