Brug over een kanaal te Venetië 1870 - 1923

Willem Witsen captured this view of a canal in Venice in a watercolour. Here, the bridge serves as both a physical structure and a potent symbol. Bridges, throughout history, have represented connection, transition, and passage between different realms. Consider the Roman pontifex, the "bridge-builder," a priest who facilitated communication between gods and humans. This notion stretches back to ancient beliefs in liminal spaces, those in-between places charged with spiritual energy, like rivers or coastlines, and the impulse to build structures across them. The motif appears in countless contexts—religious iconography, political propaganda, even dream analysis—always signifying a critical link. The psychological weight of crossing a bridge taps into our collective unconscious, stirring deep-seated emotions of hope, fear, and anticipation. These are powerful forces that engage us on a subconscious level. The bridge’s symbolism is far from linear. It recurs, transformed, throughout history, constantly reshaped by the needs and anxieties of each new era.