Landschap met een boom tussen een rivier en een weg 1586 - 1630

Isaak Major created this landscape with a tree between a river and a road sometime between 1576 and 1630. The tree, a dominant symbol in this etching, is set against a backdrop of flowing water and a winding path. Consider how the tree in this image has served as a cultural touchstone across epochs, from ancient mythologies where trees were divine entities, to its presence in Christian iconography as the Tree of Knowledge. This same symbol reappears in folklore and fairytales. The tree here is not just a botanical form, it is a repository of collective memory. It reminds us that nature, and our symbolic understanding of it, transcends the immediate moment, linking us to ancestral pasts and shared human experiences. Notice how the tree presides over the scene with a quiet majesty, as if guarding the secrets of the earth.