Scylla door Minos afgewezen 1606 - 1638

Curator: This engraving, created between 1606 and 1638 by Antonio Tempesta, depicts a scene titled "Scylla door Minos afgewezen" currently held at the Rijksmuseum. Its story pulls us into an intense moment. What stands out to you initially? Editor: The linearity! The crosshatching dictates everything—the light, the form, even the drama of the scene. The composition itself is meticulously organized into distinct planes that create an unnerving depth and dynamism despite the rigidity of the lines. Curator: Indeed. Considering Scylla's narrative, the linear quality adds to the story. This image captures a pivotal betrayal from Greek Mythology where Scylla offers King Minos the head or hair of her father. This act allowed Minos to conquer her city, only to then reject her. Can you feel that complex moral tension embodied within the visual dynamics of Tempesta’s line work? Editor: Absolutely. Her desperate presentation of the head, coupled with Minos's cold dismissal as the others recoils is vividly constructed through those tight, directional lines that seems to carve emotion right onto their faces. Look how the gaze moves along those etched gestures. The diagonal slash of his rejecting arm versus the yielding droop of the severed head. It’s a story told as much through geometry as through symbolic figures. Curator: Tempesta has constructed something far deeper. Look beyond the lines to feel her deep rejection. Her father, the leader of her city is now dead, and she has delivered her victory, or rather her freedom to King Minos, and she still rejected, now truly free falling and doomed. Do you think her shame and the cost of her betrayal have an aesthetic echo? Editor: Precisely! Baroque is present in the drama of the forms themselves; in the tension and spatial anxiety encoded within each stroke of the engraving tool. Tempesta really makes that visible! I keep being drawn back to that rejected head in her hands. What's particularly captivating is the psychological depth captured here through very controlled formal means. Curator: The use of form to capture psychological realism truly captures our attention and imagination. We are brought face to face with intense emotion rendered through formal perfection. Editor: A study in contrasts; the weight of gesture delivered via linear precision.