Kind smelt onder hete adem van engel 1590 - 1624

Editor: We’re looking at “Kind smelt onder hete adem van engel,” or “Child Melting Under the Hot Breath of an Angel,” an engraving made between 1590 and 1624 by Boëtius Adamsz. Bolswert, currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. It feels…intense, maybe a bit unsettling. What strikes you about it? Curator: Intensely intimate is how it strikes me. That delicate child, rendered with such tender lines, appears poised between the mundane and the divine, the literal heat and an allegorical spiritual trial, wouldn't you agree? I am transported into my inner child that melts to allow growth, but feels so overwhelming during it's processing of transformation. Do you feel transformed by looking at it, like something is liquifying inside of you? Editor: Liquifying...maybe! I hadn’t thought of it quite that way, but the image *is* pretty visceral. The figure of the child really dominates the composition, despite the strange tower in the background. Curator: Yes, and that tower – like a beacon in the spiritual landscape, juxtaposed with the vulnerable child – is like an anchor holding both earthly yearning and the possibility of redemption! Imagine the artisan shaping that plate in the opposite direction as the composition reveals; consider what an intimate spiritual exercise that carving and shaping would've required. Editor: That makes me consider the line work more closely... it's so intricate, so controlled. It reminds me a little of older Northern Renaissance prints. Curator: Exactly! Though it definitely displays Baroque flair. I like to consider the allegory of alchemists melting precious metals with hot air from focused blow-pipes. I wonder how we ourselves can allow 'angels' into our lives for support? Editor: I never would have connected alchemy to angels. This has given me a lot to consider. Curator: For me, these unexpected dialogues, melting-away inner rigidities and forging novel, tender pathways is why art lives!