Stok van een vaandel van de gewapende burgermacht c. 1800 - 1815

Curator: We're looking at a banner staff dating from around 1800 to 1815, a mixed-media piece currently housed here at the Rijksmuseum. The anonymous maker utilized both wood and metal in its construction. Editor: Huh. My first impression? A serious baton! I immediately imagine it carried in a rather self-important parade... all puffed chests and solemn vows. But there's a strange understatedness to it, almost a reluctant authority. Curator: That ambivalence, that tension is crucial to understanding its significance. As a symbol, the banner pole speaks of order and civic duty in the burgeoning ideals of neoclassicism. Armed citizenry implies a level of empowerment and control that shifts the established hierarchical models of power. Editor: Yes! It's the visual equivalent of those wishy-washy revolutionary pamphlets. Like, "We're rising up, but please don't muss the floral arrangements." All the aspirations but terrified of scuffing up the furniture in the process. Curator: Precisely. The choice of materials would suggest a conscious reference to classical virtues. Wood is naturally associated with organic origins, home and land. Yet it’s bound, augmented, by metal. Implying a structured application of reasoned governance. Editor: It almost feels like the artist is grappling with this very conflict within themselves. Between a wild, untamed yearning and the restrictive grip of societal expectations. You can feel its latent potential—a call to action straining at the leash of restraint. It speaks about collective anxiety around potential change and empowerment Curator: A prescient articulation. Considering this pole would once hold a banner—a symbol that is equally representational for inclusion and exclusion. This anonymous maker crafted far more than an implement; they conjured a totem embodying societal progress and continued constraint in equal measure. Editor: It really does echo those pivotal moments where grand aspirations get kneecapped by lukewarm commitment. All bark and no bite, right? Food for thought and for the revolutionaries... and their floral arrangements, of course.