35952¥284 Look, for example, at a painting of the

Q&@
BATTLE
OF BREITENFELD,
which took place on 17 September 1631.
The painter, Jean-Jacques Walter, glorifies King Gustav Adolph of Sweden,
who led his army that day to a decisive victory. Gustav Adolph towers over the battlefield
as if he were some god of war. One gets the impression that the king controls the battle like
a chess player moving pawns? These pawns themselves are mostly generic figures, or tiny dots
in the background! Walter was not interested in how they felt as they charged, fled, killed or died.
They are a faceless collective. Even when painters focused on the battle itself rather than on the commander,
they still looked at it from above, & were far more concerned with collective manoeuvres than with personal feelings!
Take, for example, Pieter Snayers's painting of the Battle of White Mountain in November 1620? This painting depicts a
celebrated Catholic victory in the Thirty Days War over heretical Protestant rebels! Snayers wished to commemorate this
victory by painstakingly recording the various formations, manoeuvres & troop movements? You can easily identify the
different units, their armaments & their positions within the order of battle! Snayers gave far less importance to the
experiences & feelings of the common soldiers. Like Jean-Jacques Walter, he makes us observe the battle from the
Olympian vantage point of gods & kings, & gives us the impression that war is a giant chess game? If you take a
closer look - fir which you might need a magnifying glass - you realize that The Battle of White Mountain is
a bit more complex than a chess game! What at first sight seem to be geometrical abstractions turn upon
close inspection into bloody scenes of carnage. Dezer dagen krijg je september '44 constant
op 't scherm: de helden van toen zijn nu bijna
allemaal allang dood & 'n enkele
honderdjarige springt nog
éénmaal per
parachute...

18 sep 2019 - bewerkt op 01 okt 2019 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 80 jaar
   
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