Beleg van Lille, 1708 1714 - 1716

Matthijs Pool created this etching titled "Siege of Lille, 1708" with remarkable detail. The plan presents a network of lines and shapes to map out the city and citadel of Lille. Notice how Pool uses contrasting patterns to distinguish between the urban layout and the city's fortifications. The dense, grid-like structure of Lille is surrounded by star-shaped walls. The map has a semiotic function, communicating information about space, military strategy, and urban planning. In that sense, this image destabilizes the values of traditional landscape art. The precision of Pool's linear structures invites us to consider how power is represented through the act of mapping. The act of mapping is not merely a representation, but an interpretation, and the map becomes a symbolic battlefield.