Plattegronden en aanzicht van Kasteel Ammersoyen 1932

This meticulous drawing of the Kasteel Ammersoyen, made by Wegner & Mottu, feels like a conversation between precision and imagination. You know, when I look at the evenness of the hatching and the way it creates tone, I can almost feel the scratch of the pen on paper. I can imagine Wegner & Mottu bent over their drafting table, maybe arguing about the angle of a turret or the best way to represent the texture of the stone. I wonder, were they trying to capture the castle as it was, or as they imagined it could be? The geometric floorplans there beneath the elevation have an authority, yet it’s the castle-ness of the castle that the artist captured so vividly. It reminds me of Piranesi's architectural fantasies, those etchings of imaginary prisons and impossible structures. Both artists use the language of architecture to express something beyond the physical reality of buildings. Artists like Wegner & Mottu are in an ongoing dialogue with artists of all stripes across time, riffing and building on ideas in ways that allow for multiple interpretations and meanings.