Mof van bont, een zakdoek en een masker 1642

This is Wenceslaus Hollar's etching from 1642, "Fur Muff, Handkerchief, and Mask." Considered one of the great Bohemian printmakers, Hollar spent much of his career in England, documenting the court of Charles I. The fur muff, handkerchief, and mask are not simply objects. They speak volumes about the wearer's identity and place in society. The fur muff symbolizes luxury, while the delicate handkerchief suggests gentility. The mask is a signifier of the period's theatricality and perhaps a concealed identity. The artwork suggests that identity is performative. What does it mean to conceal oneself, and what does it mean to present oneself in a certain way? What do these objects mean today? Are they still relevant in our own performance of identity?