De Tijd onderwijst de Kunsten 1677 - 1755

Curator: What strikes me immediately is the circle; it's like peering into another world or a snow globe scene somehow suspended outside of real time. Editor: That’s an interesting observation, because it frames "De Tijd onderwijst de Kunsten" a drawing in ink on paper from the late 17th to mid 18th century, and created by Elias van Nijmegen. The title translates to "Time Teaches the Arts", hinting at a longer historical timeline rather than one brief, isolated moment. Curator: True. Look at that skeletal figure of Time with his scythe lurking at the back—he looks as if he has a conducting baton and it will fall and bring about an unpleasant close. It throws everything into perspective. It’s about mortality—the fleeting nature of artistic creation, all of it happening under his watch! Editor: It definitely reads as an allegory. The figures appear as personifications of various arts, seemingly learning from Time, which, back then, represented history. See how the backdrop seems a theatrical set. It all speaks to how art was valued—or meant to be valued. Didactic even! Curator: Yes, "Time Teaches the Arts." Maybe the circle isn’t such an alien construct but instead one that holds the drawing into that age in its history, and indeed every viewing moves into an ever expanding timeline. Editor: Exactly! Each of our interpretations adds another layer, reshaping it in our contemporary view of Time and the Arts. Curator: So, beyond its formal construction, the image asks what the Arts teach Time as it races ahead with or without them. What is lost, what is gained, what is changed—maybe all of those! Editor: Precisely. It’s as relevant now as it was then—art continuously adapts to and questions the passing of time. A perfect circle.