Derde paar 1590

Curator: Well, hello! Today we’re looking at a piece called “Derde paar,” which translates to "Third Pair," an engraving created around 1590. Editor: Right, my immediate feeling is awkward mirth. They look, I don't know, tipsy and ungainly but there's an undeniable spark of life. A very, very brief one that made me chuckle. Curator: Absolutely, there's a playfulness despite the almost caricatured features. What draws my eye are the almost exaggerated poses, those winding curves of Mannerism—particularly how the garments flow around them. Editor: Mannerism indeed! That slightly off-kilter, elongated quality. And the rendering—so precise in the linework, the detail on those peculiar, tied garters. It lends a crispness to what could have easily been a farcical scene. But there’s something else... what do you make of how they seem so isolated on this bleak plane? Is it a stage? Curator: Perhaps both a stage and a barren field, an interplay between the everyday and something slightly absurd, lifted just enough. To me, it highlights that blend of humor with social commentary typical of genre painting. We’re laughing, perhaps uncomfortably, at someone else’s—or our own—indiscretions. What gets me are their eyes, averted in this bizarre, intertwined pose. Is this how things really happen? Or how someone *remembers* they happened? Editor: Yes, a pointed detail. There's a disjunct between what’s presented on the surface—the seemingly lighthearted scene—and that underlying sense of disconnect or uncertainty. Curator: This print leaves you wrestling a bit, which is part of its lasting charm I suspect. Editor: Charm and unease; they walk hand in hand. An engraving to savour on repeated viewings!