Schenkkan in de vorm van een man 1657

Curator: Looking at this image, I immediately see tension. It feels almost confrontational. Editor: This is Françoise Bouzonnet's engraving from 1657 titled, "Schenkkan in de vorm van een man," a print of a metal ewer or jug in the form of a man, and I agree, there's something delightfully unsettling about it. Curator: Absolutely. The objecthood itself intrigues me. How would this thing actually function? What materials are we talking about, and what kind of labour goes into shaping metal like this? The Baroque style feels almost… inappropriate for a functional object, wouldn't you say? Editor: Not entirely. Think about courtly rituals of consumption during that era. Opulence wasn't just for display; it was a performance of power. The gendered figure of this jug complicates that further. Curator: I suppose so, but the blurring of functionality and ornamentation gets me thinking about hierarchy. Is it craft or art? Also, I am trying to figure out where something so strangely specific would even be produced. Editor: Good questions! From an activist perspective, I’m interested in the class dynamics at play. Who owned something like this, and who were the artists and artisans crafting such specialized wares? How does an object like this legitimize status, gender expression and perhaps an individual's own participation in violent colonial projects? Curator: So it becomes a site of not only consumption, but exploitation and class stratification… the materiality reflects more than meets the eye! It opens questions about who benefits from this level of artifice. Editor: Exactly! And I think exploring those socio-political roots lets us better understand why it might provoke such an intense response from a viewer today. We’re implicated in this history. Curator: Indeed. Thanks, that perspective truly highlights that design and its cultural life doesn't exist in a bubble. It implicates so many. Editor: My pleasure. This intersectional reading sheds light on who made what and how we respond, it just adds more layers to the image!