Hemel met engelen 1722 - 1784

Curator: This is "Hemel met engelen," or "Heaven with Angels," an engraving created sometime between 1722 and 1784. It's currently part of the Rijksmuseum collection and attributed to Simon Fokke. Editor: It's an overwhelmingly celestial vision, isn’t it? The figures and cloudy backdrops seem to swarm the senses, an almost unsettling impression of abundance. Curator: The density is intentional, a very Baroque trait. There is the sun depicted at the top with the Tetragrammaton; then numerous winged cherubs among the clouds. Allegorically, the sky would function as an allusion to heaven and divine glory. It reminds me how, throughout diverse cultural periods, the depiction of divine presence almost always defaults to celestial phenomena. Editor: Yes, it certainly evokes a kind of staged power. How the engraver employs very tight, small, and close lines for textures in clouds creates depth and mass—but I’m curious about how that connects with the artist's political stance, the social currents of the time. This upward, hierarchical gaze... it speaks of the divine right to rule. Is this glorification an attempt to enforce established social order? Curator: It could very well be. Engravings like this circulated widely, solidifying certain iconographic associations in the popular imagination. Take, for example, the use of light radiating from a central point. We see this in religious art across continents, from mandalas in Buddhism to haloes in Christianity. It’s almost as though human beings are intrinsically wired to perceive light as a manifestation of higher consciousness. Editor: And it's critical we unpack those assumptions rather than naturalize them. Even in something seemingly ethereal, power dynamics and ideology lurk. So while the heavenly subject gives the feeling of an uplifting experience, this work invites a closer examination. Curator: Precisely! Perhaps an enduring insight then, is not simply accepting but decoding the visual rhetoric encoded within these powerful symbols. Editor: A crucial point. Thank you for shedding some light.