Buste van een jongen in een ovaal, naar links 1658 - 1677

Curator: Here we have Wallerant Vaillant's "Buste van een jongen in een ovaal, naar links," created sometime between 1658 and 1677. It's currently part of the Rijksmuseum collection. Editor: My immediate sense is that of intimacy, it feels like a charcoal sketch quickly capturing a fleeting moment, although I am sure there is more to the means of production here. Curator: Absolutely. Consider the oval frame—it's not just decorative. In portraits, it symbolizes containment, even idealization. Notice how it softly corrals the boy, giving him a sense of importance but also restricting him. He is presented but somehow captured in time. Editor: And the medium… look closer at the precision! Vaillant was working with printmaking, using techniques of mezzotint. It makes a smooth surface, it allows the artist to build tonal layers slowly with labor to generate light from dark, making this piece feel rich, velvety to the eye. Curator: That adds to the symbolism. The gradual building of light becomes metaphor for slowly revealing of his character or potential? This contrasts nicely with other art which tries to express the instantaneous emotions or personality of the model. Editor: The means creates the meaning in some sense. To me, that precise control over light also reflects something about social expectations in the 17th century and control. I mean this would take long time. How long would it take to make a face using such detailed methods. I wonder. Curator: Think also about childhood in that period. This portrait flirts with vulnerability and premature knowledge or experience. It's trying to freeze that in place, a memory held firm by both process and symbols. The loose hair shows informality too. Editor: The materiality of Vaillant's work—the ink, the labor intensive process— it all emphasizes how even an intimate image is manufactured, built layer by layer with time, patience and money! In that time the image, it makes sense it becomes an idol in people’s memories of what it used to be, and the material is almost part of them, embedded within time! Curator: Fascinating, and a nice way to summarize how we see memory operating within this poignant work.