Het Huys te Kleef bij Haarlem, from Verscheyden Landtschapjes (Various Little Landscapes), Plate 3 1611 - 1621

Willem Pietersz. Buytewech made this etching, Het Huys te Kleef bij Haarlem, sometime around 1611 in the Netherlands as part of a series of landscape prints. But these are not landscapes in the conventional sense. What Buytewech gives us here is a stark depiction of a ruined castle. The castle at Haarlem was deliberately destroyed in 1573 during the Eighty Years’ War, a conflict that defined the social and political landscape of the Netherlands for decades. Buytewech shows us not only the destruction of war, but also the encroachment of time and the indifference of nature. The single figure in the foreground seems diminished by the ruin, a far cry from the heroic narratives that had previously dominated depictions of military conflict. Art historians look at images like this as evidence of a shifting cultural mood, where the concerns of everyday life begin to take precedence over dynastic and religious conflicts. Prints like these were relatively inexpensive and widely disseminated; they helped shape a new visual culture in the Netherlands and beyond.