Kaart van de slag bij Denain, 1712 1712

Curator: Here we have an engraving from 1712, “Kaart van de slag bij Denain,” from an anonymous creator. It's on display here at the Rijksmuseum. What catches your eye when you first look at this, considering all its dense details? Editor: My immediate reaction is that it feels very controlled, almost mathematical. A blueprint of chaos, maybe? The landscape itself is strangely peaceful, belying the violence it depicts. Curator: That's interesting, especially as a "battle map.” If you look closely, you'll see the landscape, the fortifications, and the disposition of troops are all rendered with incredible precision. Even the list of officers is included! Editor: Yes, there's such an attempt to codify it, to bring order to war by visualizing every possible detail. Are those rows and rows of numbers supposed to somehow encompass and communicate strategy, victory, defeat? Curator: Exactly! It is an attempt to monumentalize a moment in history. It is a depiction of power but also vulnerability when translated to visual symbols. Maps themselves are very interesting, filled with social meaning, propaganda and a very definite point of view. Editor: The map teeters on the edge of the beautiful and the absurd. One can almost feel the human cost dissolving under the cold, detached presentation of strategy, the geometry of it all. This tension, this very particular attempt at symbolic rendering, becomes fascinating in itself. It holds up the event, in memoriam of course, but there’s something quietly mad about it too. Curator: It’s certainly a potent visualization. Thank you, I had not considered it this way before. Editor: Thank you, too. Now when I encounter maps like this, they appear even richer, filled with their symbolic and historical implications.