Bitwa kawalerii | Cavalry battle

This work depicts a panoramic view of the vast landscape of the French historical land of Franche-Comté, where the battle of the French cavalry with the Spanish army takes place in a mountainous setting, commemorating the campaign of the Revolutionary War (1667-1668) of February 1668 in the vicinity of the Burgundian towns of Gray, Dole and Besançon. The conflict was sparked by the King of France, Louis XIV (1638-1715), who took advantage of the crisis of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty to lay claim to their lands in the Netherlands, part of Burgundy and Luxembourg. Part of the French army was commanded by Henry Julius de Bourbon-Condé (1643-1709), son of the Great Condé, Prince d'Enghien, to whom the work is dedicated. The Latin sentence praising his courage is additionally decorated with the full coat of arms of the Bourbon-Condé family – in the coat of arms under the crown, there are three lilies with a baton abatement, surrounded by chains with orders of the Holy Spirit and Saint Michael. The engraving, which belongs to the double-sheet Cavalry-engagements series, is a reproduction print made according to a painting by Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632-1690), also the publisher. This Flemish painter, a student of Pieter Snayers (1592-1667), was active in Paris from approximately 1664. He became a court painter of Louis XIV, a designer in the French Royal Gobelin Manufactory (1662-) – promoting the ruler's policy and actions, and a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648-1793).