Embleem met allegorie op vriendschap 1681 - 1737

Editor: This is "Embleem met allegorie op vriendschap" by François van Bleyswijck, dating somewhere between 1681 and 1737. It's an engraving, a print housed at the Rijksmuseum. There's a lot happening! It's both serene and turbulent at the same time, with a central figure of virtue but surrounded by chaos. What stands out to you about this piece? Curator: Well, the medium itself speaks volumes. Engravings, and printmaking in general, facilitated the wider dissemination of ideas and allegories during this period. The labor involved in creating the matrix, the conscious tooling of the material, all contribute to its meaning. How was the print itself consumed? Who had access to these kinds of allegorical images and how did its method of production change its inherent value? Editor: That's interesting. I hadn’t considered the social context of the print itself. The figure and landscape seem so central. Curator: True, and if we look at the imagery, we might also consider where van Bleyswijck and others like him fit within a production and market system where emblem books proliferated across Europe. How did the need for "new" and novel symbolism drive the choices behind not only what symbols appear in the art but how the artist presented the symbolism through this particular medium? Editor: So you’re suggesting that the *means* of production directly impacted the symbolic language of the artwork. I never considered the economic drivers influencing allegorical content. Curator: Precisely! Consider also the relationship between artist, publisher, and audience within this burgeoning print market. The "allegory of friendship" becomes almost a commodity in itself. Editor: I will definitely think about that aspect more closely from now on. Thanks for pointing it out!