- Title
- Explosion of the Pontoon Bridge in the Schelde, 1585
- Date Made
- 1677
- Medium
- Etching and engraving
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 12 1/2 × 14 5/8 in. (31.75 × 37.15 cm)
Image: 10 7/8 × 13 5/8 in. (27.62 × 34.61 cm)
- Accession Number
- 57.44.9
- Collecting Area
- Prints and Drawings
- Curatorial Notes
In the decades after the Eighty Years’ War (c. 1566/68−1648), proto-nationalist rhetoric concerning the Dutch United Provinces spread across literature, theater, music, and the visual arts. This engraved illustration, done more than a century after the start of the war for a book of Dutch history written by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, shows a pivotal blow to the Spanish forces by the Dutch fleet in the Siege of Antwerp: the destruction of the pontoon bridge built by Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma (r. 1586−92), using explosive-laden vessels called “fire ships.” Although the action depicted in this print represented a victory for the Dutch forces, the battle would ultimately be a major loss: in 1585, Antwerp would be successfully seized, as would the cities of Bruges and Ghent, winning significant territories back for the Spanish and separating the southern Netherlandish provinces from their northern neighbors. Here, the event is staged for maximum pictorial drama, meant to both incite an emotional reaction and instruct readers about a key historical moment.
Claire Spadafora Baes
2023
- Selected Bibliography
- Hollstein, F. W. H. Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700. Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1949.
- Zumaya, Diva. The World Made Wondrous: the Dutch Collector's Cabinet and the Politics of Possession. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2023.