Landschap met fonteinen en een paleis 1677 - 1744

Curator: Oh, this print really does something to me! It feels almost dreamlike, hazy around the edges, and just slightly melancholic, don't you think? Editor: I think so too, actually! Here we have "Landschap met fonteinen en een paleis," or "Landscape with fountains and a palace," made by Isaac de Moucheron sometime between 1677 and 1744. The print, now housed at the Rijksmuseum, features both etching and engraving. Curator: So, an early remix! That explains the incredible level of detail but also the very subtle gradations in tone. There is something fascinating to see. A great baroque garden. A landscape behind, mountains. The scale of it all! It makes me wonder who could possibly own such a place...what did daily life in the place look like. Editor: The "daily life" is key, isn’t it? Baroque art often portrays grandeur but was usually funded and produced through intense socio-economic imbalances. We’re not just seeing aesthetic preference, but ideology rendered visible. Curator: Right. Think of the power that's needed to reshape the natural world to such an extent, all for pleasure. Do you notice the almost imperceptible difference between this baroque taste with our relationship with nature today? I can see how people can perceive beauty. I can also feel discomfort because of all it is a metaphor of our relationship with nature. Editor: Absolutely. I wonder if de Moucheron was trying to highlight the theatricality inherent in these spaces—like a stage set with nature meticulously arranged to perform. This piece really pushes you to grapple with landscape and power. A print is reproducible, therefore he might want to expose to other the exuberance and the show of the most rich social class. Curator: Exactly. And I find that awareness incredibly moving, this sort of latent anxiety within the pleasurable vista. Even today, it urges a critical look at our consumption, right? And that need to think that the Earth can not regenerate infinitely. Editor: I agree entirely. It has been very enriching to dwell and scrutinise this beautiful landscape, through both aesthetic delight and the discomfort and concern around sustainability and the fragility of the earth as an ecosystem.