Gezicht op Place Dauphine te Parijs 1685 - 1695

Curator: Well, look at this, it's like a dream dipped in ink! Editor: Precisely. What we're viewing is a print titled "Gezicht op Place Dauphine te Parijs" or "View of Place Dauphine in Paris," dating from 1685 to 1695. The artist is Aldert Meyer, and it's currently housed here at the Rijksmuseum. What strikes you most about it? Curator: Hmm... It's got that serene quality, like a faded memory. All the hustle and bustle rendered so delicate! It is as if each passer-by moves like a shadow under this pale sky. It makes you wonder what kind of lives did they live back then? Editor: Interesting, yes, you are noting the composition. Meyer employs a rather high vantage point. That allows him to articulate the spatial organization of the Place Dauphine through linear perspective. Also the use of color seems deliberately restrained, almost monochromatic save the few accents in pink and orange. That directs focus. The clouds are indeed stylized, they lack volume, yet evoke vastness. Curator: You're right, they do pull you back and out of the picture, like they are framing a deeper understanding of what this little area stands for. But tell me, what does this specific kind of artistic choice communicate at a societal level? Was this simply a rendering of Paris' beauties, or was Meyer speaking his mind? Editor: That’s a difficult thing to prove so many years later, right? One could hypothesize that through meticulous depiction of social spaces and their function, he participates in baroque's architectural glorification and the state control through visual design. One could even stretch the argument to suggest through this ordered representation he expresses admiration for established power. But you know, that is probably a stretch! Curator: Still, the very act of immortalizing a place, a moment, it has a certain intention. Art speaks whether the artist wants or not. The simplicity in color feels refreshing in this historical frame of overstatements and abundance. A quiet rebel of a painting. Editor: Maybe! Meyer gives us a lens—or better, a print—through which we can appreciate not just the Place Dauphine as an urban space but also a set of relations captured in ink. It really feels special. Curator: Absolutely! Thank you, Aldert Meyer. For this little Parisian poem.