Plate 3: the charge is ordered 1635 - 1660

Editor: This is Jacques Courtois’s "Plate 3: the charge is ordered," created sometime between 1635 and 1660. It's an etching, and the landscape scene has this very restless, almost chaotic energy to it. What do you see in this piece beyond the obvious battle scene? Curator: The chaos, as you call it, is really crucial. Think about what "order" meant in 17th-century Europe. Who had the power to impose it, and at what cost? This image isn't just a depiction of battle; it's a meditation on the structures of authority that enable violence on this scale. What is visually foregrounded? Is it glory or is it disarray? Editor: I see your point. The commander seems to be giving orders, but all around him, it looks so… disorganized. Is Courtois critiquing the romanticized ideas of warfare? Curator: Precisely. This isn't some glorious victory; it is an act of power being put on display. But whose power? Courtois invites us to look beyond the surface and to think about the individuals caught in the crossfire. What stories might they tell, outside of the commander’s directives? The artist doesn’t allow one individual’s decisions to dominate our thinking. We are presented with more complex elements in his arrangement of figures, horses and the natural landscape. Editor: I never thought of it that way. Seeing it as a commentary on power makes me reconsider everything I thought I knew about battle art of this period. Curator: Right, by disrupting expectations, the work reveals a truth. Look closely: How do the expressions of the soldiers mirror the way nature has been represented? In the end we come to recognize these forces working in conjunction to challenge norms in powerful ways. Editor: I’m so glad we took a closer look. I’ll never see battle scenes the same way again. Curator: Exactly, now you will bring that expanded perspective with you wherever you go.