Description
Have you ever seen a French Empire gilded pendulum clock like the one depicted on the cover? The scene looks deliciously tantalizing. A young man and woman are making love. This scene seems delightfully frivolous and easy to comprehend, however there is more to it than meets the eye. For instance, did you notice the slave bands they are wearing? This is just one of the conversation pieces full of philosophical riddles from the Parnassia Collection. This Dutch-owned private collection is one of the most complete in the world.
In this cahier, art historians Alette Fleischer (PhD) and Bart Krieger (M.A.) unravel the hidden messages of the black clocks of the Parnassia Collection and categorize them in a novel way. They have aimed to contextualize the pendulum clocks au Noir in the historic timeframe they were created in and displayed (ca 1790-1830) and uncovered some of their iconographic secrets with links to the transatlantic slavetrade, Eurocentrism and the French Enlightenment. Moreover, the two art historians ponder on the question if we, as an emancipated society, are allowed and able to enjoy these pendulum clocks today.