Man met tulband en stok 1643 - 1700

Curator: So, here we have an ink drawing titled "Man met tulband en stok", or "Man with turban and stick" made by an anonymous artist, sometime between 1643 and 1700, and held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Oh, I love this! He looks like he’s about to embark on some grand adventure or perhaps offer cryptic wisdom! The energy of this work gives the air of a stage character caught between acts! Curator: Indeed. The turban, of course, signifies a particular kind of exoticism popular at the time, reflective of the Dutch Republic's burgeoning global trade and engagement with non-European cultures. These works present important cultural dialogues that question European artistic conventions in early modernity. Editor: Exoticism indeed! It’s wonderful how economical the lines are, yet it gives such depth to the character of the person represented. Look at the drapery, how it gathers, how his feet barely touch the ground. It seems more like a quick impression of a figure than a formal rendering. I love that the artist seems to embrace that casual style in the marks, as if to say, here is this man in my memory. Curator: Precisely. And it is in that act of "embracing" the figure's cultural trappings that, from our contemporary position, we might reflect on the complex relationships between the Netherlands and the regions and peoples beyond Europe during this era. Do we view the representation as an appreciative glimpse of other cultures or an exploitative exercise of colonial imagination? Editor: Ah, the eternal question. Is it possible it can be a little bit of both, no? Even as this artist embraces the foreign image, he reveals, I don't know, maybe his own prejudices as he composes this character. And despite these prejudices, they celebrate this human’s quirks, this being’s vitality... He seems to exist both as a complete caricature and somehow as an ode to humanity's eccentricity. Curator: I agree that it holds all that tension, and more! Hopefully, by examining those paradoxes, we come closer to a more grounded sense of how art history can illuminate present struggles. Editor: Agreed. All of that in this humble drawing…! Who knew a man, a stick, and turban could spark so much introspection? Curator: The beauty of art, isn’t it? Editor: Always is.