Portret van Augusta Sophia en Apollo in de zonnewagen 1777

Curator: What catches my eye immediately is the light, the almost luminous quality that Chodowiecki achieves with such spare lines. There’s an ethereal feel to the whole piece. Editor: Indeed. What you're looking at is Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki's "Portret van Augusta Sophia en Apollo in de zonnewagen", from 1777, here at the Rijksmuseum. It's an engraving on paper. What a fabulous way to show two different realms that coexist on the same plane! The symbolic and the representational! Curator: That duality is compelling! It's as if he’s hinting that we’re always simultaneously present in both worlds. Do you sense the contrast between the formality of the portrait and the wild abandon of Apollo’s ride? She’s caged, and he’s boundless. Editor: Absolutely, one confined to an ornamental frame, almost a royal prison of her own image, and the other is literally driving the sun, embodying aspiration! But that sunny Apollo narrative also symbolizes the Enlightenment values that shaped Chodowiecki's art; rationalism, optimism, reason, the progress of time and human kind as opposed to Sophia Augusta's stagnant life within an obsolete societal strata! Curator: Do you suppose she longed for some of that freedom? This print, created with lines delicate as dreams, is such a peculiar juxtaposition. The formal portraiture echoes classical realism and then there's an ancient deity. Editor: Definitely! And look closer at the second tableau. The three female figures next to the water complement the maiden framed on the left and reinforce the theme of beauty under different circumstances and styles! Curator: Exactly, you have these narratives overlapping, talking to each other. Each line meticulously placed... it all invites us to ponder on the intricate dance between identity, expectation, and the mythology we weave around ourselves. What a beautiful thing to be preserved here! Editor: For sure, one last note: Remember to look into the empty cartouche that Chodowiecki left under Sophia Augusta’s effigy! What would you write if it was you in the portrait, ready to travel and see Apollo lighting your chariot? Curator: Maybe just three words "Finally, unbound now".