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Publicatie
Tekenaars op het slagveld: de oorlogen van Filips II in de Lage Landen in beeld gebracht
Boekbijdrage - Hoofdstuk
“Draughtsmen on the battlefield: picturing the wars of Philip II in the Low Countries”
This book chapter (published in Dutch and French) discusses how artists pictured the wars in the Low Countries at the time of Philip II (1555−1598). It focusses on two important series of drawings, dating from two different epochs, made by two privileged eyewitnesses who were also gifted draughtsmen. The painter and topographer Antoon van den Wijngaerde (c.1525−1571) participated in Philip’s successful military campaigns in the border region with France in 1557 and 1558 and recorded the events he witnessed, including the famous battle of Saint-Quentin, in on-site sketches which later served as models for commemorative prints and paintings, among others in the well-known fresco cycle at the Escorial, painted in 1590. The architect and military engineer Pierre Le Poivre (c.1546−1627) was actively involved in the military campaigns in the Low Countries in the first decades of the Dutch Revolt: between 1567 and 1611 he participated in the conquest of more than twenty cities and carried out fortification works in at least thirty different sites. Later, after his retirement, in the years 1613−1624, Le Poivre reworked the various working drawings he had made on the battlefield into handsomely elaborated presentation drawings which he collected in several volumes that he offered to the Brussels court. The most important one is the precious atlas preserved at the Brussels Royal Library (KBR) containing 128 meticulous manuscript maps and plans of towns, fortifications and military operations. Though manufactured many years later and dedicated to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, Le Poivre’s drawings primarily document the wars of Philip II, and are a priceless visual record of this decisive era in the history of the Low Countries.
This book chapter (published in Dutch and French) discusses how artists pictured the wars in the Low Countries at the time of Philip II (1555−1598). It focusses on two important series of drawings, dating from two different epochs, made by two privileged eyewitnesses who were also gifted draughtsmen. The painter and topographer Antoon van den Wijngaerde (c.1525−1571) participated in Philip’s successful military campaigns in the border region with France in 1557 and 1558 and recorded the events he witnessed, including the famous battle of Saint-Quentin, in on-site sketches which later served as models for commemorative prints and paintings, among others in the well-known fresco cycle at the Escorial, painted in 1590. The architect and military engineer Pierre Le Poivre (c.1546−1627) was actively involved in the military campaigns in the Low Countries in the first decades of the Dutch Revolt: between 1567 and 1611 he participated in the conquest of more than twenty cities and carried out fortification works in at least thirty different sites. Later, after his retirement, in the years 1613−1624, Le Poivre reworked the various working drawings he had made on the battlefield into handsomely elaborated presentation drawings which he collected in several volumes that he offered to the Brussels court. The most important one is the precious atlas preserved at the Brussels Royal Library (KBR) containing 128 meticulous manuscript maps and plans of towns, fortifications and military operations. Though manufactured many years later and dedicated to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella, Le Poivre’s drawings primarily document the wars of Philip II, and are a priceless visual record of this decisive era in the history of the Low Countries.
Boek: Filips II en de strijd om Europa: Oorlog en opstand in de zestiende eeuw
Pagina's: 215-228
ISBN:9789401486460
Jaar van publicatie:2022
Toegankelijkheid:Open