Bank met rookvaten 1745 - 1775

Editor: This is an engraving from between 1745 and 1775, entitled "Bank met rookvaten," which translates to "Bench with Smoking Vessels," currently at the Rijksmuseum, created by an anonymous artist. The detail is astounding. What kind of stories can you tell me about this type of piece? Curator: What immediately strikes me are the objects perched atop the bench: "smoking vessels," or urns. We should explore what the vessels evoke beyond mere ornamentation. Vessels often symbolize the body, the soul, containers of life’s essence. This symbolism dates back millennia. Editor: So, is the bench, then, acting as something akin to a support for this... soul? Or perhaps the seat of the soul, in a metaphorical way? Curator: Exactly! Now consider the period. The Baroque era emphasized ornamentation. This furniture piece speaks volumes about the desire to showcase status, sophistication, and perhaps an intimate connection with what’s transient, the smoke, or a life going somewhere. Editor: I didn’t think about the smoking aspect as an active state and symbol. Curator: How does the image play into memory? We might ask whether this represents the memory of classicism being filtered and made over for contemporary life. Also, given the probable placement in a salon setting, this is perhaps designed as a backdrop to create conversation and stir memory of travel, history and class among a group. Editor: Thinking of it that way brings so much more meaning to it. I was focused on its ornate detail, but now I see it has a multi-layered symbolic meaning. Curator: Precisely. These seemingly decorative details reveal deeply embedded cultural narratives.