Twee gezichten op de optocht van Landjuweel ter ere van het vijftigjarig bestaan van de Academie d'Archéologie de Belgique in 1892 in Antwerpen 1892

Curator: Ah, this image has such a formal, almost stuffy feel, doesn't it? Like stepping into a sepia-toned drawing room. Editor: Indeed! What strikes me most about this collotype print, crafted in 1892 by the Frères Dero, is the performative aspect of heritage itself. The photograph captures a pageant celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Académie d'Archéologie de Belgique in Antwerp. Note "Twee gezichten op de optocht van Landjuweel..." Curator: It’s so stiff! I feel as if I should dust my own ruff collar and practice my curtsy. Editor: Exactly! Consider the very staging of this "living history." The Landjuweel pageants were massive public spectacles that intertwined civic pride with historical re-enactment. We should be asking: who is included in this carefully constructed version of history, and, more crucially, who is excluded? Curator: It’s almost…arch. But not without its charms! Looking at the top image feels like a scene lifted straight out of a history painting, though caught in that lovely collotype texture, everything is muted into shades of nostalgia. There's a genuine poignancy there. Editor: The lower image, the Apotheosis of the Renaissance, reinforces that sense of self-congratulation. What does it mean to apotheosize the Renaissance in a rapidly industrializing Belgium? Is it a longing for a lost past, or a way to legitimize the present by forging links to a perceived golden age? Curator: A gilded cage, perhaps? There's a subtle melancholia, you see it, too, don't you? The photograph tries so hard to recapture splendor that what actually emerges is a kind of faded dream. Like finding a tiara in the attic. Editor: Yes, but who gets to inherit that tiara, and what narratives does it perpetuate? The photograph, like the pageant itself, is not a neutral record but an active participant in shaping collective memory, reinforcing dominant ideologies about nationhood, art, and progress. I would wonder, looking at it in 2024, who it's aimed for, and what values and virtues it aims to evoke. Curator: In any case, its charm still catches my attention... Maybe there’s a bit of rebel spirit even in dreaming, then and now? Editor: Perhaps. Maybe. This photograph encourages us to excavate beneath the surface, asking: Whose Renaissance is being celebrated here? What remains unseen? What other stories were unfolding on the streets of Antwerp in 1892?