Vier episodes uit de vaderlandse geschiedenis 1722 - 1784

Editor: This is "Four Episodes from National History," a print made by Simon Fokke sometime between 1722 and 1784, currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Looking at it, the panels almost feel like comic strips depicting different historical moments. What’s your take on this collection, and what stories do you think Fokke is trying to tell? Curator: Ah, a visual quartet humming with the pride of the Dutch Golden Age, served with a wink! What I love about these miniature historical theatres is how Fokke manages to package grand narratives into such intimate scales. Each panel acts as a freeze-frame, inviting us to invent the before and after. Notice the ships ablaze, and then, poof, a ceremonial meeting. Quite the juxtaposition, isn’t it? It's as if he’s asking, "Remember that daring raid? Well, look how far we've come – time for some treaties." How delightfully theatrical. What strikes *you* most profoundly? Editor: I hadn't considered it as a progression like that, more as snapshots! What gets me is the almost cartoonish way he renders figures, a kind of stylized heroism, especially the people cheering in the last panel. Is that a Baroque sensibility peeking through? Curator: You've got a keen eye! Baroque sensibilities with a Dutch twist, precisely! It’s that flair for the dramatic, tempered by a good dose of Dutch pragmatism. He's turning history into spectacle, but also, and here’s the sly bit, maybe poking a little fun at the whole grand performance of nationhood. Do you think Fokke believed in national history or in using history to craft identity? I wonder what parts of it all captured his imagination. Editor: It sounds like he definitely enjoyed a good visual spectacle, and used them to share a certain kind of a feeling toward what Dutch history meant at the time. Curator: Indeed! Fokke gives a masterclass on history served not just as fact, but also as delicious, delightful fiction! We should perhaps do more of that ourselves, editor!