Bomen en strikken om vogels mee te vangen 1731

Editor: This is "Bomen en strikken om vogels mee te vangen" - or "Trees and snares to catch birds" - by Bernard Picart, made in 1731. It's an engraving at the Rijksmuseum, and has quite a strange composition; technical, almost diagrammatic... What can you tell me about it? Curator: The piece does feel like a manual, doesn’t it? It evokes older emblem books and their relationship between image and meaning. Hunting images throughout history have resonated as powerful metaphors for dominance, but also for the human negotiation with nature. Consider the image’s two registers. Editor: How so? Curator: The upper scene has a sort of camouflaged hide, from which the hunter operates, and then the lower section details how the birds might be lured and trapped in the prepared trenches. Don't the lettered points in each register suggest something didactic at work? Do you think this print means only to describe the mechanics of bird catching? Editor: Maybe it also shows a type of societal power structure. Humans using their intellect and tools to take from nature, like a ruler extracting wealth from the lower classes… is it an accusation or a simple observation? Curator: Precisely! Think about the symbolic weight of birds themselves. Across cultures, they can signify freedom, spirituality, but here they become vulnerable, manipulated. And that contrast charges the image. Editor: So much more than just an illustration, then. Curator: Indeed. Images like this can become quite rich when considering all they contain!