Mozes wordt gevonden 1698 - 1754

Curator: Let's turn our attention to this print, "The Finding of Moses," attributed to Nicolas Cochin, created sometime between 1698 and 1754. It’s an engraving on paper. Editor: Oh, it’s wonderfully atmospheric. A lush, almost dreamlike landscape… Everything feels veiled in a sort of hazy mystery, even though it's black and white. It’s as if I’m looking at a faded memory. Curator: That "hazy mystery" is very much aligned with the Baroque style that characterized the period. The dramatic use of light and shadow, the emphasis on emotion. Cochin is playing into the visual language of the time. The finding of Moses, of course, is a potent biblical story, filled with socio-political significance regarding salvation, exile, and leadership. Editor: I see it. The figures almost melt into the forest's edge; only some gesture tells the entire narrative: compassion, awe. Yet it's nature, with those towering trees, that's the real protagonist. And perhaps it’s this emphasis on nature’s grandeur, rather than human drama, that allows the symbolic weight to breathe a bit. Like a stage set for a myth. Curator: It is quite a shift from earlier depictions which tended to put the Pharaoh's daughter front and center, as this image offers more equal weight to the nature elements that surrounds it. Cochin’s placement invites viewers to consider the scene as part of a broader historical narrative, and its placement in a larger context of European political thought and religion. Prints such as these served as crucial forms of disseminating ideas among Europe's elites. Editor: Makes me consider today’s world too. Perhaps it makes us contemplate not only history but the idea that every personal moment is framed by something larger than itself, something deeply interconnected and...wild. Something perhaps like art itself, you know? Curator: Indeed, and this work, in its own subtle way, invites such contemplation. Editor: A fitting ending. A little hazy, like the print itself.