Beleg van Menen, 1706 1706

This is Samuel Du Ry de Champdoré’s 1706 plan of the siege of Menen, rendered with pen and ink. Here, Menen is encased within concentric rings of fortifications, a spider's web of military architecture. These circles—echoing ancient city plans, cosmological diagrams, even mandalas—speak to the primal human impulse to defend, to contain, to impose order upon chaos. This impulse reverberates through art history, from the protective walls of Jericho, to the labyrinthine defenses of medieval castles. Consider the psychological implications: are these circles a sign of strength or a manifestation of fear, a need to control the unknown? And so, the symbol endures, not as a static representation, but as a living embodiment of our deepest fears and aspirations, endlessly reconfigured by the ever-turning wheel of history.