Drinkschaal met allegorieën op de zuivere en onzuivere liefde 1595

This is a drinks bowl, made by Matthias Molckman, sometime before 1618. Its surface is etched with allegories representing pure and impure love. Consider the recurring motif of intertwined figures; This motif stretches back to antiquity, seen in depictions of mythological unions and bacchanalian revelries. In those instances, it embodies the loss of the individual self, and the primal, ecstatic, and sometimes destructive elements of human interaction. Here, the intertwining is tinged with moral judgment. This duality—the sacred versus the profane— mirrors earlier Christian art, where similar gestures could symbolize both divine connection and sinful entanglement. It reflects a deep-seated human ambivalence about pleasure and morality, a conflict perpetually re-enacted in our collective psyche. The bowl serves not only as a vessel for drink but also for these complex emotions, stirring them within us with each use.