Opstanding van Christus 1669 - 1678

Curator: Here we have an engraving titled "Opstanding van Christus," or "Resurrection of Christ," dating from 1669 to 1678, presently held at the Rijksmuseum. It's a piece deeply embedded in the Baroque style. What's your immediate take? Editor: It's striking! There's this overwhelming sense of ethereal liberation. Christ seems to float off the page. There is this radiance of the engraver. I feel like he used light to give freedom. Curator: Absolutely. This work serves not just as a representation of resurrection, but also embodies the socio-religious currents of its time. The meticulous nature of the engraving process itself, the labor involved in producing these prints. Prints allowed to diffuse images widely and quickly through Europe in the XVI and XVII centuries. Editor: It makes me wonder about the engraver's state of mind. The delicate balance of light and shadow must have taken intense concentration. What’s remarkable is that you get some of the dramatic force that you would expect to see in oil paint. He uses such small, fine lines. Curator: Precisely, and consider the material value. The paper, the ink, the tools. The final purpose would be religious practice. And from the viewer, there's labor, a contribution, when the image is engaged to express spiritual connection. It bridges class divides. Editor: I like how it seems suspended between the earthly and the divine. A ghostly echo of the human, breaking free. You get a real feeling of release and ascendance. Almost as if that engraver thought freedom might lie in devotion. Curator: So we've moved from initial aesthetic appreciation, thinking about material practices and broader networks that shaped both its creation and its reception. Editor: Indeed. What started as a sensory experience, has given to this material and a broader spiritual reality, grounded in history, yet always reaching towards transcendence.