Allegory on the Defeat of the Duke of Alva at Brielle
1580
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 18 × 27.7 cm (7 1/8 × 10 15/16 in.); Sheet: 19.6 × 29.3 cm (7 3/4 × 11 9/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51395
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Political broadsheets invoked news and religious polemics. This satirical engraving represents the April 1, 1572, dispatching of the ferocious Duke of Alva and his troops from Brielle, a small Dutch village—a major turning point in the Netherlands’s conflict with Spain. The Dutch and German word for glasses (Brille) is phonetically close to the town’s name. The bespectacled geese represent its saviors, a group of Calvinist Dutch nobles who used guerrilla tactics. They burn a monstrance, chalice,...