Het slagnet 1610 - 1660

Editor: Here we have "The Fishing Net", an engraving made sometime between 1610 and 1660 by Adriaen Matham. It depicts a nude figure in a net with Cupid overhead. The frantic gesturing of the seated woman makes me think of surprise, maybe even fear. What's your take? Curator: It’s interesting you pick up on fear. I see that anxiety mirrored in the socio-political anxieties of the Baroque. Consider how Matham’s print engages with established iconographies of love and beauty, only to subvert them slightly. Editor: Subvert? In what way? Curator: Note how the standard portrayal of Cupid as a bringer of love is complicated here; the figures seem distressed, caught, rather than joyful. Matham may be hinting at the dangers of earthly love. These anxieties permeated religious and intellectual spheres at the time. Does it suggest something about public morality? Editor: So you think this piece might be less about celebrating love and more about critiquing society's view of it? About power structures that make people feel "caught"? Curator: Precisely. Consider the print’s role in shaping and reflecting cultural attitudes toward desire. The presence of the net suggests ideas about control, power, even surveillance that extend far beyond this image. Does the gaze implicate us, the viewers? Editor: Wow, I hadn’t thought about the net in terms of surveillance before, or how the piece responds to period ideologies about love and morality. I am seeing a whole new layer! Curator: It highlights the importance of contextualizing artworks within their historical moment, prompting us to think critically about what the image communicated to its original audience, and what it might say to us today.