Moord te Haarlem, 1573 1780

Theodoor Koning's "Moord te Haarlem, 1573" etched sometime in the late 18th century, depicts a brutal scene with stark symbols of violence and vulnerability. The most striking is the soldier, his weapon extended, embodying a crude assertion of power. Observe how similar the symbol of this soldier is to Mars, the god of war, ever-present in Roman art. Like Mars, he represents not just physical conflict but also the psychological impact of aggression. In both the Roman depictions of Mars and in Koning's print, the figures can be seen to represent the raw, untamed aspects of human nature. Notice the mother and child at the soldier's feet, mirroring the universal archetype of the Madonna. A symbol of innocence, this imagery also evokes the deep-seated terror of violated sanctity. The image of infanticide has a dark lineage, surfacing, for example, in paintings of Herod's massacre of the innocents. The cyclical recurrence of this motif speaks to a collective memory, a subconscious re-enactment of trauma across generations. Koning taps into this shared, deeply embedded history of violence, engaging our primal fears.