Emblem med portal, mand og kvinde, amorin og to brændende hjerter 1645 - 1659

Editor: Here we have "Emblem med portal, mand og kvinde, amorin og to brændende hjerter" (Emblem with portal, man and woman, cherub and two burning hearts) made sometime between 1645 and 1659 by Christian Rothgiesser. It’s an engraving, so a print, and it strikes me as having such a theatrical air, what with the portal and figures posed like actors. What catches your eye in this piece? Curator: The theater of the soul, wouldn’t you say? Baroque loved that, framing everything in drama. To me, it's like glimpsing into someone's secret world – that cherub lifting the curtain…aren’t you just dying to know what ‘Le Mel’ means? Could it be some kind of amorous declaration spelled out in code? What do you think that little guy's hiding? Editor: A hidden world is spot-on! Is that what was expected, that everyone knew what was being expressed back then? Curator: Expected? Perhaps hoped. Emblems were very fashionable back then - a visual language shared among educated circles, a delightful mix of moral lesson and brain-teaser. Now, that monstrous face at the bottom, do you think it’s guarding something precious, or perhaps warning us away? It has real ambivalence for me. Editor: Interesting. So maybe the “actor” figures aren’t so sure themselves about opening that portal. I guess that cherub represents a go-between, for the couple...I can see the story they're trying to weave in their mind...the engraving, too, takes on new qualities, knowing a few elements, and imagining others that are implied. Curator: Exactly! It’s an incomplete recipe – just enough information to start the mind churning, to feel both inside and outside of the drama. Now that you say it, seeing how to consider it is interesting. Editor: Well, it’s amazing to me, I mean, realizing you can see these figures caught between, well, two different, valid readings, I guess is the insight for me today!