Standbeeld van een staande man met fluit 1636 - 1647

Cornelis Bloemaert's drawing features a man playing a flute, a symbol deeply entwined with themes of pastoral harmony, leisure, and sometimes, more profoundly, divine inspiration. This motif, echoing through antiquity, often accompanies depictions of Arcadia, a nostalgic vision of rustic life. Consider the flute player not just as a musician but as a conduit. In ancient Greece, the aulos, a double-pipe instrument, was associated with Dionysus, evoking ecstatic, trance-like states. Our flute player is a tamed, almost Apollonian version, but the echo of wild, untamed emotion remains. Think of Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne," where music incites revelry, or even further back to Pan, the god of the wild, whose pipes led to both delight and panic. The act of playing music itself becomes a symbol of order imposed on chaos, a sentiment that resurfaces throughout the ages, reflecting humanity's perennial quest to understand and control the world around them.