Mythologische figuren, de dagen van de week en verschillende volksstammen 1806 - 1830

Curator: Let's turn our attention to a print in the Rijksmuseum's collection: "Mythological figures, the days of the week and various tribes" created sometime between 1806 and 1830 by Jan Oortman. My first impression is it’s rather… didactic. Editor: It strikes me as a curious arrangement of miniature scenes, almost like a page torn from an illustrated encyclopedia. There’s a feeling of trying to organize and classify the world in a rational manner, which feels characteristic of the period in which it was created. Curator: Absolutely. Note the deliberate ordering, the way each panel features figures meticulously rendered through engraving. It points to the labour-intensive process behind such prints in that era, when dissemination of knowledge relied heavily on printmaking. The quality of line, the uniform texture – they are a product of a craftsman's dedication. Editor: Yet those very figures – each representing a day, a deity, a tribe – carry echoes of cultural beliefs. Consider the figure associated with "Zondaag," or Sunday: a radiating sun face. The text connects it to solar worship, rooting the day's meaning in ancient traditions. Curator: Indeed, and understanding printmaking reveals the intention behind disseminating such imagery. It wasn’t simply about aesthetics, but about the affordable production of knowledge. This artwork then reveals a wider consumption and social distribution of information and these figures at the time. Editor: Precisely. Looking at other panels, we see diverse tribes identified – Gepiden, Wandals – reflecting 19th-century Europe's fascination with categorizing peoples and understanding their history and origins, though presented with limited awareness, of course. Curator: That categorization in and of itself suggests an inherent engagement with power and coloniality. Even in the choice of materials - the availability and relative cost of the paper and inks used - you see economic hierarchies shaping the consumption of ideas. Editor: True, and each viewer would respond differently to these representations and their meanings based on personal belief and local interpretations. We glimpse persistent motifs woven across centuries of thought. Curator: Seeing through both perspectives I would suggest helps us to acknowledge how its imagery functioned then and how we comprehend its symbolism now.