Battle between Dutch and Spanish Ships on the Haarlemmermeer, 26 May 1573

Entry

This monumental canvas shows the battle between the Sea Beggars and the Spanish that took place on the Haarlemmermeer in May 1573, which was lost by the rebels. It was a turning-point in the Siege of Haarlem, for soon afterwards the town fell to the Spanish. Amsterdam played an unusual part by fighting on Spain’s side.⁴ The Amsterdam and Spanish ships are sailing from right to left in the painting, with the Sea Beggars heading towards them from the south. The ships were relatively small, because the battle was fought on a large inland lake. The Haarlem skyline is seen from the east in the background, together with the river Spaarne at the point where it joined the lake. Haarlem Woods are on fire on the left.

Vroom’s painting is exceptional in that defeats were almost never depicted. The reason that this one was lies in the fact that the Siege of Haarlem so weakened the Spanish that it later came to be seen as a portent of the victory in Alkmaar (1573), and thus as a heroic moment in the Dutch Revolt. The bravery of the citizens of Haarlem was widely lauded, above all in Samuel Ampzing’s Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem of 1628.⁵

In 1629, more than 50 years after the battle, Vroom was commissioned to commemorate it by the Haarlem authorities, who wanted a painting of the event for the council chamber in the new wing of the town hall. Vroom was paid 750 pounds for his work.⁶ Also hanging in the room were two tapestries after designs by Cornelis van Wieringen and Pieter de Grebber depicting The Capture of Damietta and The Augmentation of the Coat of Arms respectively, as well as a painting of the latter subject by De Grebber – both of them subjects glorifying the heroic deeds of Haarlem citizens in the 13th century.⁷

Paintings of maritime incidents were often made long after the event, which is an important consideration when assessing the reliability of the depiction. The viewers of such works would not have been bothered about the accuracy of the scene, but would have felt edified by the heroic courage or the sufferings of their fellow citizens.⁸

Vroom shows the Battle of the Haarlemmermeer in bird’s-eye view, with a cartographic panorama on the high horizon, and the composition is a little reminiscent of his tapestry designs.⁹

An anonymous drawing in the Haarlem City Archives somewhat resembles the view of the city in the background of this painting.¹⁰ Keyes suggested that it was a preliminary study made by one of Vroom’s assistants, but that is not very likely in view of the many discrepancies. The motif may have been based on an engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck.¹¹

Keyes assigns the painting, the date of which is no longer legible, to Vroom’s ‘late style’, but on grounds that are rather unclear.¹² It was probably completed in 1629, not long after the commission was awarded. The high horizon, though, would tend to suggest that it is an early work. The difficulty here is the lack of any clear development in Vroom’s style down the years.

Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 336.