Pendeloque of Reflection

With this monumental glass pendeloque, Wagenaar explores the tension between strength and fragility, reflection and presence. Inspired by a reworked detail from Marie Wandscheer’s 1886 portrait, the piece connects the clarity of glass with emotional depth. The pendant, resting on soft sheepskin, evokes purity, melancholy, and impermanence. Transparent yet solid, it mirrors the inner world; vulnerable, lucid, and resilient. This work embodies the identity of a moment: suspended in time, symbolically rich, and deeply human.

The ‘pendeloque of reflection’ is an enlarged version of a glass drop, the flat pendant found on a chandelier. As an oversized ornament, it rests upon a sheepskin.

The reflective quality of the glass—with its beautiful, solid yet translucent nature and embedded air bubbles—symbolizes clarity, purity, and transparency. It can also represent vulnerability and impermanence, given the fragility of glass. The woman wears a melancholic expression and appears lost in thought. Glass can signify clarity of mind and the ability to perceive and understand the truth. The image contrasts the fragility of the subject with the strength of the thick glass, in which everything is rendered with such clarity; it balances the softness of the fur against the elegance of the chain.

Through her art, Wagenaar explores the tension between vulnerability and strength, stillness and movement, always seeking to capture the identity of a moment in symbolic form.

This time, the focus is on a monumental glass *pendeloque*—a work in which all the aforementioned elements come together seamlessly.

The image is a detail from the painting *Portrait of a Woman* (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam; artist: Marie Wandscheer, 1886). It depicts a young woman in a half-length portrait.

This detail has been edited and features a color scheme that differs from the original painting.