Titelblad: Nouveaux Liure de Vases et de Pots before 1800

This undated print at the Rijksmuseum depicts a series of ornate vases, each brimming with symbolic potential. The most striking element is the recurrence of the grotesque mask, a motif echoing the ancient Greek theater, where masks amplified emotions and archetypes. Such masks serve as powerful visual devices, tools used across epochs to evoke primal reactions. We see echoes in the Renaissance, where the grotesque mask was employed to ward off evil and channel raw, untamed energies. Consider the "Medusa Rondanini," its snakelike hair rendered with a horrifying beauty; it shares the power to transfix and repel, revealing our complex relationship with fear. These vases, adorned with symbols of power and expressions of raw emotion, remind us that artistic motifs are never truly static; they are instead vessels containing layers of cultural memory, forever transforming yet eternally connected.