Kruis met ouroboros 1874 - 1932

Editor: Here we have "Kruis met ouroboros," or "Cross with ouroboros" by Mathieu Lauweriks, created sometime between 1874 and 1932. It feels almost like looking at an ancient manuscript, weathered and full of symbolic weight. The ouroboros, a snake eating its tail, circles a cross. It's intriguing. What do you make of this, especially given the time period it was made? Curator: Intriguing is spot on! This piece breathes the esoteric air of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when folks were seriously digging into symbolism and the occult. The ouroboros, right? Eternity, cyclical rebirth... and then BAM! the cross, alluding to sacrifice and redemption, staples of Christian allegory. It is a fascinating juxtaposition! Editor: Right? It’s like he’s playing with these opposing ideas…the cyclical versus the linear…but why put them together like this? Curator: Maybe he's suggesting they're not so different? Lauweriks was clearly influenced by both the spiritual fervor of his time, and mathematical ideas like the golden ratio, aiming for something holistic, some underlying structure to all of existence. You could ask yourself: where does one system begin and the other end? Perhaps it speaks to how ancient beliefs get repurposed for newer value systems. Editor: It’s making me rethink how I see symbols – not as fixed points, but as fluid things that can morph and mingle. It almost makes history feel more like a spiral than a straight line. Curator: Precisely! It's an invitation to play, isn't it? To tangle with these ancient symbols, wrestle with the big questions, and see what new shapes we can coax out of them. An ouroboros after my own heart. Editor: Well, now I can't unsee it! Definitely changed my perspective.