De bouw van het paard van Troje 1965

Aat Verhoog etched “The Building of the Trojan Horse”, and it now resides in the Rijksmuseum. In it, the motif of the horse looms large, a symbol laden with deceit and strategic cunning, echoing through the corridors of time since Homer’s epic. Consider the horse, not merely as a wooden effigy, but as a vessel of hidden intent, akin to Pandora's box or the Freudian concept of the unconscious—a container of suppressed desires and unforeseen consequences. This image evokes the myth of Europa and the Bull, which is not a story of pastoral innocence but a narrative of abduction and transformation. The symbol evolves from a divine guise to a harbinger of war, revealing a progression from sacred deception to secular strategy, yet the core theme of hidden purpose remains. Thus, Verhoog’s etching prompts us to explore the cyclical return and adaptation of symbolic forms across the epochs of human culture.