Portret van Christoffel Plantijn 1645 - 1739

Editor: This is “Portret van Christoffel Plantijn” by Edme de Boulonois, made sometime between 1645 and 1739. It's an engraving. The detail is incredible; look at the hatching and cross-hatching used to create the tones! How does the composition lead you to understand the artwork? Curator: The composition adheres to the visual syntax of portraiture: the gaze directed outward and the figure centered and axially aligned. However, this is only a substrate that permits the deployment of far more semiotically dense phenomena. Notice the crisp, almost clinical line work, and the emphasis placed upon the subject’s features, the folds of fabric. Editor: Clinical, that's a great word. It's very precise. The lines and detail don't seem to serve an expressive function, such as projecting warmth. Is that a fair reading? Curator: Yes, and it is through this exactness, achieved through the artist’s mastery of engraving, that we find a celebration of material, skill and craft. How the image means – and its subsequent affect – is determined through such devices. Do you discern any particular aesthetic ideology being conveyed through these signs? Editor: The subject is presented very plainly. Not in a natural setting or with symbolic objects that speak to status. Could we be looking at an enlightenment ideal valuing individual character? Curator: Precisely. The bareness is, in fact, the message. This reading privileges character over class and places the portrait in dialogue with Enlightenment ideals concerning reason and progress. A formal analysis allows for this to emerge in detail. Editor: Thank you. Considering the use of lines, shapes and tones really shifted how I saw the piece! Curator: Indeed! The language of art operates through many material features; in learning that language one decodes it!