Kroonluchter met putti 1719 - 1750

Curator: Looking at this, I see a whimsical and ornate pen and ink drawing. Its tentative lines convey a delightful dance of putti amidst flourishing foliage, a draft design full of light. Editor: It's exuberantly Baroque, isn't it? What catches my eye is how aspirational it appears. Curator: This is "Chandelier with Putti", dating roughly from 1719 to 1750 and attributed to Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt the Second. We’re lucky to have it here at the Rijksmuseum. Hoppenhaupt worked during a fascinating period, influencing interior design and the aesthetics of power. Editor: Tell me more about that aesthetic. Who would want to promote themselves through such elaborate excess? Curator: Absolutely. The Baroque style, especially in interiors and decorative arts, served as a very deliberate performance. Displaying wealth and power so explicitly—a type of what we now term “conspicuous consumption"—projected an image of authority tied very much into the politics of court and nobility during this period. Light was life. Editor: Considering this specific design, does the motif of childhood—represented through the putti—lend the Chandelier a gentler feeling? Does it challenge or underscore the traditional reading of it, given how this imagery often omits marginalized bodies? Curator: That's an insightful question. You could read these putti as cherubic symbols of innocence and divine right; however, we need to situate them within broader sociopolitical narratives of the time. The lack of diversity in these representations, while common, reveals biases and inequalities in artistic representation tied to power structures. Who were deemed worthy of immortalization, and how does that affect perceptions of beauty and worth then, and now? Editor: It really forces us to grapple with that, doesn't it? What could have hung from this chandelier during its golden years? Curator: It invites us to consider more about the piece as both design and symbolic gesture. Editor: Absolutely. Thanks for opening this up to new considerations.