Portret van Ada, gravin van Holland 1650

Editor: This is "Portrait of Ada, Countess of Holland," a 1650 etching and engraving by Cornelis Visscher, held at the Rijksmuseum. The level of detail in the face and the textures of the clothing is stunning, but I’m curious about the exotic headwear. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Well, let’s unpack that "exotic" headwear, shall we? It speaks volumes about representation and power. Ada’s image, rendered in the baroque style, comes at a particular moment in Dutch history, doesn't it? Think about the burgeoning colonial project and the ways in which the "Orient" was being constructed in the European imagination. Editor: Right, so the headdress could be a signifier of wealth, maybe a connection to international trade routes? Curator: It is that, certainly, but consider who gets to *do* the representing. Here, Ada is memorialized posthumously with this "Orientalizing" element. But does that represent her agency or, instead, solidify a Dutch view of the world? What’s included and excluded always shapes our reading. Note, for example, the lion beneath the portrait in one of the inscribed text blocks and consider it in dialogue with the headwear and how they might serve to shape how the Holland’s countess is read? How can we see this as contributing to larger discourses of power and identity in the 17th century? Editor: I didn’t consider the power dynamics so explicitly. I was mostly focusing on its visual appearance as simply being an artistic trope. Now, I’m thinking about how Ada is staged and the cultural biases possibly embedded in it. Curator: Exactly! Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and this piece allows us to explore ideas around gender, power, and representation within the framework of Dutch colonial ambitions. Editor: Thanks for broadening my understanding of it; I had no idea all these complex issues could be tied into just one portrait!