Allegorische titelpagina met het portret van schrijver Edward Simson 1729

Curator: What an evocative piece. This is Jan Wandelaar’s “Allegorical Title Page with the Portrait of Writer Edward Simson,” made in 1729. It's currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Well, "evocative" is one word for it. It feels… cluttered, almost aggressively so. Like a dream trying too hard to be important. The cherubs, the nude figures...it's a lot to take in. Curator: But that’s Baroque for you, isn’t it? Abundance, excess… it's a celebration, a swirling vortex of ideas and symbols, all intended to honor Simson, whose portrait is nestled within that cloud of cherubs at the top. Editor: Let's talk about materials. It's an engraving, which means we’re dealing with lines, careful incisions. Someone spent a considerable amount of time meticulously carving that plate, considering the production time involved and then the paper, the ink, the printing process… a small industry behind what we see as a single image. Curator: And what an image! Note how the allegorical figures – Justice with her scales, maybe Minerva with her helmet, I think – they frame a central female nude, presumably representing Truth or Knowledge. A real clash of idealism and human form, right? It has this… dramatic tension, like the edge of something being revealed. Editor: What gets me is the almost manicured composition. Even the seeming chaos is controlled. Someone carefully planned out the symbolic elements, and even more importantly, thought about who was meant to receive this image. That writer Edward Simson and others that moved in his circle. How would its consumers value its image of labor and creativity? What were its effects and how were those predicted during the work? Curator: Absolutely. And consider Wandelaar himself, as craftsman and an artist. To bring the idea from inception to this detailed execution— it demands technical mastery, creative vision… The light radiates from the central figure to create depth in a monochromatic scheme; look at the details! It also whispers possibilities about the stories and meanings nestled between all those fine lines. Editor: It’s almost aggressively decorative. A very precise and highly wrought object for elite consumers, to be contemplated in quiet parlors, designed to convey prestige both to the sitter and, ultimately, to the owner. Curator: A dance of meaning made possible by labor, materials, craft—an object where, if we only attend, we can participate and even join in with our own reflections. Editor: Yes, it makes you ponder all the unseen labor that birthed it, and all those hands which made the world this image was once destined to circulate.