Two nuns emerging from a tomb while Saint Benedict celebrates the Mass 1687 - 1717

Curator: Looking at this piece, I'm immediately struck by a kind of hushed intensity. The monochrome, almost silvery quality... it feels like witnessing something from behind a veil. Editor: That veiled effect certainly comes from the printmaking process. This is an engraving, probably from between 1687 and 1717, attributed to Giacomo-Maria Giovannini. The image depicts two nuns emerging from a tomb while Saint Benedict is celebrating Mass. So, the intense line work, that silvery effect, all the product of carefully etching lines into a metal plate. Curator: Right. Knowing that makes me think of the physical labor behind creating this image, all that deliberate scoring. There's an act of devotion just in the *making* of the art. It does give it weight, an almost ethereal texture. Editor: It's quite detailed, for sure, capturing those robes, the architecture. One thinks of the engraver as a kind of translator, transferring and reinterpreting meaning through this laborious mechanical process. Consider what choices are made: why this scene? And why make prints in the first place when we live in a Baroque society obsessed with materiality? Curator: Hmm, a visual echo, maybe? I mean, think about what’s shown—the idea of resurrection, rebirth. And here it is, mimicked in the act of reproduction of a drawing. A concept repeated, in many forms! But, going back to that first, almost instinctive reaction, I still can't shake that feeling of solemnity. All those downturned faces in the foreground... Editor: The way Giovannini uses line also defines hierarchies. Saint Benedict's vestments, those ornate crosses on the altar are made legible via line variation and density. That would take technical mastery, years to acquire...a kind of artistry predicated on intense discipline, and of course consumption. Paper must come from somewhere... Curator: I think you’ve led me somewhere profound…The transformation implied by both image and making--it makes you ponder the transient nature of existence itself, you know? What better location for this artwork than here, at The Met, reminding of the countless souls whose stories and hard labour led us here? Editor: Agreed. Looking at how meaning is produced, how images circulate, and considering the materials involved really opens up how we think about both art and history.