Schets van werklui bezig met de vervaardiging van een orgelpijp 1860 - 1921

Adolf le Comte sketched these workmen crafting an organ pipe with pencil on paper. Dominating the sketch is the arch. This architectural motif appears through art history, from the triumphal arches of Rome, symbolizing victory and power, to the archways in Renaissance paintings, framing sacred events. Here, though, the arch is not a symbol of triumph, but of the workshop, a space for creation. The presence of the arch makes me think of the cyclical nature of craftsmanship. Consider the Gothic cathedrals, built over centuries, embodying the collective memory of generations. Similarly, these organ pipes connect to a tradition of music, a cultural memory encoded in sound. Music speaks to the deepest recesses of our minds, evoking joy, sorrow, and spiritual elevation. The act of creation is a profound, even ecstatic, human impulse, and the creation of musical instruments is the desire to materialize the immaterial; to give form to the unseen. Thus, the arch contains and protects this cultural memory, an unending cycle of creation and expression.