Vlissingse poort te Middelburg c. 1728 - 1732

Cornelis Pronk rendered "Vlissingse poort te Middelburg" in pen and gray ink, capturing a gate in Middelburg. Pronk worked during the Dutch Golden Age, a period marked by significant economic prosperity and cultural flourishing in the Netherlands, but also deeply entrenched colonialism. The detailed rendering of the gate, an architectural symbol of the city's power and wealth, speaks to the values of the Dutch elite. But what stories lie outside the gate? What of the lives and labor that supported the Republic’s opulence? The Dutch Golden Age was, after all, financed through the exploitation of enslaved peoples. Pronk’s drawing invites us to consider the gate not just as an aesthetic object, but as a marker of cultural identity shaped by complex, often contradictory forces. It serves as a reminder that every image is a product of its time, laden with the values and the politics of its society.