Vuur 1632 - 1670

Curator: Here we have "Vuur," or "Fire" in Dutch, an engraving by Frederick Bloemaert dating from roughly 1632 to 1670. You can find it here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately, what grabs me is the ambiguity. Is this a cook, a soldier, or something in between? The plumes on his hat suggest some status, but he’s also got these… intensely casual bare feet. It’s playful but strange. Curator: Indeed. The figure's placement before a large fire suggests his mastery of, or perhaps even his identity as, fire itself, within a framework of alchemical and emblematic traditions. This sort of figuration of the elements was a fairly standard Baroque trope. Notice the cannon on the left side and building to the right. How do they factor in? Editor: It makes me think of progress and ruin all at once. A controlled blaze to benefit from its warmth, and cannonballs in the opposite corner speaking about chaos. There is no landscape perspective—almost no depth other than that thick plume. It flattens what could have been made grandiose. Is he stoking something for war, or survival, or both? Curator: It’s interesting that you picked up on a connection between chaos and benefit so quickly. Elements, as they are pictured through different media, be it alchemic picture books or emblems, often served to represent humanity’s relationship to the powers around us. "Fire," as such, serves both as comfort and danger. The cannon as war also calls to mind images of the element of fire at war through vulcan. Editor: Exactly, it feels archetypal and strangely present. I keep coming back to the bare feet; the artisan so grounded even in the midst of transformation. Fire dances, but the artist gives us stillness. Curator: A lovely perspective. Editor: Well, thank you, what do you find yourself taking away from Bloemaert's "Fire?" Curator: In my view, I’m left considering how potent symbols remain vital signifiers through various historical shifts in how those symbols and signs can change—but still feel, undeniably, essential.