Allegorie ter ere Willem IV, 1755 1755

Editor: This is "Allegorie ter ere Willem IV," an engraving from 1755 by Simon Fokke, housed right here at the Rijksmuseum. It feels so meticulously crafted, like a celebration frozen in time. What strikes you when you look at this print? Curator: The very means of its production, the act of engraving, tells a story. Each line is a deliberate mark, a form of labor imbuing the print with social and economic significance. We must consider the engraver as a skilled worker, part of a larger system of production and consumption tied to the ruling class and their glorification. Editor: That’s a completely different perspective than what I had! I was focused on the cherubs and the allegorical figures. What do you make of the visual components, then, the people and items illustrated? Curator: It is imperative to analyze the context within which this imagery becomes valuable and interpretable. Note how printmaking made this glorification reproducible, a commodity available to a broader, consuming public. Instead of focusing on purely aesthetic values, how does its affordability affect society at the time? Editor: So, instead of admiring the allegory, we should think about who this was *for* and how it circulated? How does focusing on that change our view? Curator: Precisely. How does this object reinforce and disseminate specific ideologies of power and privilege, rather than offering transcendent aesthetic experience? Were such glorifications necessary given some kind of scarcity, some social or material ill? What was withheld that this image attempts to provide? Editor: It really does shift the perspective, understanding it as a manufactured object rather than just an artistic expression. Thanks, I've learned to approach these pieces very differently. Curator: And I am reminded of how images like these played a role in the material construction of power.