Dying Soldiers by the Roadside, plate sixteen from The Large Miseries of War n.d.

This print, "Dying Soldiers by the Roadside" was etched by Gerrit Lucasz van Schagen, sometime in the 17th century. The scene speaks to the artist's time, evoking the misery and suffering caused by the frequent wars of the period. Van Schagen's composition uses a bird's eye perspective to portray the plight of soldiers left to die by the roadside. The image is a powerful indictment of the military institutions that were responsible for their care and the political machinations that led to such conflicts. The artist presents not heroic battle scenes but the consequences of war on the individual, challenging the conventions of military art. The print medium itself played a crucial role, enabling wider distribution of these images. A historian researching this work could delve into the political pamphlets of the time, military records, and other visual art from the period to gain insight into the artist's statement about the social role of war.