Vaas met bloemen 1720 - 1746

Editor: Here we have "Vase with Flowers", an engraving dating from 1720-1746, created by Leonard Schenk, and currently held at the Rijksmuseum. The detail is quite impressive for a print. How do you see the artist using line in this composition? Curator: Note the dynamism achieved through line and form alone. Observe how Schenk employs intricate, almost chaotic, arrangements of varied botanical species juxtaposed with carefully rendered, calm symmetry, resulting in visual tension and complexity. Editor: It is an interesting contrast. The wildness of the flowers contained by a perfectly classical vase. How does this contrast create meaning? Curator: Consider how the artist uses varying densities of lines. See where Schenk articulates the profusion of petals, stamens and foliage of diverse tonality by juxtaposing dense clusters of short lines with less occupied or entirely negative space, thus generating form and volume. Is the shadow equally as important as the flowers themselves? Editor: It is an imposing presence! But almost looks unfinished...almost vague. Would the image lose integrity if the shadow did not have that incompleteness to it? Curator: An important question. The artist employs tonal graduation and soft line to show recession and incompleteness. However, an exact or resolved delineation of form here may create spatial distortion of form and surface. What do you think this adds to the work? Editor: So, perhaps it allows the eye to create its own forms instead of limiting perception? I never thought of incompleteness as a strength! Curator: Indeed. It directs our gaze away from illusion and directs us to think about what this art *is*. Perhaps our conversation demonstrates a lesson about art: what might appear at first glance chaotic actually reveals thoughtful intent upon closer examination.