Stenen trap langs de gevel van een huis 1871

Here is a drawing by Maria Vos, rendered with graphite. Observe the stone steps ascending along the facade. Stairs, archetypically, are potent symbols of ascent, transition, and hierarchy. We see them echoed through time, from the ziggurats of ancient Mesopotamia, promising a climb to the heavens, to the grand staircases in Renaissance palaces, visually asserting social status. The rough, uneven texture of the stone, in contrast, hints at the organic and the unrefined, calling to mind the sacred groves of antiquity, spaces where nature itself becomes a staircase to the divine. Stairs may lead to a literal destination, or to the subconscious. In dreams, stairs might represent a journey of self-discovery, the struggles, the climbs, and descents of the psyche, all etched into the collective memory that informs both the artist’s hand and the viewer’s gaze. And so, we see here not just a structure of stone, but an enduring, non-linear symbol: a conduit between the earthly and the transcendent.