Vier mijnwerkers op weg naar hun werk 1893

Karl Meunier etched these four miners heading to work. Notice the pickaxe carried over the shoulder, a tool of labor, but also an ancient symbol of strength. Consider the figure carrying the pickaxe. His posture echoes the classical figure of Hercules, but inverted and made modern. He bears not the skin of a lion, but the fatigue of the working man. It is a deliberate comparison, a connection to a history of representing power and endurance, now shifted onto the shoulders of the working class. Think back to classical antiquity and the figure of Atlas. This composition—men descending into shadow, into the earth—evokes something primal: a descent into the subconscious. We see this visual language echo through time, in religious iconography of the Harrowing of Hell or the descent into the underworld. It seems that the darkness and the depths hold a powerful and recurring pull on our collective imagination, a constant return to symbols of labor and hardship.