Document 1600 - 1650

Curator: At first glance, this appears to be simply a humble scrap of paper, really. Editor: Yes, but that’s what I find so intriguing! It whispers secrets from the past. Is it writing? The intimate feeling makes me want to know more. Curator: Indeed! What we’re viewing here, titled “Document”, currently residing at the Rijksmuseum, is actually a small ink drawing on paper dating back to the early 17th century. The focus appears to be the inscription of text itself. Editor: So, not really art, then? A note? Some quick thinking made visible in ink and script? This script becomes the art. But the text, so elegantly and carefully styled…there’s definitely a psychological element here. The human urge to write, to communicate...to last. It appears faded like a lost voice. What do we know of the text's meaning? Curator: Its content would reveal its socio-political importance. It certainly shows a relationship to the ruling elite given it depicts Hendrik Casimir I, Graaf van Nassau-Dietz. I like how such a basic artifact, pen on paper, possesses its own kind of inherent monumentality because its message lasts far beyond the immediacy of its creation. The baroque elegance in lettering becomes history made present. Editor: Right. Its form echoes a desire for authority, or perhaps decorum is more precise. Curator: In what way? Editor: Well, the paper itself is fragile, a stark contrast to the weighty impact of a carefully chosen edict from a respected name. I believe the image's survival demonstrates an institutional drive toward canonization of the name of Casimir. Its symbolic meaning has certainly gained resonance through being curated and remembered. I suppose it would have been tossed in a refuse pile otherwise. Curator: The ephemeral rescued by posterity... yes. We bestow lasting memory through what we keep. Editor: It definitely shifts our view of this simple note. Curator: Indeed, art changes when we see history acting upon it. Editor: Exactly, turning document into "Document."