Cartouche in Auricular Style with Six Compartments c. 17th century

Curator: Looking at Michiel Mosijn's "Cartouche in Auricular Style with Six Compartments," I find it so evocative, like a dream half-remembered, swirling with possibilities. Editor: It's a print, so think about the labor involved in the design, the carving, the repeated impressions. The lines create these organic shapes, but it's all reproducible. Curator: Yes, the tension between the natural and the manufactured intrigues me. It feels as if Mosijn is searching for the essence of form itself, playing with our perception. Editor: Auricular style does tend to that fluidity, imitating bodily forms and surfaces. Was this meant to be ornamental? A guide for craftspeople, perhaps? Curator: Perhaps! The ambiguity is part of its charm. To me, it’s about the freedom to imagine, to fill those compartments with our own stories and meanings. Editor: And to consider the marketplace it was made for, the workshops, and the hands that gave it form. Curator: Exactly. It invites us to look closer, to feel, and to wonder about the world it came from and the one it creates within us. Editor: Agreed; the piece is a document of its time, reflecting both artistic license and the material conditions that made its creation possible.