Jan de Paepe en zijn medegezellen, 1554 1833 - 1835

This print by Charles Onghena depicts Jan de Paepe and his companions in 1554, and focuses on the torches they bear. These flaming torches—symbols of enlightenment or destruction—are potent motifs. In antiquity, torches illuminated religious processions, guiding initiates. The torch appears again in Roman art, held aloft by figures representing virtues or civic duty, becoming a symbol of truth and reason. Here, however, their starkness against the dark attire evokes a different emotional state. Consider the psychological undercurrent: Fire, so essential for civilization, is also a primal force of destruction and purification. These men carrying the torches are both agents of change and harbingers of potential devastation, their grim faces a mirror to the viewer’s own subconscious anxieties about progress and its consequences. The torch, therefore, is more than a light; it is a vessel carrying the weight of human history and our complex relationship with knowledge and power.