The Battle Map Landscapes of Lambert de Hondt
Unusual panoramic paintings that gave a new perspective on the world of war…
The Dutch referred to 1672 as the Rampjaar, or the ‘Disaster Year’. Conflicts erupted on multiple fronts. To the southwest the French declared the Franco-Dutch War, seeking to increase their political influence over the Spanish Netherlands. At the same time, England launched the Third Anglo-Dutch War with a naval blockade of the Dutch ports. The government of the Dutch Republic seemed incompetent, the military unprepared, and the people recalcitrant.
In June of 1672, the French forces turned their attention to the fortified city of Rheinberg. A hotly contested territory during the Eighty Years’ War (1566–1648) Rheinberg had been given the nickname the ‘whore of war’ because of how many times it changed hands. The Dutch had finally held control of the city beginning in 1633, but by 1672 the French were determined to regain control. It was a time of wars and international power-play, so the art of the day reflected this.
About two-hundred kilometers away, a Flemish painter listened to updates about the military campaign with interest. While not much is known about Lambert de Hondt the Younger, even his date of birth in the mid-seventeenth-century is uncertain, it is clear that after news…
