Korenvelden bij Gentilly 1648 - 1692

Albert Flamen made this etching of grain fields near Gentilly, France, sometime in the mid-17th century. It’s a seemingly straightforward landscape, but consider the context in which it was made: France under Louis XIV, a period of intense centralization of power and the growth of absolutism. How might even a simple landscape become freighted with social meaning? Well, the controlled, cultivated fields speak to the prevailing social order. The figures are small and anonymous, dwarfed by the landscape, suggesting the dominance of nature, but also perhaps, the state. Meanwhile, the church spire and distant buildings remind us of established institutions and hierarchies. To truly understand this work, one might delve into period agricultural practices, land ownership patterns, or even the cultural significance of landscape imagery in Royalist France. What might seem like a simple image, becomes a window into a complex web of social, economic, and political forces at play.