De Rede maant de kerken tot verdraagzaamheid 1560 - 1599

Curator: Let's take a look at "De Rede maant de kerken tot verdraagzaamheid," a fascinating engraving created sometime between 1560 and 1599. It’s currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. What are your immediate impressions? Editor: Overwhelming. It’s incredibly dense with text, almost like a cartoon speech bubble exploded! The characters gathered around that table, it feels like a rather raucous gathering, a tense family meal maybe, if your family was the Reformation. Curator: It’s an example of narrative art steeped in the context of its time, an era marked by religious conflict in Europe. Engravings like this were essentially the mass media of their day. We have detailed lines forming the whole setting, including people eating, discussing, cooking. All levels of the making and trading of the depicted dinner is in full display. Editor: Yes, and the inclusion of that very lengthy text. I'm struck by the tension here. Are they really seeking tolerance or just arguing more eloquently? Also, is that a lute I see? I would play loudly, off-key, to change the mood of this supper... Curator: The “Rede,” or Reason, alluded to in the title is meant to bring peace amongst arguing fractions but appears rather like the master of ceremonies at a boisterous dinner where ingredients are gathered for a social event or a marketplace transaction. And I think your instinct about that lute is spot-on. Music as an attempt to placate rising conflicts or an ironic undertone. Editor: And what do you make of the prominent depiction of the food and materials, what kind of meaning are they adding to the piece as a whole? Curator: By explicitly foregrounding labor, this image critiques the notion of high art being separate from the work of artisans and tradespeople. It reminds us of the sheer labor involved in making even simple things, questioning established hierarchies. Editor: I now find it’s harder to just relax with art! Thank you for the enlightenment, though, material considerations certainly lend insight into that raucous supper.