Kwitantie aan Feico Ronner Possibly 1869

This receipt, signed by Feico Ronner in 1869, employs a script laden with the symbolic weight of economic exchange. The flourish of Ronner's signature—a performative gesture—recalls ancient scribal traditions where the act of writing was imbued with power. Consider the recurring motif of lines and curves: they delineate value, literally in the sum of "720" guilders, and symbolically as the borders within which commerce operates. These lines, seemingly innocuous, echo the caduceus of Hermes, the god of trade and negotiation, where snakes intertwine around a staff, a symbol of balance and exchange. Just as Hermes navigated between worlds, the artist navigates between artistic creation and economic necessity. This duality resonates through time, reflecting the artist's eternal struggle to reconcile the spiritual value of their work with its material worth. The receipt, therefore, becomes a palimpsest, a canvas onto which the ongoing drama of art and commerce is perpetually rewritten.