Inval van Hendrik van den Bergh in de Veluwe (kopie), 1624 1624

Curator: Here we have an etching, "Inval van Hendrik van den Bergh in de Veluwe", or “The invasion of Hendrik van den Bergh in the Veluwe,” dating from 1624, artist currently unknown, and held at the Rijksmuseum. Quite the scene depicted! What strikes you right off? Editor: All I can feel right now, is war, violence, destruction. So intense and almost a little…messy? There's so much going on, you know? The line work is incredibly fine, but I can almost sense the artist working fast, or furious. Curator: It's intriguing, isn’t it? Etchings and engravings of this period served almost as the newspapers or documentaries of their day. And just like any media, there's a narrative at play. The top panel shows scenes of invasion and maybe occupation with the lower panel presenting a view of military preparedness or perhaps retaliation? What do these scenes evoke in you when thinking about Dutch iconography of that time? Editor: Battle scenes during the Dutch Golden Age always take me to the clash between order and chaos. See how ordered the forces are moving? It feels incredibly powerful. I guess there is also something else for me in it though: that violence keeps repeating through time. Curator: Absolutely, and how does that sense of repetition land for you emotionally when thinking about that 17th century context? Editor: Makes me reflect on how cycles of violence ripple through our shared stories. Makes me sad about how easy it seems it is to reach violence through the simplest trigger. Curator: I agree. This artwork provides so much room to reflect about conflict across history. The narrative told and untold can still be quite striking today. Editor: It truly does! It is remarkable, really, how imagery can unlock echoes of historical truth and human resilience.