Reliëf met liggende leeuw 1804

Editor: Here we have Barent de Bakker's "Relief met liggende leeuw," created in 1804. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum collection. This delicate pencil drawing immediately strikes me as both charming and slightly humorous, especially the lion's face. How do you approach an artwork like this from a formalist perspective? Curator: Note the contrast, first, between the sketch-like quality of the lion itself and the relatively more defined brickwork surrounding it. Bakker uses line weight and shading to differentiate foreground and background. How does this construction influence your perception of space and depth within the drawing? Editor: It flattens it, I think. The darker bricks behind the sculpture make the lion pop, but everything exists almost in the same plane, squashing all dimension. Almost like it's all pressed against the glass. What else stands out? Curator: Consider also the linear precision in the brickwork versus the looser, more gestural lines used to depict the lion. This is critical. It points to the artist's engagement with surface and texture and how differences in material and representation lead to a specific aesthetic. He emphasizes not only form but the very act of drawing. Are you drawn to any one area of the drawing more than another? Editor: I’m really interested in the lion’s face because it's surprisingly human-like, which is probably intentional to highlight the animalistic representation in humans and vice versa. Thanks for your expert point of view. This was very helpful. Curator: Indeed, I am left to think how this seemingly simple composition manages to balance linear precision and the freedom of the artist's sketch, thereby generating such intrigue and drawing us in.