Executie van Ant. Timmerman en A. de Venero, medestanders van Jean de Jauregui, 1582 1613 - 1615

Curator: I find myself speechless before the brutal scene etched into this print. Editor: Brutal is right. It’s like a bad dream rendered in scratchy lines, isn’t it? Gruesome, with this detached sense of observation... Curator: The Rijksmuseum holds this anonymous work created sometime between 1613 and 1615, depicting the execution of Ant. Timmerman and A. de Venero. These men were, we understand, associates of Jean de Jauregui. The image acts as a narrative, capturing an actual historical event, rendered with all the visual drama inherent to Mannerism. The style’s emphasis on exaggerated form amplifies the horror of the subject, no? Editor: Totally. I mean, look at that crowd. All those tiny, identical figures, just…watching. And then those blocky architectural details. Like, everything feels so deliberately artificial, almost staged. Which is probably true, right? Because it’s an engraving made a good thirty years after the fact? Curator: Precisely. So it’s both an attempt to record history and a deliberate representation, steeped in the socio-political context of its creation. The stark contrast between the detailed executioners and the somewhat generic victims also makes me consider ideas around culpability and agency during periods of state-sanctioned violence. Editor: Makes you think about who’s really pulling the strings, right? Like, who ordered the execution? And who’s benefiting from all this public…theater? And is that a raven at the very bottom, eating… ? Curator: Indeed. A symbol rife with connotations of death and ill omen, I suspect. Though to think the meticulous rendering of horror was probably somebody's job back then. Perhaps that's where my disquiet truly lies? Editor: Yeah, I get that. You start wondering about the artist's state of mind and get pulled down a rabbit hole. So, anonymous but effective in any case... Well, I definitely need a palate cleanser after that one. Curator: Perhaps. But it's crucial to face these dark images, isn’t it? As a reminder and perhaps even warning against past errors. Thank you for your impressions, no matter how morbid the topic matter at hand was.