Vaandeldrager 1587 - 1596

Editor: We are looking at Vaandeldrager, from the late 16th century, a pen, pencil and ink drawing found here at the Rijksmuseum; it seems so academic but I think also narrative in composition! I feel immediately as though I should understand some crucial story or message being presented to me - and what is with the ripped paper, the imperfections...?! How do you interpret this work? Curator: Oh, I see this less as a complete message and more like... a fleeting thought caught on paper, the creative process itself almost a subject! There is this raw kind of northern renaissance energy. Note how the "flaws," these distressed elements of torn paper or fading ink, are also what draw you in, right? Editor: Yes! That experimentation. That definitely comes through - what draws you in the most though, when viewing such an older piece? Curator: It’s like discovering an artist's notes or doodles from another time. Makes them real somehow. In some of those ink tests they did there, are figures playing? And even those dark shadows, almost smudges - how are *they* part of the overall image? Makes one wonder... are they random, mistakes? Or did the artist mean them...to echo feelings, ideas they were grappling with? Editor: Ah, yes, that does place us in dialogue with the process more, doesn't it. It transforms that almost ruined feeling into intimate insights. I wouldn't have come to this perception on my own. Thank you! Curator: Art changes once we invite fresh thoughts. It almost becomes something new again each time.