Don Quichot meent in de herberg een ridderorde te ontvangen 1732 - 1733

Bernard Picart etched this scene of Don Quixote's imaginary knighting in an inn. The kneeling posture, central to the image, evokes centuries of ritualistic gestures of fealty and religious devotion, crossing both sacred and secular realms. Consider the act of kneeling: in medieval times, a vassal knelt before his lord, symbolizing submission and loyalty. Echoes of this gesture resonate in religious art, where supplicants kneel before divine figures, embodying humility and reverence. Yet here, the innkeeper performs the act with playful duress, turning the age-old symbol on its head. We see how easily the collective memory of gestures and symbols shift in meaning as time progresses, their emotional charge undiminished but redirected by the currents of human folly. In this print, Picart highlights the contrast between Quixote's idealized perception of the inn, versus the ridicule of the people around him, exposing how cultural symbols carry latent emotional power that continues to influence and engage us on a subconscious level.