Jongeman beklimt een rots 1675 - 1694

Gerard de Lairesse created this print, Jongeman beklimt een rots, sometime between 1641 and 1711 using etching. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. Prints like this were often produced in multiples and bound into books of poetry. They would have been relatively accessible to middle-class audiences, a burgeoning class in the Dutch Golden Age. The image depicts a nude young man scaling a rock face. He reaches the top of the rock, where a laurel wreath awaits. Climbing a rock may be a metaphor for facing life's challenges, however, it also references the story of Actaeon from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Actaeon was a hunter who was turned into a deer by Diana, the goddess of the hunt, after he saw her bathing naked. He was then killed by his own hunting dogs. This print reminds us that identity is not fixed. As viewers, we are invited to consider the emotional and personal dimensions of transformation and the challenges that come with it.