Verzamelen van het manna 1640

Editor: This is Claude Mellan's "Verzamelen van het manna," from 1640, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. It's an engraving, a print, rendered entirely in these elegant, almost impossibly thin lines. The scene depicts the gathering of manna from the sky, and it strikes me as both wondrous and orderly, despite the chaos of the event itself. What leaps out at you when you look at it? Curator: Wonderfully said. Yes, Mellan's dedication to line is paramount here. Forget shading as such; it is built of the varying pressure of a single line! Look at the drama conjured, as though a storm is raining lines, converging towards these figures, the light seemingly tangible, descending from above. The baroque flair, but disciplined through line. Doesn't it give the event this sort of celestial blessing and also, dare I say, almost a sacred geometry? Editor: A sacred geometry – I like that! I hadn’t thought of it in those terms, but I see what you mean. The way everything radiates outward and inward simultaneously. Does the rigidity of the line contrast or emphasize the miraculous nature of it? Curator: Both. The rigidity highlights the discipline behind faith, behind witnessing miracles, behind bearing witness to these, not merely historical, but existentially pertinent phenomena. I wonder – can you trace a single line, just with your eyes, and follow where it takes you within the piece? Perhaps try it as a means of entering this scene and let yourself feel into what Claude Mellan invites. Editor: That's an intriguing thought, I might get lost! Thank you for this interpretation, it opened this artwork to me on a deeper level. Curator: Likewise. Art's a never-ending adventure, isn't it? Keep your mind and eyes open.