Vuurwerk bij de viering van de Vrede van Utrecht, 1713 1713

This is Daniël Stopendaal’s engraving of the fireworks display celebrating the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It depicts a carefully choreographed spectacle of light, water, and classical imagery designed to project power and celebrate peace. What I find compelling is the way this event blurs lines between diplomacy, national identity, and public spectacle. The treaty, intended to end the War of the Spanish Succession, was controversial and unstable, and the fireworks served as propaganda, visually and emotionally unifying the Dutch populace behind the settlement. The display is carefully staged, with allegorical figures and symbols of Dutch maritime power alluding to a divinely sanctioned, prosperous future. Think about the cost of such a display, and who it was meant to impress. While the fireworks lit up the sky for everyone, it was the elite who truly understood the classical references and political undertones. This tension between accessibility and exclusivity reveals the complex ways in which power operates in society. This image freezes a fleeting moment of collective euphoria, reminding us that even carefully constructed displays can have a powerful, emotional resonance.