Portret van admiraal Paolo Vettòri 1763

Editor: So this print, "Portret van admiraal Paolo Vettori", made in 1763 by Antonio Zaballi, presents its subject in a fairly formal manner. The landscape glimpsed through the window looks a little ominous, don't you think? How do you read the visual symbolism in this work? Curator: Ominous, perhaps, but what stories those distant ships could tell! You see, baroque art often embraced drama and a certain *theatrical* flair. The admiral’s steady gaze and the meticulously rendered details in his attire seem to proclaim his power and pedigree. It is almost as if the artist aimed to freeze a moment of his life for posterity. Do you get a sense of how much the image tries to *convey*? Editor: Absolutely, there's such a palpable sense of… grandiosity, almost a need to immortalize him. But what about the window, could it signal something specific, perhaps beyond mere scene-setting? Curator: A window always holds such delicious possibility. On one level, we can read this vista as reflecting his naval accomplishments. But then I wonder whether it also suggests the broader world accessible to a man of his stature. What do you think that Paolo Vettori saw, when *he* looked out on the world? Editor: That's beautifully put. The ships as both accomplishment and aspiration! I never quite thought about the dual nature of something so clearly symbolic. Thanks, that gave me a lot to reflect on. Curator: Anytime, perhaps on this audio guide our listeners will also start to look at images in multiple ways, considering what possibilities exist when we bring our personal reflections to the foreground!