Slag bij Jarnac, 1569 1569 - 1570

Jean Perrissin created this engraving of the Battle of Jarnac, 1569. Perrissin made this print in a historical moment marked by profound religious and political conflict in France. As the Protestant Reformation swept through Europe, France was deeply divided. The battle itself was a key moment in the French Wars of Religion, a brutal conflict between Catholics and Protestants, known as Huguenots. Here, Perrissin depicts a bird’s-eye view of the battle; the clash of armies is rendered with meticulous detail, but it’s also worth thinking about what’s not shown, or perhaps sanitized. The engraving is removed from the agony of death, the cries of loss, and the sheer, unadulterated violence of men warring over ideological differences. Instead, what we see is a depersonalized choreography of combat. While this was a war over religious freedom, it became a power struggle affecting the lives and identities of all involved. How might we, as viewers, reckon with the costs of conflict and the erasure of individual suffering in grand historical narratives?