Liefdespaar zittend voor een hek 1522 - 1599

This anonymous print depicts a couple seated close together before a gate. The gate, in its most immediate sense, symbolizes a boundary or a transition. In the context of the couple, one can interpret it as the threshold of love and commitment. Consider, then, how gates and thresholds appear in the myth of the Roman god Janus, a figure who looks simultaneously to the past and future. Janus guarded doorways and transitions, embodying beginnings and endings, carrying keys as symbols of passage and authority. Similarly, the gate in this print is not merely an obstacle but a symbolic passage, rich with psychological weight. Gates, as recurrent motifs, tap into our collective unconscious, evoking deep emotional responses. The gate as a symbol has traversed time, constantly reappearing and evolving, echoing through the ages in different forms. It is an enduring emblem, reflecting the cyclical progression of human experience and the persistent dance between the past and future.