Infantry Skirmish in the Eighty Years War

Entry

Acquired as by David Teniers I (1582-1649) and then considered by Bredius to be by an anonymous Dutch artist, the present attribution to Nicolaas van Eyck II was suggested by a comparison with a reproduction of a comparable, signed work by this artist which appeared on the Viennese market in 1964.⁹ Van Eyck’s small, extant oeuvre seems not to be homogeneous, for a more statuesque treatment of the figures is evident in the equestrian portrait at Lille¹⁰ and the Riding School which appeared on the Cologne market in 2006.¹¹ The present painting shares characteristics with both types. Thus, granted uncertainty about the make-up of Van Eyck’s oeuvre and the poor condition of the museum picture, it seems best to retain the qualified ascription (unintentionally to Van Eyck I) of the 1976 museum catalogue. It is noteworthy that a full attribution has been accepted by Van Maarseveen¹² and Beaujean.¹³

The signed work with which the present work has been compared, has been identified as depicting the battle of Kallo which took place in 1638. This is improbable if only because the terrain is not shown as flat. Whether the skirmish depicted here can be identified is doubtful, although the point-blank engagement at a wooden footbridge over a narrow dike – an unusual but not unique battle-piece theme – may well not be imaginary. Visscher’s print of 1622 Skirmish near the Village of Ter Schilde provides a precedent.¹⁴

Of the infantry detachments involved, that on the left can be identified as Spanish as it fights under the Spanish army flag of the Burgundian red raguly saltire on a white field.¹⁵ The banner of the opposing troops is an unspecified red denoting perhaps no more than that an action is taking place.¹⁶ In a related painting, see below, the colour is yellow which may refer to the topmost colour of the ‘princes flag’,¹⁷ making the detachment part of the army of the United Provinces. Hostilities between the two armies continued in the campaigning seasons of the 1640s until two years prior to the treaty of Münster of 1648.¹⁸ The costumes in the Rijksmuseum painting do indeed suggest a date circa 1645.¹⁹ In these years the Spanish army of the Netherlands, however, also engaged with the French army.

In the comparable, signed battle-pieces referred to above, an infantry engagement at close range is depicted in the middle-ground, with the Spanish troops also deployed on the left. Seemingly the same engagement as takes place in the present work is shown in the middle-ground of a painting on the London market in 1985.²⁰ This, judging from the colour reproduction, is also probably by Nicolaas van Eyck II. Here in the foreground Spanish infantry, lined up before a dike, repel a cavalry charge.

Gregory Martin, 2022