Vader met kinderen 1768 - 1795

This drawing, “Father with Children,” was created by Pieter de Mare, using pen and brown ink, sometime in the late 18th century. Here, we see a father carrying one child while another walks beside him. Note the doll clutched by the child in his arms, a primal object of comfort, a simulacrum of life itself. This seemingly simple toy is laden with cultural weight. Dolls appear as votive offerings in ancient graves and as representations of fertility goddesses. Across millennia and cultures, the doll persists as a symbolic bridge between reality and the imagined, the animate and inanimate. The father's tender gesture, reminiscent of ancient depictions of familial love, elicits a powerful emotional response, tapping into our collective memory of familial bonds. Observe how such imagery transcends time, echoing in Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child, where maternal love is celebrated as a divine virtue. Such non-linear progression highlights how cultural symbols evolve, resurface, and gain new layers of meaning throughout history.