Aap die het hoofd van een mens vlooit c. 1886

Curator: Let's turn our attention to this fascinating print, "Aap die het hoofd van een mens vlooit," created around 1886. Editor: Well, the immediate impact is striking. It's a close-up, monochromatic rendering that uses what seems like tonal variation to create an incredible, rather delicate scene. The monkey is, let’s be frank, rendered in sharper focus, a kind of stark counterpoint to the blurry impression the man gives off. Curator: The artist really directs our attention, doesn’t he? One reads immediately a series of complex symbolisms regarding man and beast. Grooming rituals—very much at play in Egyptian art--often represent care, affection, dominance, or social hierarchies. To see it played out like this... it's almost primordial. Editor: Primordial is indeed a perfect description! Think of depictions in many ancient and classical texts, where animals, in general, and apes in particular, served as mirrors – both flattering and critical – to human behavior. The grooming itself almost mocks notions of civilisation... the roles reversed as they are. It certainly underscores a feeling of man’s animalistic origins. Curator: Precisely! The artist subtly plays with figure and ground to evoke something rather potent. And the composition with both bodies arched creates these two semi-circles, which are then juxtaposed, suggesting maybe less opposition than... complementarity. Editor: Interesting. Do you find a sensuality there, a relationship, beyond the symbol? In the detail and light the monkey is rendered, I wonder if one isn't made to focus on ideas of subjugation, even slavery. Curator: Perhaps. And notice how the tonal consistency ties it all together? What we at first may take to be mundane is transformed through rendering—through tonal qualities. In effect, these formal attributes create, through structure, potential readings of both primates. Editor: Agreed. By directing our gaze, and focusing on tonal control, it makes us reconsider very foundation of humanity and its animal echoes. Curator: It seems we’ve only begun to scratch the surface! Editor: Indeed! And just perhaps as that monkey is doing as well!