Ophaalbrug bij een stadswal 1621 - 1642

Curator: Immediately, the intricate linework gives it an antiquated feel. It seems so delicate. Editor: Andries Both’s “Ophaalbrug bij een stadswal”, a drawbridge near a city wall, completed sometime between 1621 and 1642. Both employed pen and ink to depict this scene. The work currently resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Curator: Thinking about the materiality, you can almost hear the scratching of the pen on the paper. The repetitive lines creating depth are really interesting, almost a texture itself. It gives me a real sense of how it was made. The process seems quite meticulous for what appears to be a fleeting, casual scene. Editor: Absolutely, but consider what Both chooses to depict—not idealized landscapes but everyday architecture, like this drawbridge, probably integral to the local economy and potentially reflecting military infrastructure of the time. What narratives about access, control, and labor are embedded here? Curator: Well, access is key, literally! The bridge allows passage but also controls it. I wonder about the artisanry. Building the actual bridge itself would necessitate specialized skill. The drawing is evidence of the labor invested in capturing this structure in art, making visible, in its way, another kind of labor. Editor: Precisely. And those labor dynamics are undoubtedly linked to social status. Who uses this bridge? Who profits from its existence? The bridge represents movement but also points to socioeconomic hierarchies within that movement. I'm thinking of the structures that would allow some and impede others. Curator: It really highlights the social functions imbued in otherwise banal objects. That shifts the perception of even rudimentary infrastructure and invites further consideration. Editor: Indeed. Something like a bridge takes on profound importance as both a point of connection and division. Seeing how an artist chose to document the infrastructure of movement, what it implies for social equity and access, has radically transformed how I initially processed the scene.