Slag bij Steenkerke, 1692 1695

Curator: This dynamic scene, currently held in the Rijksmuseum, captures a moment from the Battle of Steenkerke in 1692. This engraving, crafted in 1695, depicts the chaotic clash between the Allied and French forces. Editor: Woah, chaos is right. Look at the smoke, the fallen soldiers—it’s a total whirlwind! Makes you feel seasick almost, with all that movement crammed into one space. Curator: Precisely. The anonymous artist utilizes the conventions of Baroque landscape and history painting, intertwining both themes within a single frame. It's crucial to remember the context: war, in this period, was intensely interwoven with issues of political legitimacy and shifting alliances. The glorification of victory, even if pyrrhic, held immense value. Editor: Glorification is one word for it. I mean, looking closer, those tiny figures are pretty… brutal. I see the 'heroism', but I also can’t help but wonder what it was *really* like on that battlefield. The artist’s distanced, birds-eye view makes it somehow palatable. Curator: Your discomfort speaks to a broader critique of history painting as propaganda. What is intentionally foregrounded, or erased entirely, within a singular narrative that champions nation-building over the individual bodies that bear its cost? What social and economic structures permitted and perpetuated it? Editor: Exactly! Makes you think about power and who gets to control the story, even centuries later, peering at this old print under glass. I wonder what those on the ground felt about having their reality, their suffering, turned into neat little lines on a page. It definitely messes with your sense of time too – old and new all tangled together. Curator: Indeed. The Battle of Steenkerke, though initially considered a defeat for the Allied forces, became, through works such as this, a potent symbol in political discourse. Today, this work, however removed from the initial event, serves as a site to examine questions of power, violence, and collective memory. Editor: I still feel queasy, but I see it all differently now. Like staring into a time machine and history book at once.