Maskerade van de Leidse studenten, 1850 (plaat 3) 1850

Curator: Looking at this, I feel a sense of formal pageantry undermined by… well, the wobbly lines. It's as if history is being recreated from memory, with details shifting in and out of focus. Editor: That's perceptive. This piece, entitled "Maskerade van de Leidse studenten, 1850 (plaat 3)," comes to us from Carel Christiaan Antony Last. What we are seeing is an ink drawing—likely part of a series—depicting a masquerade of Leiden students. Curator: Ah, a masquerade! That accounts for the deliberately artificial feel. I was picking up on something staged and slightly irreverent. Are those supposed to be historical costumes? Because some look accurate, while others verge on caricature. The flags they are carrying, the weaponry… it feels symbolic, not strictly representational. Editor: Absolutely. Last would have known these symbols held great cultural and political power, both at the time they were used historically, and even still when he created the work in the mid-19th century. He’s drawing from a tradition of Dutch Golden Age group portraits, and I suspect is having some fun with that. Curator: Look at the expressions! They range from solemn to utterly bemused. And the fellow on horseback seems about to topple right off! There's humor, a clear subversion, and an attempt to connect with older visual rhetoric. But it all feels intentionally loose, as if he wants to show the performance as being performed, a wink at the viewer. Editor: The technique is indeed remarkable; the density of line creates depth and texture while maintaining that air of lightness. Last captured the essence of the performance. Curator: What strikes me most is how even within this historical portrayal there's such a youthful exuberance, the rebellious energy of students just putting on a show but doing so with serious intentions that hint at their deeper ambitions for the future. It’s as if they know that what they represent might as well fall off of that horse. Editor: I agree. It is interesting how Last seems to have left little clues to his own views on the whole affair through the varied expressions and body languages of each figure in the procession. I find something compelling in its whimsical portrayal of that past era.