Nachtelijk tocht van Spaanse soldaten door het water naar Duiveland, 1575 1701 - 1703

Coenraet Decker’s etching captures a night march of Spanish soldiers through water toward Duiveland, 1575. Note the soldiers with their spears, their silhouettes evoke a march of conquest, a motif echoed across time from Roman legions to modern military parades. The act of traversing water carries profound symbolic weight, think of the crossing of the Red Sea, a narrative of deliverance and divine intervention. But here, the soldiers wade through the water towards a sinister goal. This subversion of an ancient symbol taps into a deep-seated collective anxiety, turning a symbol of hope into one of impending doom. Consider the emotional undertones of the image, the psychological tension between hope and despair, the cyclical nature of history, where symbols are continuously reinterpreted to reflect the anxieties of the present.