AMSTERDAM.- This year is the 450th anniversary of the outbreak of the Eighty Years’ War, and to mark the event the Rijksmuseum is holding an exhibition entitled '80 Years’ War. The Birth of the Netherlands'. From 12 October 2018 to 20 January 2019, satirical cartoons, items of clothing, weapons and paintings by Bruegel, Rubens and Ter Borch will be our ‘eyewitnesses’, telling the story of how the Dutch nation was born.

In a contemporary exhibition created by the Flemish stage designer Roel van Berckelaer, the Rijksmuseum shows how the 80 Years’ War changed and shaped the Netherlands, and how this conflict gave the southern Netherlands, now Belgium, a distinct character. 80 Years’ War is the first major exhibition to encompass the entire conflict and place it in its international context. It raises many issues – such as religious freedom, self-determination, terror and persecution – that remain highly topical today.

National memory
All Dutch schoolchildren learn about the Eighty Years’ War, which lasted from 1568 to 1648. The conflict began with the Dutch Revolt, led by William of Orange, against Philip II of Spain. Events such as the Great Iconoclasm (beeldenstorm), the Twelve Years’ Truce, the Relief of Leiden and the Battle of Nieuwpoort are all part of the Dutch national memory. But how were these events connected? Why was this war fought? Why is this period still so important to the Netherlands? Nowadays, few people know the answers to these questions.

Core values
What began as a domestic uprising against the established authorities of King and Church grew into a war between two states: the Netherlands and Spain. It was a conflict that had global repercussions. What had once been a single nation split in two, forming what we now know as the Netherlands and Belgium. Once the war was over, the two nations followed very different paths. It was thanks in part to the 80 Years’ War that the northern part, the Netherlands, became a prosperous world power. These developments and their consequences for north and south alike are central to the exhibition, which offers plenty of space for diverse perspectives. The question that echoes throughout the exhibition is this: What is the legacy of this period in today’s world? The Netherlands owes its very existence to this war, and the revolt that sparked it was driven by core values and ideas about tolerance, protest, self-determination and freedom – none of which have lost their relevance.

Objects as eyewitnesses
80 Years’ War presents 200 artworks and objects that each played a role in the conflict. They were ‘eyewitnesses’ to what took place. Visitors to the exhibition will see propaganda, triumphalist artworks, victims of the Great Iconoclasm, cultural expressions of victory and defeat, and moving personal recollections. The artworks on display include paintings by Bruegel, Rubens and Ter Borch, depictions of William of Orange and Admiral Piet Hein, large tapestries depicting battles and sieges, weapons and important historical documents such as the treaties the Pacification of Ghent and the 1648 Peace of Münster, which brought the war to an end at last.