Nachtelijke aanval op een Romeinse vesting, 69-70 1768 - 1770

This print, "Night Attack on a Roman Fortress, 69-70," was anonymously created sometime after the event it depicts. It’s an idealized vision of the Batavian revolt against Rome, an event that would have resonated with the print’s 17th or 18th century Dutch viewers. The print’s imagery creates meaning through the lens of Dutch national identity and its relationship to the Roman Empire. We know that it was made in the Netherlands because the text is in archaic Dutch and because of the Rijksmuseum's provenance information. We also know that it comments on the social structures of its own time, because it casts the Batavians (Dutch ancestors) as freedom fighters against an oppressive empire. Understanding the print's full significance requires historical research into Dutch nationalism and visual culture. Such an understanding emphasizes art's dependence on its social and institutional context.