Rivierlandschap met toren 1613 - 1695

Curator: Take a look at "River Landscape with Tower," an etching and engraving by Nicolas Perelle, dating somewhere between 1613 and 1695. Editor: Wow, it's…calm, almost dreamlike. The way the light falls, it feels like a memory, soft and hazy. There’s something melancholic about it, like a place you can never quite reach again. Curator: Notice how the river divides the composition, almost mirroring the real and imagined spaces. Water, of course, often symbolizes the subconscious, transition. The tower, too, stands out—towers are often seen as phallic symbols representing power and ambition. It adds an interesting tension. Editor: Absolutely. I was drawn to that tower immediately! It is set against this rather idyllic scene, yet has this formidable architecture of human hubris. Curator: Perelle plays with these archetypes. The figures in the foreground almost seem to be walking through different phases of life. Their placement invites the viewer to reflect on their journey. The overall feel definitely invokes Baroque landscape tradition. It evokes this sense of order that’s so classic in 17th-century European art. Editor: You’re so right; the orderliness is almost unsettling in a good way. You get a feeling that everything’s intentional and constructed, even the so-called natural elements. And the river, flowing on like a film reel, like our life. Curator: Precisely. Think about the power structures during the era Perelle was working in. He layers the drawing with the understanding and imagery reflecting that time. Editor: Yeah, and in a way, Perelle captures this ongoing desire to define and control the landscape. And perhaps ourselves? Curator: I believe you are absolutely right. What remains for us today, through visual symbols like the landscape and towers, and their archetypal connection, is an ability to see the structures of a worldview that we may never fully understand but, perhaps, feel through cultural memory. Editor: Well, the cultural memory that Perelle invokes certainly stuck with me—gave me a good reason to question things about landscapes, time, and us!