Introduction: The art of failure

incorporates its antonym, lukken (to succeed), while it is also tied in with the word for 'happiness' (geluk).It is this kind of slippage, the intertwining of feat and defeat, fiasco and victory, that this volume would like to address.The roemer slipping out of Maria Tesselschade's hands was the result less of incompetence than of the pressure under which the artist had to execute this specific commission.In November 1632, her close friend Pieter Cornelisz Hooft put in a request for five vessels to be engraved with various Dutch, Latin and French phrases, including the motto À demain les affaires, which Hooft had taken from the title of one of Montaigne's essays.It was a rush order.Elegantly formulated though his letter was, Hooft wanted Tesselschade to return the glasses within three weeks.She managed, but not without difficulties, as one glass got broken, for which she considered Hooft partly responsible.6 In a letter, she wags her finger at her friend for his impatience, comparing it to the Greek mythological couple Hero and Leander whose desire to see one another caused them to drown in the sea while trying to unite.7 In a witty poem, Tesselschade assures her friend that even if the ship carrying the roemers were to perish with its entire crew, the roemers would still be 'stranded' in Hooft's longing hands.82