Ovaal medaillon met kinderen op stelten en worstelende kinderen 1610 - 1615

Curator: So much energy contained within this oval! Editor: It feels like looking into a snow globe filled with tumbling, boisterous cherubs! Where are we exactly, what's this piece? Curator: We're at the Rijksmuseum, looking at a baroque engraving from around 1610-1615. The piece is known as "Oval Medallion with Children on Stilts and Wrestling Children," and it's attributed to Antoine Jacquard. Look at all those bodies piled together. Editor: Jacquard… I find it intriguing how this print—presumably meant to be reproduced—blends the delicacy of line with this almost chaotic scene of childish play. What kind of press did he use? What does a copper plate that fine look like, etched with all that furious energy? Curator: That tension you feel is spot on. It’s as if Jacquard wants to immortalize the ephemeral—the fleeting, messy reality of childhood games, not the sanitized version. He's reaching for something deeply true about exuberance. Editor: Absolutely, I find myself thinking about the material value versus the artistry itself. An etching, a print, readily available... Yet each retains the distinct mark, pressure and pull of its making, a dance with its medium, and of course that contrast feels decidedly baroque. It invites questions about the accessibility of art at the time and the labor that went into these reproduction. Curator: I also feel it touches on something perennial – doesn’t the work also remind you of the endless summers, rough-and-tumble play, a childhood forever captured? These wrestling figures will always be in mid-tumble, poised, the laughter frozen in time. The stilt-walkers, suspended mid-air in a moment of grace—a lovely memento mori about youth's quick, ephemeral passing. Editor: Indeed! To think about the layers, literally impressed into the material of its creation – childhood play, production and labor, baroque drama – makes for a lasting image that remains surprisingly pertinent today. Curator: It’s that material resonance, that capturing of life's raw energy into copper and ink. That's the marvel of art, isn't it?