Den Haag geplunderd door Maarten van Rossum, 1528

Christiaan Lodewijk van Kesteren made this print of The Hague pillaged by Maarten van Rossum in 1528. Notice the stark contrast between the order of the mounted soldiers and the chaos they inflict upon the town. Flags, carried high, often symbolize power and territorial claim, yet here, they signify not just conquest but also the disruption of established order. The figures looting and the fallen bodies speak to a primal struggle, a recurring motif throughout art history. Think of the Roman battle scenes, where victory and defeat are graphically represented, echoing a timeless narrative of human conflict. Consider the fallen bodies in this print; they elicit a visceral response, a reminder of mortality. Similar images appear across centuries, from ancient battle reliefs to Goya’s stark depictions of war, each reflecting the collective trauma and the cyclical nature of violence. This image invites us to confront the unsettling reality of how such scenes are continuously replayed in the theater of history.