Uilenspel 1818 - 1845

Curator: First impressions? To me, it feels like stumbling upon some arcane puzzle, a curious game dreamt up long ago. Editor: Exactly! This fascinating engraving and etching, "Uilenspel," was produced sometime between 1818 and 1845 by Mindermann & Co., right here in Amsterdam. Curator: "Uilenspel," Owl's Play...that central image of the owl is just…oddly comforting amidst all this seemingly chaotic symbolism. The rose and other flora bordering the image offer an intuitive sense of life bursting out of the artwork's design, an illustration speaking to hidden and secretive societies and beliefs. What am I supposed to be seeing, really? Editor: Well, consider how the composition is organized around the owl, an emblem of wisdom but also of the nocturnal, the hidden. Each symbol and letter set in concentric circles speaks a cryptic message— the print serves as a kind of game board and manual all in one. Its aesthetic invites an interpretation based on Dutch Golden Age pictorial traditions. Curator: So, not just decoration; these images point to a whole secret world with a whole society. It definitely reads as playful with just a tinge of…menace. Like I am not really supposed to understand it all. Editor: Precisely! Etchings like this provided more than simple entertainment; they visually encoded complex societal commentaries, accessible on several layers. It makes you wonder what games people invented, or even how the rules were meant to be interpreted. Curator: Rules or not, that owl has something up its sleeve. So glad to feel just a sliver closer to its time, even without knowing exactly the rules of the Uilenspel. Editor: Absolutely! It remains an open invitation, then, for anyone with a mind to unravel the past in images and imagine Dutch society during that time.