Slag bij de Leffingedijk tussen de Staatse troepen van Ernst Casimir van Nassau en de Spaanse van Albrecht van Oostenrijk, 1600 c. 1900 - 1935

Floris van Berckenrode made this intricate etching of the Battle of Leffingedijk in 1600. The scene explodes with tiny figures locked in combat; you can almost hear the clash of steel and the shouts of soldiers. I can imagine Van Berckenrode hunched over his copper plate, meticulously scratching away at the surface with his burin. Each tiny mark had to be precise, building up the complex scene bit by bit. He would have known that every line, every dot, would play a crucial role in conveying the drama and chaos of battle. What was he thinking as he worked? Was he trying to capture the glory of war, or perhaps its futility? Maybe he was simply trying to document a historical event with as much accuracy as possible. The tension between order and chaos, between the individual and the mass, is palpable. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later works – the rawness, the immediacy. Ultimately, this etching is a reminder that art is always a conversation, a dialogue between artists across time and space.