Waterput onder colonnade c. 1574

Curator: This intricate engraving, dating back to around 1574, is titled "Waterput onder colonnade," or "Well under Colonnade." It comes to us from the hand, or rather the burin, of Johannes or Lucas van Doetechum. It's currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first thought is "architectural fever dream." It has this uncanny Escher-like quality, a sort of practical absurdity. All that implied labor just to move water. Curator: That sense of calculated artifice is absolutely key. Northern Renaissance artists were deeply interested in perspective, and you see that interest manifest here, in how the space recedes. The print becomes an exploration, a demonstration even, of constructed depth. It shows almost impossible building elements to play tricks on the eye. Editor: Yes, there's this tension between the utilitarian—a well—and the purely aesthetic, all those classical columns and impossible gears. It feels almost theatrical, like a stage set, this image about power—power over nature and the power of artistic creation. Curator: The engraving medium itself lends to this. The crisp lines, the sharp contrasts…everything is so deliberately placed. Remember that prints like these weren't just art objects; they circulated knowledge. Architectural ideas, engineering principles…all disseminated through these affordable images. The building is shown within city context for some strange and wonderful reason, what might this say to you? Editor: I see that—I think it gives insight. Look past all the decorative elements of this colonnade and see a practical, though perhaps inefficient, construction designed for human survival in that city over yonder in the horizon line of the archway. Also this sort of art being “affordable” is perhaps, also inaccurate, remember how only upper-class citizens owned paintings because they were commissioned, this sort of architectural engraving, perhaps gave them access. Curator: It gives me great pause to consider the power, ingenuity and sheer beauty this print holds. What about you? Editor: Definitely makes you wonder what mundane things in today’s day will seem utterly arcane and intriguing to others.