Romeinse soldaat doorsteekt zichzelf met zijn zwaard 1683 - 1733

Curator: This is an engraving created sometime between 1683 and 1733 titled "Romeinse soldaat doorsteekt zichzelf met zijn zwaard," attributed to Antoine Quineau. It depicts…well, I suppose the title pretty much gives it away! Editor: My immediate reaction is one of operatic melodrama. There's a theatricality to the gestures and the very precise linework conveys high drama, a Baroque sensibility, wouldn't you say? Curator: Definitely Baroque, through and through. We have a highly formalized composition, and then the themes that emerge in Baroque art are those of passion and sacrifice… So this print seems preoccupied with exploring those precise questions about power and its representation. What readings can we take, particularly relating to the soldier and agency, gender and power? Editor: Notice how the figures draw from the cultural memory of antiquity. We see the idealized soldier ready to commit suicide, sword in hand, which of course, recalls the stoic ideals so admired in the classical world. Then, above him on the cloud, a goddess. The sword is pointing directly at her, as if an assault upon heaven. There’s a questioning of power both divine and temporal here. Curator: That goddess figure—what do you make of her placement and agency? Editor: It’s intriguing. She hovers ethereally on a cloud, staff in hand, almost as an observer, as a guiding, inspiring figure perhaps. Yet the focus remains fixed upon the soldier’s impending act of self-destruction. The soldier is the image's gravitational center; the eye keeps returning to that point of violence. The goddess appears to embody notions of a cultural continuity through shared visual vocabulary across the ages. The viewer has been invited to reflect on universal struggles between power and devotion through these symbols. Curator: Absolutely. Situating this work in its historical context, it resonates with debates about virtue, honor, and the complexities of obedience during a time of shifting political and religious landscapes in Europe. The question is: How far are you willing to go? This man literally bets his life on those ideals, and those allegiances. Editor: A potent reminder of art's ability to collapse time, connecting us with ancient symbols and archetypes that still resonate today. Curator: Leaving us to ponder our own contemporary relationships with power, faith, and what we’re willing to sacrifice for ideals.