Plattegrond van de grafkelder van het Huis Oranje-Nassau 1759 - 1790

Curator: Here we have “Plattegrond van de grafkelder van het Huis Oranje-Nassau,” or "Plan of the Burial Vault of the House of Orange-Nassau," a print dating from between 1759 and 1790, attributed to Jacob Folkema. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum collection. Editor: It’s remarkably spare. All straight lines and angles. Quite functional, really, though undeniably morbid, considering its subject matter. Curator: Indeed. Folkema presents us with an architectural blueprint rendered through etching and engraving. Notice the calculated precision. The print isn’t about aesthetics per se, but about spatial relationships and a graphic representation of power. Editor: You see power, I see…mortality. This cold, systematic mapping-out reduces human remains to mere inventory, doesn’t it? Coffins neatly numbered and compartmentalized. What are we to make of such detachment? Curator: Well, considering the Baroque stylistic elements at play, perhaps that detachment serves a purpose. The cool rationalism checks the overwhelming emotions associated with death. It’s about asserting control over the chaos of existence. Editor: I’m more inclined to see how this controlled image works as a document that is steeped in politics. It illustrates the house of Orange-Nassau’s dominion even in death, marking a clear lineage. It’s designed for public consumption to establish historical narratives around leadership. Curator: Undoubtedly. Note how the design of the vault seems to reinforce hierarchy, the arrangement of the coffins hinting at the social standing of those interred. Each coffin in a prescribed place in the structure. Editor: The location, the Rijksmuseum, only deepens that function. A former site of national importance where visitors engage in collective memory to negotiate present-day socio-political identity, I imagine? Curator: Yes. Placed in the context of the museum it emphasizes the continuous authority across temporal junctures. In its original period, this engraving would circulate as a confirmation of power, today, it still invites analysis of power. Editor: I am seeing it anew now. All those neatly arranged boxes. Thank you for that clarity of form, Curator. Curator: As do I with that wider consideration of its political function, Editor. Thanks to that, its power has become more explicit.