Vier episodes uit de vaderlandse geschiedenis 1722 - 1784

Simon Fokke created this print entitled 'Four Episodes from National History' sometime in the 18th Century. The Dutch Republic in the 1700s was a place defined by its relationship to its own past, particularly the 16th and 17th centuries when it threw off Spanish rule and enjoyed its Golden Age. Fokke's print is a meditation on what was then called "national history." The four panels, running left to right, depict key moments: battles, sieges and finally, treaties being signed indoors. The print visually encodes Dutch history as a series of military engagements, constructing a heroic narrative of national identity forged through conflict. It's an understanding of the past that privileges political and military history, a perspective often found in state-sponsored art and academic history of the time. By studying prints like these, alongside texts, and archival records we can better understand the ways in which national identity was constructed, promoted, and contested in the Dutch Republic.