Rivierlandschap met wandelend paar 1613 - 1695

Curator: This is "River Landscape with Walking Couple" by Nicolas Perelle, made sometime between 1613 and 1695. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. It’s a baroque engraving. What are your initial impressions? Editor: There's a quiet intimacy here, a certain simplicity. The density of those tiny etched lines… the sheer labour that went into creating the tones. Look at the texture in those rocks. Curator: Absolutely. Perelle's print demonstrates the baroque aesthetic through idealized nature, a kind of classical picturesque scene meant to convey a sense of order and control in a rapidly changing world. Consider how printmaking also made these images more widely available. Editor: The fact that it's a print underscores this point so strongly. Each line meticulously carved to then be multiplied, shared… bringing this seemingly idealized landscape to a much wider audience. How do you think this affected perceptions of landscape at the time? Curator: It democratized access. Prints like these made landscape views available to those who might never travel to such places themselves. They helped shape a shared visual culture and a desire for, perhaps, even control over the landscape—shaping gardens and estates to match these images. Editor: Interesting idea about control, because on one level the scene appears ‘natural’, yet the mode of its creation is totally controlled – through tools and technical skill. It really shows how what seems effortless often relies on immense labor. Curator: Yes, the landscape becomes a kind of stage upon which society's values are projected. And look closely, you’ll note there’s actually quite a lot of detailed town and cityscape-scape imagery contained within it, perhaps referencing trade and broader connections with society. Editor: Thinking about all the hands involved—from the artist to the printer to the person selling these – you realize it’s the product of many people's labour and skills. Makes you appreciate the material production behind this idealized scenery. Curator: Indeed. So much context packed into a tiny, finely rendered image. Editor: Precisely, which I find interesting for a so-called 'landscape' scene. All the people who participated in its making are absent in the picture. I'm really struck by the contradictions here.