Wooded Landscape 1640 - 1690

Anthonie Waterloo's "Wooded Landscape," now at the Rijksmuseum, invites us into a 17th-century Dutch forest painted with oil on canvas. The forest here is more than just trees; it's a stage where nature and humanity meet. The trees, especially, have always been powerful symbols. Since antiquity they have been associated with the source of life and death. This can be seen in ancient mythology, for example in the Nordic Yggdrasil, a cosmic tree connecting heaven, earth, and the underworld. But look closer, and you'll find how the Dutch masters have transformed ancient nature worship into a form of psychological observation. The forest becomes a space where the individual contemplates their place in the world. A similar feeling we see echoed in German Romanticism, where the forest becomes a dark, subconscious landscape. This intense engagement with nature has been with us through the ages, evolving through the collective memory of mankind. The forest is a symbol that reappears, shaped and reshaped, reflecting our deepest selves.