Deurplaat met vissen c. 1910

Curator: This intriguing piece is a bronze doorplate titled "Deurplaat met vissen," or "Door Plate with Fish," created around 1910 by G. Dikkers & Co. The piece is an excellent example of Art Nouveau decorative art, featuring a relief of stylized fish. Editor: Wow, the moment I saw this, I felt like I was peering into some ancient, watery secret! It's the aged bronze, maybe, or the way the fish seem to be whispering silent stories from beneath the waves. The color is beautiful: the way the green tinges create texture is compelling. Curator: Indeed, the interplay of material and form here is quite compelling. The relief itself is fascinating, how it creates depth, yet the work remains so incredibly functional, literally paving the way to entering. The stylized rendering adheres closely to the Art Nouveau stylistic precepts, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely! It is interesting to wonder what a visitor of the house might feel when approaching the front door with the Art Nouveau design. I feel a peculiar mix of the everyday and something more sublime – almost ceremonial. Like you’re entering not just a house, but some sort of sacred space. Curator: Yes! The materiality and form together work to evoke certain sensations, right? Speaking of which, I think the patina on the bronze emphasizes both the age and, by implication, the timelessness of natural forms such as these fish, immortalized as decorative relief elements. Editor: I like the juxtaposition, that these symbols of flow and change, these darting fish are rendered so immovably! If doors are passages from one life state to another, it sets the tone nicely. So intriguing. It is definitely something more than purely decorative. Curator: Quite. The fish, presented as archetypal symbols of Art Nouveau, lend significance to such an everyday piece of material culture, asking us to see art’s integration with the everyday and the capacity for meaningful beauty in practical object. Editor: Precisely. Looking at this has really made me want to explore my own threshold moments, and to try and appreciate the world just a little bit more mindfully.