dimanche 5 septembre 2010

Dutch Infantry - Infanterie Hollandaise 1620-50

After the dutch cavalry, here is the infantry, according to K.A Wilke.
Après la cavalerie, voici l'infanterie hollandaise selon une aquarelle de K.A Wilke.




















I was wondering about the colours of Dutch infantry. Here is some answers ...
Se pose alors le problème des drapeaux de l'infanterie : en voici quelques éléments.

As we see on this picture, dutch standards were mainly with horizontal strips, often of 3 colours. There can be 3, 6 or even 9 strips. The orange white blue pattern was popular but other colours were used. Here are the ones i have identified on dutch painting :
- Beige / blanc (white) / vert-gris (green-grey) / blanc / noir (black) / blanc / vert-gris / blanc / beige (Company Jacob Gerritsz in 1595 - from Pieter Isaacz. Seems to be 9 strips)
- Orange / blanc (white) / rose (pink) / blanc / orange / blanc / rose / blanc / orange (Company Dirk Jacobsz in 1596 - from Cornelis Ketel. Seems to be 9 strips)
- Company Geurt van Beuningen in 1613, by Jan Tengnagel : no strips, plain orange with a pattern.
- Company Albert Coenraetz in 1625, by W.J. Van den Valckert : the same, no strips, plain orange with a pattern inside.
- Ccompany Allart Cloeck in 1632 by Tomas Keyser: seems to be an orange, a white, perhaps a grey-green and a pale blue strip. Don't know how many strips.
- Company Reinier Rexel in 1637, by Frans Hals : no strips, plain orange. (Drapeau tout orange).
- Company Bicker in 1638 by Joachim van Sandrart : no strips, plain orange. (Drapeau tout orange).
- Company F.B Cocq and W. van Ruytenburch in 1642 by Rembrandt : blanc (white) / bleu (blue) / blanc / bleu / blanc / bleu (?). Don't know how many strips.
- Company Albert Bas in 1645, by Govert Flinck : no strips, plain orange with a pattern inside.
- A soldier by Jacob Duck : perhaps 6 strips, blanc (white) / bleu (blue) / blanc (white) / orange / blanc / bleu (...).

And last, the dutch "national" standard from the siege and capture of Hulst from Hendrick de Meijer.
Et pour finir, le drapeau hollandais au le siège et à la capture de Hulst, sur un tableau de Hendrick Meijer.















11 commentaires:

  1. An interesting post. I had read that the orange color is for the House of Orange-Nassau, stadtholders of Holland and another provinces. After with the time, the orange turned red until create the actual dutch flag...anyway the orange remain the color of the royal house.

    Best regards.

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  2. Merci beaucoup, voila qui va bien m'aider !

    J-B

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  3. http://img5.rajce.idnes.cz/d0506/3/3636/3636035_d020e28aef805bb6208270a712d2eb9d/images/DSCN9442.JPG

    Pieter Meulener

    Left side: burgundian flag with red Andrew's cross from "south Dutch" (Spanish).

    Right side: in hand of laying officer - "orange" flag of "north Dutch" (United Provinces of the Netherlands)

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  4. Thank You Raya (who is the painter ?)
    TY also Carolus

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  5. There's a lot more to be said about dutch flags from the early 17th century and I can assure you there was a lot more variation than the red/white/blue pattern. In fact it's a study in itself. The use of the colour orange has led to numerous books and pamphlets up to the 1930's!

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  6. TY Motorway. Can you counsel a book on this matter ?

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  7. For starters: 'De legervlaggen uit den aanvang van den 80-jarigen oorlog', by J.P.W.A. Smit. And my translation of an article in Mars et Historia:

    http://rampjaar.blogspot.com/2009/11/vaandels-van-het-staatse-leger-i.html

    In the 1930's HM the Queen finally ordered by Royal Decree the colours of the dutch national flag. A lot of pamphlets and books were written about the fact if it should be orange or red as a first colour with a lot of reference to especially ships flags. These books are mostly in dutch, but contain a lot of info from regional archives, national archives and even tapestry.

    The use of paintings as a source for vexillology is a study on its own. Unfortunatly ships flags are quite well documented, but when it comes to infantry or marines colours (I use 'colour' for military flags), it's quite different. Again, worth a study of it's own.

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  8. Also, I just noticed, you refer to paintings of Frans Hals, de(!) Keyser, von (!) Sandrart, and Rembrandt: they painted militia 'schutterij' and not regular troops. I have studied milita banners in the hope of getting more info on army banners but there's hardly any regularity in it.

    Depending on the political situation colours like orange were used, but hard rules, sorry ..no. For a full study on militia from an art historical point of view:

    http://rampjaar.blogspot.com/2010/01/schutterijen-civil-militia.html

    Also, search my blog with the label 'schutterij' for even more info.

    The painting Raia posted probably shows Spanish against Dutch.

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  9. There are many country flags with color combinations such as the Green white orange flag and the blue yellow flag countries check out and read more about country flags at Flaginfos

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