Gezicht op Versailles 1803 - 1858

Curator: Look at this remarkable print! It's entitled "Gezicht op Versailles" – "View of Versailles" – made sometime between 1803 and 1858 by Friedrich Salathé. It's an engraving, a technique that allows for such incredible detail. Editor: It has an imposing quality; so rigidly organised yet it's also subtly ethereal, doesn't it? The sharp lines used for the architecture and gardens give way to this smoky sky… It almost feels like a dream. Curator: Yes! Think of Versailles. As a symbol, it has always resonated with power and control, yet the artist's choice of medium, engraving, itself demands incredible control, mirroring the gardens in the picture. The romanticism as style emphasizes this. Editor: Absolutely. Versailles was built to showcase the power of the monarchy. But this perspective, this gaze, invites critical thought, because that perfect control came at an enormous social cost. It suppresses diversity. Curator: A symbol can house different truths. Look how the avenue draws the eye to the palace, yet small figures stroll. What might it signify that a sweeping gesture of royal landscaping also provides leisure? Is there some deeper resonance of power? Editor: Definitely a gesture, one loaded with a certain cultural and political agenda that we still grapple with. The symmetry itself speaks of imposed order. Who gets to impose such order, and for whom? That’s a question for today as much as then. I feel there is also something implicitly queer about symmetry like that... Curator: I hadn’t thought about it like that! Yet as you mention, we grapple today with order – a sense of our constructed social systems mirrored back through idealized landscape. Perhaps Salathé captures more than a scene; he has captured centuries in an image. Editor: Precisely. It offers us a chance to reflect on our present.