Halvnøgen draperet kvinde, holdende en maske. "Sandhedens afsløring" 1671 - 1738

Curator: Oh, my goodness, the *atmosphere* of this piece just envelops you, doesn't it? Like a sigh escaping paper... Editor: You're responding, I imagine, to Hendrik Krock’s study of a draped female figure, rendered in pencil and pastel sometime between 1671 and 1738. It’s titled "Halvnøgen draperet kvinde, holdende en maske. 'Sandhedens afsløring'" or, in English, "Semi-nude draped woman holding a mask. 'Revelation of Truth'". It's held here at the SMK. Curator: "Revelation of Truth" you say? Intriguing. Though at first glance, the 'truth' seems a little veiled to me, if that's not too on the nose. The mask is held away, yes, but the shading seems to obscure as much as it reveals, no? Editor: Absolutely. That tension between unveiling and concealing is, I think, entirely the point. This was a period obsessed with allegory. Truth isn’t simply exposed, it's strategically revealed. The academy promoted history painting above other genres, and allegory often came with it, loaded with symbolism. So we have to ask, what truth is being alluded to here? And, for whom is this truth being revealed, exactly? Curator: You're thinking about power dynamics. Hmm, makes me think. Perhaps it's the artist revealing something about *himself* too, when choosing which aspects to highlight? And which to soften and blur...look at how lovingly he renders the texture of the fabric! You could almost feel the cool smoothness against your skin. But it makes you wonder about the model herself. Editor: Precisely. Who *was* she? Was she simply an anonymous body, or someone with agency, whose own perspective got elided through the symbolic and institutional imperatives placed upon the artwork? I see Krock's work as very much involved with ideas around spectacle and controlled public appearances. And these kind of sketches often worked as preliminary drawings. Curator: It is rather gorgeous, those preliminary sketches can catch the immediacy of the artistic process don’t you think. Such a gentle approach to quite thorny ideas too… So, perhaps what strikes you with social commentary, feels to me… somehow tender. But also leaves an echo lingering somewhere just beyond clear sight... Editor: An apt summary. Thanks to this interplay between openness and opaqueness, it still leaves a question mark lingering, I think, for us today.