Sater en vrouwfiguur bedekken de ogen tegen zonlicht 1688 - 1700

Editor: We're looking at "Satyr and female figure shielding their eyes from the sun", an etching by Arnold Houbraken, dating back to sometime between 1688 and 1700. The figures have such dramatic gestures; they are practically recoiling from something bright. I wonder, what is your take on it? Curator: What strikes me is the dreamlike quality. The pastoral scene, almost aggressively sunny, contrasts sharply with the subject's attempt to avoid that very light. Perhaps they aren't just shielding their eyes. Maybe they're recoiling from something deeper revealed in the harsh light of truth? The baroque loved drama, didn't it, theatrical emotion writ large on the canvas. This piece captures it with great sensitivity and intimacy. Editor: So you see the light as more symbolic than literal? Like a blinding insight? Curator: Precisely! I can feel a sense of internal struggle in the Satyr's posture – he is so hunched, turned away from something that clearly has affected his female counterpart as well. This piece reminds me of those moments in our own lives when we hide from revelations. Perhaps those are self-revelations that force one to rethink what they knew or what they believed. The miniature sculpture beneath the Satyr – are they blissful, ignorant, or simply at peace with a similar dilemma? Houbraken makes us ask these questions of them, but also of ourselves. What do you see when you truly shield your eyes? Editor: It's a potent way to look at it. I was caught up in the surface of the image, the theatricality. Curator: Happens to the best of us. We're all just Satyrs, blinking in the light from time to time, wrestling with what it all might mean. Editor: This makes me see the Satyr’s emotional journey with light and darkness…Thank you.