Brug voor verstevigd bouwwerk 1613 - 1695

Curator: Okay, let’s have a look at "Brug voor verstevigd bouwwerk"— "Bridge in a fortified structure," if my Dutch serves me right. It’s an etching by Nicolas Perelle, dating sometime between 1613 and 1695, currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately, the thing that jumps out at me is the almost theatrical composition—that dramatic round frame. It's like peering through a spyglass at some miniature feudal drama. It looks like it could be from another planet, in its time and the atmosphere of tension it creates, a whole other realm from our present! Curator: I’m fascinated by how Perelle balances a sort of wild grandeur with meticulous detail. Look at the rendering of the architecture, particularly the distant tower… such fine lines giving form to the fortifications that loom overhead and feel quite claustrophobic. Then he pivots into this idyllic countryside. Editor: It feels so calculated. I can’t help but think about power, control and who this image may be addressing. The castle, perched so precariously above—it represents domination. I wonder, was Perelle subtly commenting on feudal systems? Was it commissioned by these very lords to reaffirm this structure? Curator: Or, hear me out, maybe he was simply drawn to the drama of the setting. There is such a palpable delight here in the contrast between the organic, the chaotic, with the imposed and the geometric. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Freud is purported to have said... though with less grace, I suspect! But truly—art need not be a sociopolitical manifesto to be resonant. Editor: True, yet context is crucial. Considering the social inequalities inherent in this time period, can we ever *really* look at images of wealth and power without some critical awareness? Is art made in a vacuum? I highly doubt it, because what exists without thought and reasoning? Even nature exists as it has intended to become! Curator: A very fair point! Still, as someone who enjoys, rather obsessively perhaps, to dabble in artistry, I find joy in that landscape! A simple scene… I often wish I could reach out and join that trio along their way, the very heart of rustic serenity! Editor: Exactly, because it is the landscape that you identify with more. That scene may feel far less accessible or palatable, viewed from another perspective. What do these lords and castle ownership represent? Loss of lands and possessions? Being exiled or pushed out? To only be a passerby and have nothing of substance? Curator: A powerful insight! Perhaps the piece invites us not only to appreciate but also to consider these imbalances, these difficult and unspoken elements of what seems on the surface, and simply at a distance, to be an antiquated Arcadia.