God meet het universum 1804

Editor: Here we have Conrad Martin Metz's etching, "God meet het universum," created in 1804. It has this… delicate yet powerful presence, this figure poised over the globe, ready to measure creation. What leaps out at you when you look at it? Curator: You know, it makes me think of trying to catch smoke, that delicate dance between intention and… the utter immensity of the universe. The baroque flourish, the precise lines – Metz seems to be grappling with something vast and, frankly, ungraspable. Is it about control, or awe? I can’t quite decide. What do you think he's saying by placing the divine so close to the terrestrial globe? Editor: Maybe he is wrestling with that line, because it’s not like a definitive, authoritative gesture. His hand is literally poised right above it. He doesn’t possess it. Curator: Exactly. Perhaps it's the act of *attempting* to understand, rather than achieving understanding itself. He’s there in that very fine etching. I mean look how the lines cross each other. Isn't it glorious? Editor: Yeah, there’s almost a… vulnerability. I had been ready to dismiss it as maybe grandstanding, but looking closely, it really is the quest. Curator: A quest visualized, and infinitely more beautiful, because, if you could have perfection from the beginning, what would life amount to? Editor: That's… wow. You completely transformed my view. Thank you! Curator: And you mine, darling! To new quests and imperfect measurements.