Ruiter die de jachthoorn blaast en een walvis 1747 - 1797

Editor: This etching and engraving on paper, made sometime between 1747 and 1797, is called “Ruiter die de jachthoorn blaast en een walvis"— or "Rider Blowing a Hunting Horn and a Whale." The artist is Jan Stam, and it’s currently housed at the Rijksmuseum. It's quite odd, juxtaposing this elaborate baroque frame, a whale, and what appears to be a regal horseback rider. What’s your take on such strange bedfellows? Curator: Ah, yes. What seems strange to our eye today might not have seemed so back then. I see in it a play with scale and perhaps a bit of wry humor. That rider, blowing his horn, framed so grandly, almost seems… smaller, doesn’t he? Like a very important figure in a very small world. And then *WHAM*, there’s the whale. Think of it as a Dutch “Where’s Waldo,” with the whale cheekily photobombing. Do you feel that, looking at it? Editor: Definitely! I never thought of it that way before, but now I see a certain playfulness. But where does the whale *fit* into all of this? Curator: Well, Zaandam, the town listed on the print, was a significant whaling port. So perhaps it’s a nod to the region’s maritime identity. It's not so much *where* it fits, but *that* it fits, awkwardly and wonderfully. Editor: So it’s a little wink at local pride? And the Baroque frame gives it a veneer of respectability? Curator: Precisely! It's taking itself seriously, without really doing so. You could say Stam is a proto-meme artist, creating a visual that’s both aesthetically pleasing and conceptually a bit of a head-scratcher. Don’t you love how the whale gives a weary look at the horse rider as if thinking to himself: “Oh lord, not *another* equestrian statue?" Editor: Haha! I love it even more now that you pointed that out! Curator: Precisely my hope. Jan Stam gave me, and now hopefully you, a reason to ponder for a long, long time.