Merktekens en ornamenten op de schilden van de koningen 1645

Curator: At the Rijksmuseum, we’re standing before “Merktekens en ornamenten op de schilden van de koningen,” a 1645 engraving by Samuel Bernard. It's essentially a collection of royal coats of arms, but something about the meticulous detail and ordered layout evokes, for me, a kind of quiet intensity. Editor: Immediately, the work reminds me of the complex systems of power and hierarchy that were prevalent during this period. Each shield is like a carefully constructed symbol of authority, privilege, and the right to rule, and the collection hints at both inherited power structures and nascent forms of decorative excess. Curator: Inherited power... That resonates. It feels less like celebration and more like a systematized inventory of symbols of power, doesn't it? Each emblem trying so hard to look impressive, when really, stripped down, they're quite similar, which points to the narrow pool of those “allowed” to possess power. Editor: Right! The fact that it’s an engraving too emphasizes its potential as a document—meant to record and disseminate these images of power far and wide. There is an almost bureaucratic coldness that anticipates a sort of symbolic state control. Curator: Almost a proto-logo manual for aristocracy? But despite the intention, there is an aesthetic appeal in this array. The craftsmanship is beautiful; each curve and line carries a confidence that belies any inherent skepticism, and in its visual richness, there is much here for those of us inclined towards, let’s say, historical escapism, despite how we interrogate this period politically. Editor: I agree about its beauty, and I can imagine its attraction, even though it leaves me unsettled. We need to acknowledge the complicated history and lived impact of those emblems for it to resonate truthfully with contemporary audiences. For me, at its worst, the art of the Baroque embodies an elaborate form of authoritarianism. Curator: It’s funny how objects can have such radically different resonance based on how and when one encounters them, isn't it? Thanks to you, I feel ready to look even closer, at how heraldry and power intertwined then, and how that dialogue, perhaps inevitably, continues now. Editor: Definitely! Examining these connections—how visual codes become inextricably linked with power, identity, and status—is essential to decolonize art history, revealing those systems of symbolic power embedded within aesthetic practices.