Lambert Melisz. vlucht met zijn moeder over het ijs, 1574 1865 - 1870

Editor: So, this is *Lambert Melisz. vlucht met zijn moeder over het ijs*, a print, charcoal and charcoal drawing from around 1865-1870, here at the Rijksmuseum. There's something quite haunting about the muted tones and the stark landscape, what immediately grabs your attention? Curator: The imagery, immediately I notice the symbolism inherent in flight, particularly across ice. Flight, historically, suggests vulnerability and a search for safety or freedom. Think about the narratives surrounding exile. Why ice though, what are your thoughts? Editor: It's a treacherous surface. The fragility seems key. It reinforces their vulnerability, right? Curator: Precisely. It also introduces the risk of being exposed, of falling through – becoming completely submerged. The ice here functions as a visual metaphor for the precariousness of life itself, where survival is dependent on every step. And the tonal variation, how do you think this builds on that? Editor: With it being so muted, with this charcoal medium, everything kind of blurs into a landscape that is quite unwelcoming. It's almost like the environment itself is indifferent to their plight. The lack of distinct features maybe? Curator: Good observation! Now consider this print in relation to its date of creation, the 1860s. Think about the cultural anxieties around industrialisation, the shifts in social structures. Does that context reveal something more to us, perhaps about mankind's relationship to an unforgiving natural order? Editor: That makes me think about climate anxieties now. Seeing the precarity of those figures in the landscape makes me feel so concerned. Thanks for pointing that out, now that context has made the image very different in my mind! Curator: And I hope this helps us remember the weight of images, both for the communities represented in them and also for those seeing them today.