Paus Julius II gooit de sleutels van Petrus in de Tiber 1808

Curator: Here we have Reinier Vinkeles' 1808 engraving, titled "Pope Julius II Throws the Keys of St. Peter into the Tiber." What strikes you about it? Editor: The grayness, initially. Everything sort of bleeds into each other, water, sky, clothing, buildings. Then your eye gradually finds these centers of tension, figures caught mid-gesture in what feels like a really grim story. Curator: Vinkeles was known for his precise and detailed engravings. In this print, we see a dramatic, theatrical presentation, rendered in meticulously worked lines and shading. It is part of the collection at the Rijksmuseum and tells a very specific narrative. Editor: What strikes me is this almost anti-monumentality – I mean, keys being thrown in water. Peter’s keys, the whole foundation of the papacy! Is Vinkeles suggesting that spiritual authority is so much useless metal? Who’s that in the wide-brimmed hat getting rid of them? Curator: Well, that would be Julius II. And you're right; it's an incredibly subversive act portrayed here. He's essentially rejecting the traditional power associated with the papacy and its symbolic inheritance from St. Peter. Editor: All that power, all those symbolic keys boiled down to discarded material. Makes you wonder what other "keys" of power are being thrown away today. I’m fascinated with the social commentary this piece might be making through the materials and symbols. It feels less like glorifying art and more about exposing what drives us. Curator: It’s a fascinating interpretation and I agree; there is definitely more than meets the eye here. Vinkeles’ choice of engraving seems apt somehow, almost echoing the inflexible structures of power he may well be criticising. Editor: Exactly! Engraving—etching away at the power structure itself, layer by layer. Thank you, this was fun! Curator: Indeed! A print provoking questions about the value we place on institutions and beliefs even centuries later is something to reflect upon.