Zelfopoffering van predikant Hambroeck op Formosa, 1662 1837

Editor: So, this is "Zelfopoffering van predikant Hambroeck op Formosa, 1662", an engraving from 1837 by Carel Christiaan Antony Last, currently held in the Rijksmuseum. It's incredibly dramatic – the monochrome palette amplifies the somber mood, and the figures are arranged in such a way that it all just seems intensely tragic. What's your take on it? Curator: Tragedy indeed hangs heavy, doesn't it? Almost theatrical. I see this less as a purely historical document, though, and more as a carefully staged romantic drama. Look at the preacher Hambroeck; he is posed like a saint ascending, isn’t he? Last cleverly uses the visual language of martyrdom to celebrate, or perhaps mythologize, a moment from Dutch colonial history. Do you get the sense it glorifies or laments? Editor: That’s a really interesting point about it being a staged drama. I think initially I saw it as lamenting, due to all of the suffering. But now I can see how the elevated portrayal of Hambroeck, and indeed his “sacrifice”, can be read as a glorification. Are those really Formosans depicted around him? Their presence complicates the picture for me. Curator: It absolutely does, and that tension is precisely where the power of the print resides, doesn't it? This historical moment, repackaged through a romantic lens, allows Last to explore themes of heroism and sacrifice, but it also, perhaps inadvertently, reveals the complicated ethical terrain of colonial encounters. It’s almost like a morality play… a rather unsettling one. It reminds me of old adventure films; thrilling on the surface but ultimately troubling if you think about them too deeply! What about the composition - do you feel it leads your eye a certain way? Editor: Yes, I see how all the lines converge towards Hambroeck. And you’re right; I'll never look at colonial-era art the same way again! Curator: Precisely! And isn’t that what art, at its best, should do? Disrupt our comfortable assumptions. Editor: Absolutely, I'll be chewing on that for a while. Thanks!