Saul bij de heks van Endor 1696 - 1727

Curator: Well, hello there. Standing before us, nestled here in the Rijksmuseum, is a drawing rendered in ink. It is entitled 'Saul bij de heks van Endor'. Editor: Ooh, immediately I am seeing secrets and hidden desires in those delicately rendered lines. There's a table, but the characters aren't sitting at dinner--rather, I sense we have entered forbidden territory, maybe a crossroads? Curator: Matthijs Pool, an artist active in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, captured this scene. Saul, if you recall from the Old Testament, disguised himself and sought the Witch of Endor to summon the prophet Samuel's spirit to divine his future. Editor: Disguise is so interesting; it acts like a visual spell here. Each character's posture – from the Witch’s gesture of service to Saul’s slouched unease – adds a psychological layer. Are those bones at the foot of the table? Or stacked bread loaves? Because it adds an uncanny ambiance either way! Curator: Those details are fascinating because genre scenes often portrayed daily life during the Dutch Golden Age. This rendering, however, leans towards a different feeling altogether... perhaps even more toward stagecraft than documentary, don’t you think? Editor: Definitely stagecraft—religious themes offered themselves for expressive treatment like that of Baroque opera, grand and often darkly emotional. The characters and settings function as allegories in our minds over time; that image of 'seeking forbidden knowledge' retains the frisson, like opening a locked book... it triggers something powerful! Curator: I love how the artist utilized shadow to create drama – obscuring facial details that draw us toward each of the gestures. I leave now feeling the complexity of destiny as a subject in itself; thanks so much for sharing. Editor: Thanks for joining me. Keep your senses open, folks; like the ghost of Samuel here, there's more unseen than meets the eye, waiting just behind every threshold...