Twee wandelaars bij een brug c. 1795 - 1810

Joannes Bemme etched this scene of two wanderers by a bridge, using ink on paper. The bridge acts as a threshold, a symbol of transition, echoing the ancient Roman concept of the "pontifex," the bridge-builder, who was also a high priest, connecting the earthly and divine realms. Such crossings are not merely physical but psychological, mirroring life's passages and transformations. The motif recurs across epochs; consider the precarious bridges in Chinese landscape paintings, each step a meditation on life's uncertainties. In traversing this bridge, the wanderers are in a state of flux, a concept deeply rooted in our collective unconscious. The bridge here stirs something primal; a reminder of our vulnerability, urging us to confront the ceaseless flow of time and the cyclical nature of human experience.