Siddende flodgud set fra ryggen 1686 - 1738

Hendrik Krock made this red chalk drawing of a seated river god from behind some time in the late 17th or early 18th century. Krock, who became the Danish court painter, would have been steeped in the artistic traditions of his time, where the male nude was celebrated as the pinnacle of ideal form. But let’s think about this figure, his averted gaze. Is this a moment of contemplation or is it something else? What does it mean to render a god vulnerable, to turn him away from our immediate view? What narratives might emerge if we consider this figure not just as an object of aesthetic admiration, but as a being with his own complex consciousness? The drawing invites us to consider how representations of power and divinity are constructed and what they conceal. It reflects on how we relate to figures of authority, and how our perceptions are mediated by the artist's choices.