Illustration from Hyperotomachia Poliphili Colonna, Jean Le Blanc for Jacques Kerver c. 1561

Curator: Here we have an intriguing anonymous illustration from Hyperotomachia Poliphili Colonna, printed by Jean Le Blanc for Jacques Kerver. What's your first impression? Editor: Stark, architectural, and…a little ominous, actually. It’s this imposing gate, but to what? And why are the details so obsessively rendered? Curator: That's interesting! I'm particularly struck by the integration of classical motifs—the pediment, the columns—and the sort of dreamlike quality that emerges from the surrounding scenes. Editor: Yes, a dreamlike quality… or maybe a constructed memory? The gate itself acts as a symbol, a boundary, or a right of passage between known and unknown. Curator: I think it really captures how spaces, even imagined ones, can be both beautiful and unsettling. Editor: Definitely. It makes you wonder what narratives were being coded into these images, and what power they held.