Huwelijk van Maria before 1646

Curator: Before us we have "Huwelijk van Maria," or "Marriage of Mary," an engraving created before 1646 by Christoffel van Sichem the Younger, here at the Rijksmuseum. My initial reaction? It's like stepping into a dream woven from thread. So intricate. Editor: Dreamy is one word. My eye goes straight to the relentless process, though. Imagine the sheer labor of producing this level of detail through engraving, cutting into the metal, applying ink…each tiny line born of deliberate, physical effort. Curator: Oh, absolutely. There's a quiet hum of devotion in that repetition. And have you noticed how van Sichem uses the density of those lines to play with light and shadow? It almost feels like the sacred event itself is emerging from a divine fog. Editor: A fog made by human hands and metal tools! Consider the societal context: prints like this made religious imagery accessible, reproducible for wider audiences. It blurs lines, right? The "high art" becomes almost a commodity through these printed multiples. Curator: That is quite fascinating; I was drawn in mostly for the beauty but the labor really has a sense of grace and precision to it. But isn’t there also a level of artistry in choosing which scene, which moment, to immortalize in this way? Van Sichem chose this intimate vow exchange amid all this grand architecture and a crowd, focusing on the hands meeting in covenant. Editor: I agree, this also makes me want to highlight his material choices. Ink on paper seems like such an interesting medium for a narrative piece about an idealized marriage and I wonder what we're to read from such interesting material context. Curator: Food for thought. What is fascinating about that exchange and commitment from all those years ago feels extremely personal, a marriage that transcends that labor into a pure connection between two humans that chose love and fidelity. Editor: From communal devotional object to something almost transcendent, that little piece of printed paper encapsulates so much about how we negotiate faith and image making. Curator: Precisely. I’m moved seeing how the making can lead to art itself, a dialogue captured so beautifully across centuries and mediums. Editor: The art itself leads me to new perspectives regarding not only materiality but society itself.