Vier episodes uit de vaderlandse geschiedenis 1722 - 1784

Simon Fokke made this print titled "Four Episodes from National History" in the Netherlands, sometime in the 18th century. The series of images represents a visual encoding of Dutch history. In the first panel, we see what seems to be a riotous assembly outside a municipal building; in the second, a leader of some kind addressing a crowd. The third seems to depict an outdoor religious ceremony, and the fourth, a military leader on horseback. What unites these images is their focus on critical moments of social and political assembly, and the way in which the nation's identity has been forged through them. What Fokke has created here is an exercise in collective memory. As historians, we are trained to ask whose memories are being preserved, and for what purpose. To answer that question, we might turn to pamphlets and other printed matter from the period, many of which are preserved here in the Rijksmuseum. The historian's task is to situate works like these within the institutional and social contexts that gave rise to them.