Rivierlandschap met een stad op een heuveltop 1694 - 1752

Editor: This is Willem Troost's "River Landscape with a City on a Hilltop," made sometime between 1694 and 1752, and it looks like a watercolor painting. It feels almost dreamlike, with its soft colors and the way the city seems to float above the landscape. What stands out to you when you look at it? Curator: The 'city on a hill' motif immediately grabs me. Beyond the literal depiction, it echoes a persistent symbolic structure: the aspiration for a higher state, a place of enlightenment, a "promised land." This imagery goes way back. Editor: So you’re saying the hilltop city is a symbol? Curator: Precisely. Consider how throughout history, elevated spaces - mountains, temples, even idealized cities - represent places of spiritual and worldly power. Then look at the boats on the river; they are carriers connecting different spaces, indicating trade but also acting as cultural carriers. Editor: I see what you mean. The landscape almost seems secondary to the people and their city. Curator: And even in landscape itself, notice the dramatic, romanticized hills and mountains that echo our inner emotional topography, not just observed reality. They hint to a collective yearning for permanence and the desire for civilization even against nature’s chaotic side. Editor: It’s amazing how much the image conveys even though it appears to be “just” a landscape at first glance. Thanks for pointing that out! Curator: It reveals cultural memories and continuity.