Instorten van de Leliesluis, 1659 1779 - 1781

Curator: Looking at this piece, titled "Instorten van de Leliesluis, 1659" by Simon Fokke, dating from around 1779-1781, I'm struck by its small size but also the vast chaos it captures. A tiny etching, no bigger than my hand, yet it contains an entire world collapsing! Editor: Absolutely! The immediate feeling is... unsettling. You have this idyllic cityscape—the canal, the church—and then, this jarring disruption in the foreground. It’s as if someone dropped a nightmare into a pretty picture. What are your initial impressions? Curator: Initially, beyond the dramatic collapse itself, the starkness of the etching catches my attention. It’s rendered with such precision. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the artist uses meticulous lines to create the illusion of depth. The buildings recede into the background, guiding the viewer's eye towards the distant trees. The bridge—or rather, what’s left of it—splintering under the force, becomes a dramatic focal point. Editor: And that point of disruption isn't accidental; the artist knew how to stage this little drama. The broken bridge becomes this jagged wound, separating us from the serene background, highlighting that clash of beauty and disaster. Knowing this image documents a historical event, does its formalism align with conveying the event as it was? Curator: Fokke definitely employs Baroque sensibilities despite being made later, we can see that by his penchant for dynamism and drama but applies it with the more controlled hand of a later engraver. It’s interesting to think about what a print like this would mean to its original audience, almost a memento mori right in their own familiar urban landscape. It really captures the fragility of our constructed world, doesn't it? Editor: Precisely. This tiny etching serves as a grand reminder that even the most stable structures—physical and perhaps societal—can be brought down in a moment. Maybe Fokke tried to turn a local disaster into an emblem of broader concerns! An unstable reminder to treasure the everyday serenity that may vanish at any moment. Curator: An unsettling image, for sure! So much detail in such a little space!