Gezicht op het Odeion van Herodes Atticus 1758

Curator: There's a hushed stillness to this scene, isn't there? Almost like the silence after a great performance, the echoes of ancient voices… Editor: Yes, it evokes that feeling. What we're seeing is Jacques Philippe Le Bas’s engraving, "Gezicht op het Odeion van Herodes Atticus," from 1758. It’s housed right here at the Rijksmuseum, a snapshot of neo-classical fascination with antiquity. I think what captures me first is its commentary on temporality; of the glory of Athens against a backdrop of fading colonial power. Curator: Fading beauty… and isn't that what's so compelling about ruins? It makes me wonder what spectacles took place within those walls. Love, betrayal, political intrigue… perhaps even dreadful violence! Do you also wonder if there were special seats, better to hear the wailing of a bereft maiden, or the rant of a tyrant? Editor: Well, given that the amphitheater shown served as a place of celebration for Rome’s Athenian patrons, I reckon such experiences may have been curated in particular ways. It’s amazing to consider who might have occupied those spaces through processes of inclusion, exclusion, and cultural prestige. The neo-classical artists’ interests often veered into romanticized or depoliticized territories though, rather than more historically complex understandings, right? Curator: A very important consideration… Yes, that makes me consider if such prints could provide a lens through which to consider how colonizers’ sought to legitimize occupation of lands across the globe? And what this specific one seems to say about a human desire to impose some semblance of order on an otherwise unruly world—order, in art, and architecture and society...even a crumbling one. I am feeling introspective. Editor: And even with its precision and calculated lines, that quest seems inherently futile in light of how our civilizations do eventually fall to the ravages of time, neglect, and shifting socio-political winds. These decaying monuments always teach such stark lessons in power. Curator: A melancholic truth, rendered beautifully, with light, shadow and line. Thank you for shining light onto new layers of this magnificent print.