Kong Frederik V i procession til salvingshøjtidelighed i Frederiksborg Slotskirke. Illustration og initial til Frederik d. IV's salvingsakt 1749

Editor: Here we have "King Frederik V in procession to his anointment ceremony in Frederiksborg Palace Church. Illustration and initial to Frederik IV's act of anointment," created in 1749 by Odvardt Helmoldt de Lode. It's a print, using etching and engraving techniques. It depicts a very elaborate royal procession, and its visual language seems pretty representative of Baroque art to me. What do you make of it? Curator: The most striking aspect of this piece is the layering of production. We see the event, the coronation; but also the artistic representation of it, not as unique painting but reproducible print; finally we have the descriptive text below. It encourages us to see the event through the lens of power, production, and accessibility. Consider the role of printmaking in disseminating royal propaganda versus documenting an event: how are the masses involved beyond mere spectacle? Editor: So you are less interested in the event itself, and more interested in the… printing of the event? In the social impact of printmaking itself? Curator: Precisely! How does the material act of reproducing images change how the monarchy communicates with, or even controls, the populace? Etching and engraving were hardly new, but think about how access to these technologies shifted existing power dynamics in 18th-century Denmark. What labor was involved, who had access, and how widely could this image circulate? These are key to its meaning. Editor: That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered. Thinking about the production rather than the…reproduction changes everything, really. I'll look at prints completely differently now! Curator: Exactly, it allows us to dig into how even seemingly straightforward depictions can reveal so much about power, labour and societal control at the time of its creation.