Kaart van het beleg van Dendermonde, 1706 1706

Curator: Here at the Rijksmuseum, we have a fascinating watercolor by Pieter van Call the Younger entitled, "Kaart van het beleg van Dendermonde, 1706," or, "Map of the Siege of Dendermonde, 1706." Editor: My initial reaction is... serenity? Despite depicting a siege, the gentle colors and detailed landscape create such a composed, almost bucolic feel. It's like a strategic plan rendered with the touch of a landscape painting. Curator: Exactly! There's this beautiful tension. Van Call uses watercolor so delicately to render the fortifications, the rivers... everything’s almost idealized. But behind it, it is a document showing how these fields turned into war grounds, capturing Dendermonde at a difficult time, surrounded by enemy forces, Editor: It speaks volumes about the social context of cartography. We tend to think of maps as objective tools, but here, the aesthetic presentation is just as important. Consider the cost of the pigments, the labor of the draftsmanship. This wasn't just a functional piece; it's about projecting power and authority. Who commissioned this? And to what end? Curator: Good questions! Maps in this period are often ways of declaring possession or asserting one’s might. Commissioning something so beautiful and detailed turns strategy into something elegant. And for me, I am drawn to how watercolor softens it all, makes something terrible look inviting even. You can almost smell the earth as you get drawn into the landscape. Editor: And notice how the inclusion of such details as the legend turns war into this matter of logistics. And it presents the army that will read it with control of knowledge that comes as almost divine. Every mark on that legend required time and materials. Someone was paid to be methodical! Curator: So true, and considering Pieter van Call, how this particular artisan chose to render it makes all the difference. I can just imagine him sitting in a field somewhere, squinting his eyes, capturing light and shadow, a sensitive soul in times of unrest… Editor: So, beyond a beautiful depiction, it is an assertion of power by material means. The beauty masks that reality of it, that war needs making and producing and accounting for. Curator: In summary, both informative document and subtle poem. Editor: Agreed!