Spotprent op het oude ministerie, 1868 1867

Curator: At first glance, this reminds me of an anxious dream! Editor: We're looking at "Spotprent op het oude ministerie," which roughly translates to "Cartoon on the Old Ministry," a pen and print drawing from 1867 by Johan Michaël Schmidt Crans. It certainly feels like peering into a somewhat troubled mind. Curator: Exactly. The rough sketch lines give it an immediate sense of unrest, don’t they? The fairground motif with that oddly placed bathtub… it’s all just slightly off-kilter. Are we meant to see the ministry as a sort of chaotic circus? Editor: I think that's very perceptive. Caricatures like this one often used popular imagery – the circus, the fair – as stand-ins for the "the world," so to speak. The drawing seems to suggest those in power just keep the wheel turning, going in circles, no matter how absurd or disconnected from reality it seems to those trapped on the outside. Notice that phrase, literally under the image: “The people in the merry-go-round: Let us always continue turning, that way, they can't get into it”. Curator: I hadn’t focused on that before! It adds a darker dimension. The composition cleverly separates the detached onlookers from those on the merry-go-round, deepening the sense of division. I mean, a lion wearing a fool's hat?! Editor: Right? It could symbolize a ruler humiliated or public figures exposed. Think about the Romanticism movement at the time; artists explored raw emotional states, social critique… it makes sense this artist adopted such whimsical visuals to deal with some serious subject matter. Curator: Absolutely. Romanticism had that element of escapism as well, though maybe twisted and presented here. It asks what roles the powerful are meant to perform. Editor: Thinking about how our society keeps replaying familiar dramas through different costumes or settings, you can feel how timely its message would still be if this drawing were new today! Curator: Indeed. It’s interesting to see how visual symbolism continues to be such a valuable resource when criticizing sociopolitical power structures and the emotional impact of them. Thank you! Editor: Always a pleasure; it’s why I enjoy looking back through these artworks as windows into where we might be heading as a society.