Staande stier naar links gewend 1565 - 1630

Curator: Ah, a print, dating back to the 16th or 17th century, placing it somewhere between 1565 and 1630. It's called "Standing Bull Facing Left" by Antonio Tempesta. You can find it here at the Rijksmuseum. What's your first thought? Editor: Stark. Simple. Intensely linear, with the kind of directness you only get before painting tried to imitate life perfectly. It feels elemental, like an alphabet learning to spell "bull." Curator: Indeed! The figure dominates, filling nearly the entire frame. There's a definite sense of the baroque in its dynamic, realistic portrayal. Look at the lines giving volume to the animal's form. Editor: It's powerful because of what it *doesn't* show, right? Stripped of any idealization. No drama. The engraver shows the animal with almost documentary realism; the animal stands with a certain impassivity against implied human narratives, social hierarchies. One wonders for whom such an image was reproduced? Curator: It speaks to that burgeoning scientific curiosity, perhaps. Think about the function of these images at this time. Before photography, engravings like these served a vital role in documenting the natural world, right? Disseminating knowledge, creating visual records. And who doesn't love a majestic beast? Editor: True. What I like most is how such images have continued to fascinate across very different socio-political circumstances, allowing them to be endlessly re-contextualized. In some settings the bull might be considered to symbolize masculine power, while in others perhaps resistance, wildness, or an indictment against ecological plunder... I wonder what Tempesta might think of that! Curator: Oh, the irony! Maybe he envisioned it ending up on coffee mugs, or gracing the pages of some twenty-first century audio tour! Either way, a nice little slice of life viewed through time, eh? Editor: Absolutely. Proof that even something simple can still charge across centuries, snorting up our expectations.