For the eighth View the Mauritshuis with Your Ears track, we’re collaborating with none other than rapper Dio. The singer on the 2007 hit single Dom, Lomp & Famous has set the controls of his time machine for the seventeenth century and is stepping into the Mauritshuis for new inspiration.
One painting, one performer, one great song. For View the Mauritshuis with Your Ears, we ask well-known performers to take inspiration from a work of art in our collection.
Dio's choice
Dio was hoping to discover beautiful, unique and challenging stories. He is particularly inspired by colour. He eventually found his inspiration high above his head. With his choice of Allegory of Human Vanity by Ger Lastaster, Dio opted for an odd one out in our collection. Rather than a seventeenth-century masterpiece, Lataster’s work is a ceiling painting made in 1987. Hopefully for Dio, the theme of ‘Pride comes before a fall’ won’t apply to him. We can’t wait to hear his track, released on 16 December 2021.
About Dio
Rapper Dio, real name Diorno Dylano Braaf, was born in Amsterdam on 31 May 1988. As well as for Dom, Lomp & Famous with The Opposites, the 2016 finalist on television reality survival show Expeditie Robinson is also known for his singles Luchtkastelen and the classic Tijdmachine (Time Machine). Dio signed with the label Top Notch at a young age and his album ‘Rock-‘n-Roll’ was well received. A successful album tour followed and the rapper could be found at almost every festival. His brightly coloured caps and hats were a hit with the public, and he was twice nominated for Best Dressed Man. It’s not just music that keeps Dio busy: as a nature lover, he was honoured to be asked to be Amsterdam’s first green mayor.
The story behind Allegory of Human Vanity
You either love it, or you hate it. Ger Lataster’s ceiling paintings above the Mauritshuis staircase provoke strong reactions among our visitors. Hardly surprising: modern art is possibly the last thing you’d expect to see at the Mauritshuis.
Before 1987, the ceiling was blank. As far as we know it had never been painted. During the renovation of the Mauritshuis in the 1980s, three contemporary artists were asked to come up with a design. Ger Lataster’s design was chosen – he opted for a composition filled with colour.
It may not be immediately obvious, but the painting shows a tale from Greek mythology: the Fall of Icarus. Icarus and his father Daedalus are imprisoned on an island, from which they manage to escape with wings made from feathers secured with beeswax. But Icarus becomes reckless and flies too close to the sun. The wax melts and he falls into the sea. The story lives on today in the expression: ‘Pride comes before a fall’.
Surrounded by such great masters as Rembrandt and Vermeer, Lataster also felt pride lurking. As a warning to himself he included his own spectacles in the design.
With thanks to
View the Mauritshuis with Your Ears is made possible by NN Group.
