Jongeman beklimt een rots 1675 - 1710

Curator: This engraving, dating from about 1675 to 1710, is titled "Jongeman beklimt een rots," or "Young Man Climbing a Rock," and it's currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. It's attributed to Anonymous, but the style points toward someone familiar with the Baroque landscape tradition. Editor: The first thing that hits me is the starkness, that dramatic contrast of light and shadow carving out this lone figure against such a daunting, craggy rock face. He's really up against it, isn’t he? What is he even going to do once he reaches the top? Curator: The print served as an illustration for a play, "Het Gedwongene Huuwelyk," or "The Forced Marriage." So this is about struggle and possibly about overcoming obstacles, in this case related to personal freedoms and maybe the constraints imposed by societal expectations. We can view this genre-painting style also in the theatrical context it comes from. Editor: Ah, "forced marriage," that shifts my perspective entirely. Now it’s less about physical exertion and more about existential grappling. His climb now symbolizes a journey against an implacable, almost monolithic institution, represented by the rock. It feels profoundly… melancholic, and I imagine what might happen if he did make it to the summit. Isolation? Curator: Exactly. And remember the social role of prints. They democratized images. Theatre was of course widely popular, and so making a scene accessible to those unable to buy art, would increase access to the ideas of the play. Notice also, in relation to this distribution context, that this image comes accompanied by a text! Editor: You know, despite the dark subject, there’s a spark of defiant beauty in the image. The etching technique captures such rough texture of stone but even though I like the subject, I would not like to hang it in my house! Maybe give it as a present! Curator: The forced nature of art sometimes echoes life itself, doesn't it? It makes one think about the social responsibilities art carries. Editor: Agreed. It's also a great exercise in looking beyond the literal climb, searching for deeper significance, finding echoes of personal battles.