What image(s) for the Army of Flanders?
(2026) The Army of Flanders: Crossroads of Peoples, Crucible of Nations (1567-1706) — Location: Bruxelles, War Heritage Institute (15.May.2026)
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- (en) Innovations in Renaissance warfare and the spread of the bastioned system in Europe also involved a new circulation of ideas and images, made possible by the rapid development of print production. The study of early modern images of contemporary battles demonstrates the mirror effects between, on one side, war, which is in itself a privileged place for the representation of power and social organization, and, on the other side, its re-presentation. These representations (prints as well as paintings or tapestries) in turn condition the image of armed conflict and, through it, that of power and society in the modern era, imbued with military culture. In the new art of war, precise knowledge of the territory, and especially of fortified cities, became a priority for all European sovereigns, as these were the main stakes in siege warfare. This new system of warfare was also a geometrization of battle. Each siege, governed by mathematical coordination in the placement of armies, the alignment of trenches and bastioned fortifications, served as an intellectual model. Just as maps were the best way to study the territory to be conquered, cartographic representations of the siege were the best way to convey the geographical scope of the event and its technical aspects. Thus, under the impetus of artists such as Jacques Callot and Pieter Snayers, what is commonly known as “topographical” battle images emerged, proposing an analytical approach based on the indications of military experts. Just like maps, this new conception of the besieged landscape was governed by a concern for veracity that applied not only to the topography of the place and fortifications, but also to the representation of the armies. Thus, the aim of this paper is to question the image(s) of the army of Flanders by focusing on a few emblematic examples of topographical depictions of war from the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and confronting them with the other side of war representation – namely generic images of soldiers and “misery and misfortunes of war”.
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Schreuder, D. (2026, May 15). What image(s) for the Army of Flanders? The Army of Flanders: Crossroads of Peoples, Crucible of Nations (1567-1706), Bruxelles, War Heritage Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/281282