Cavalry and Infantry Skirmish 1615 - 1650

Matthias Stom painted this scene of fighting cavalry and infantry, likely in Italy, sometime in the first half of the 17th century. Images like this were produced in great numbers across Europe at that time. Battles and military campaigns—often very loosely based on reality—were popular with elite patrons. We should consider how this imagery shaped the understanding of warfare at a time of almost constant conflict between competing states. Although the artist was Dutch, he spent most of his career in Italy, where he would have seen many examples of battle painting. What sets this painting apart is its immediacy. It offers very little heroic framing; instead, it emphasizes the chaos of the conflict. The work might represent an attempt to challenge the institutions that then commissioned and collected art. To fully appreciate this work, we might research the military history of the 17th century, along with the art market and the collecting habits of Europe's nobility.