Edelmoedigheid 1560

Curator: Immediately, I’m struck by the central figure’s calm—a regal woman seemingly unfazed, despite reclining on a lion. There's an undeniable air of dominance but it feels...contained. Editor: You’ve keyed into something vital. What we are observing is Cornelis Cort’s “Edelmoedigheid” from around 1560. As you’ve sensed, it's currently held within the Rijksmuseum's collection, and represents 'magnanimity.' Note, this engraving places “Greatness of Soul” center stage using carefully selected symbolic vocabulary to explore the public implications of ideal leadership in Renaissance Europe. Curator: A lion as a footrest...it is loaded! I understand that power dynamic loud and clear. That animal, the ultimate symbol of raw, untamed authority, is literally at her feet. Does that suggest virtue only reigns when animal instinct is subjugated? And, note her sceptre... and the architectural backdrop. Is it the physical embodiment of controlled ambition? Editor: Absolutely. Consider that crown as well; her steady gaze reinforces the idea of moral and rational dominion over circumstance and primal forces. These are familiar allegorical tropes signifying, perhaps, the ruler as exemplar in times when societal cohesion was precarious amid war, plague and emergent commercial culture. Curator: It is almost an advertisement. What's curious for me is that in a tumultuous time this image offers an impossible state of equipoise as an aspirational target to the ruling classes. Editor: Precisely. One must always keep in mind the public role such art served in projecting ideas about authority and legitimacy. Cort made many such engravings during the 16th century in his attempts to disseminate these princely virtue templates. Look, it may seem simplistic to modern viewers, but, given wide print distribution, it created, solidified and reinforced those images. The Mannerist stylization—its sinuous line, and idealized figuration would signal sophistication to contemporaries. Curator: These symbols speak so much to our past; how interesting it is that those carefully chosen images endure into the present. Editor: Indeed. That conversation through imagery, its persistent capacity to affect us, offers essential insights into how power functions, historically and right now.