Holy Trinity 

Curator: The first thing I notice is all that billowy cloudscape... like divine dry ice surrounding the figures. Editor: Indeed! What we're looking at here is an oil painting of the Holy Trinity, and the artist is Hans Baldung. Curator: Hans Baldung... Now that’s a name I haven't pondered in ages. The palette is so interesting here—the muted tones kind of ground the drama. Editor: This composition invites consideration of power structures inherent within religious dogma, as well as who benefits from the representation of divinity as exclusively masculine and often as an old white man. The history of Western art has always been a battlefield where ideology and representation clash and combine, and it's our task to pick it apart and understand what is underneath it all. Curator: Hmmm... The patriarchy rides again! But looking past the visual tropes, doesn't the sheer craftsmanship inspire something? Editor: It absolutely can and does inspire some, yes, but there are also questions of faith being imposed rather than discovered; who is on earth and who gets to levitate into heaven surrounded by cherubic cuteness, all this creates very concrete cultural messages, for better and for worse. How does one approach historical work responsibly without perpetuating damage or repeating tropes? Curator: Goodness, those baby angels holding up the globe, they're cute, aren’t they? Almost comically cute given what the actual burden must be. But I think, and it is just an idea, maybe we shouldn't reject all visual symbols— Editor: And how do we balance respect for the labor that makes an image while also pushing it and confronting the more nefarious things happening around art at the time, like enslavement or oppression and even within this image here, which literally pictures the fate of the entire world in some chubby, flying cherubs’ hands. How do we wrestle with art made under exploitation, under repression, under power dynamics, both historical and actual? Curator: Okay, okay. Fair point. Still, I get caught up in the feeling this image tries to conjure up - forgiveness, redemption, etc., all that jazz, you know. Editor: And I believe that's something each of us can feel depending on the lens through which we look, as well as an element that is absolutely there whether we like it or not. But it also speaks to what isn’t being said and it pictures not so much how but perhaps why this vision was created in the first place, in order to fully realize this beautiful picture. Curator: Well, it gives me a lot to consider on my way home. Editor: And that makes us even. Thank you!