French-Dutch alliance – Johan Christiaan Bendorp, 1796

LIBERTY CROWNED AND GUARDED BY FRENCHMEN AND BATAVIANS

Copper engraving made in 1796 by Johan Christiaan Bendorp after a design by J. Arends. Coloured by a later hand. Size (plate mark): 33.2 × 30.5 cm.

The scene represents the new political order after 1795: the Franco-Dutch alliance.

At the centre stands a female personification of Liberty upon a rock. The rock symbolizes steadfastness and unyielding firmness: liberty is not fleeting, but grounded and unassailable. Her posture is calm and dignified; she carries a pike topped with a liberty cap, a traditional attribute of political emancipation since Roman antiquity and, in the eighteenth century, the emblem par excellence of revolutionary freedom.

French and Batavian soldiers surround her on both sides. Their different uniforms signify the alliance. They are “diligently engaged,” as the accompanying text states: some kneel to weave laurel wreaths, while others offer branches. Laurel has classically symbolized victory and glory; the phrase “to adorn with crackling laurels” signifies that they actively crown and honour Liberty as a triumphant ideal.

The soldiers standing guard with muskets “keep watch day and night to ward off / any who, out of envy, would disgrace this image.” The message is clear: liberty exists only through constant military protection.

At the bottom lie drums, standards, and trumpets carelessly strewn on the ground. These attributes refer to the warfare that preceded the establishment of Liberty: the struggle has been fought, the victory achieved, and she may now be crowned.