Spaanse Furie: beschieting van de stad, 1576 1613 - 1615

Curator: This pen drawing, simply titled Spaanse Furie: beschieting van de stad, 1576, offers a chilling visual document of a dark moment in history. Though the artist remains anonymous, we believe it was created sometime between 1613 and 1615. Editor: What hits me first is the chaos, the raw violence depicted through that frenetic linework. It feels immediate, like a sketch torn from someone's personal sketchbook at the front. Look at all that smoke. Curator: Indeed. The linework is quite heavy, a defining feature. Notice how the artist uses it to create depth and texture, particularly in rendering the figures and the architecture. There’s a clear intention to capture the sheer volume of the attacking forces. The hatching and cross-hatching define the spatial relations. Editor: There's also something almost theatrical about the composition, wouldn’t you say? The burning building up front becomes something sinister. Everyone is being put down in such a confined area; it adds a layer of horror, if I imagine I was in it. A wall closes in, dividing and defining different levels of conflict with terrible intensity. Curator: Precisely. And the choice of pen and ink lends a certain historical gravitas, anchoring the scene to a specific era and aesthetic sensibility. If the picture were done in colour, it would change everything about the art work. Editor: I get what you mean, this scene needed something old. But I feel it becomes, if anything, almost like a caricature. It’s grim, sure, but something in that "old engraving style" lends the artwork something like an uncanny touch, a slight cartoon-ish look to people and situations in an otherwise highly traumatic period of war, pillage and bloodshed. Curator: I see it more as an attempt to reconcile artistic skill with historical account, to present as complete and balanced a view as possible, from what he would have experienced, heard or seen. A "complete" work of history for the period. It currently resides in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Yes, quite the reminder of our complex, sometimes unsettling, artistic heritage. Definitely a compelling glimpse into the artist's… dark side. Curator: And it also gives you pause for thought as to the realities of this historical period.