Schapen door een adelaar aangevallen 1834 - 1890

Curator: It's immediately gripping, isn't it? Raw and visceral. You can practically hear the frantic bleating. Editor: Yes, an overwhelming scene. We're looking at "Sheep Attacked by an Eagle," a print, either an etching or engraving, made sometime between 1834 and 1890 by Charles Verlat. The contrast in tones contributes to that feeling. It’s really quite theatrical. Curator: It has all the drama of Romanticism. It presents this inherent duality—predator and prey, dominance and submission. I read the eagle as this ancient symbol, a figure of power, royalty. And here, its piercing gaze and outstretched talons remind us that the natural order can be brutally efficient. The animal representation in artwork serves often for storytelling purposes that relate to human conditions, such as fear. Editor: Exactly! It feels like Verlat is making a commentary on societal power dynamics as well. Consider the period when it was made. Think of the revolutions, the rising industrialism. This print can also be understood within that tumultuous socio-political frame, an interpretation of hierarchies perhaps? And what role does the dog have as shepard for the flock? This all seems open for speculation. Curator: Intriguing thoughts! The dog offers some mediation for those socio-political interpretations; loyalty and order trying to be upheld. Yet, despite it's clear display of protection the symbolic threat looms over those representations through that great winged predator. Even on a psychological level, the compressed flock in the dark evokes those archetypes around insecurity in times of fear or insecurity. Editor: That’s fascinating to consider that on a humanistic, deeper level. In this interpretation Verlat shows the fragility in us as the sheep with this work as a call for social safety, by placing a guard to try and keep that primal danger at bay. Curator: Verlat's choices elevate it to this exploration. Whether intentional or not, it speaks to universal truths about survival, authority, and vulnerability. What an artwork that provides. Editor: Indeed. It seems the anxiety displayed across this simple landscape is everlasting as far as humanity prevails. Thank you.