Ezechiël 1589 - 1652

Curator: Welcome. We're standing before Jacob Matham’s "Ezechiël," an engraving from around 1589-1652, now housed in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Gosh, the drama! I'm immediately hit by the sheer theatricality of it. Ezekiel, shrouded, sort of hovering over what seems like chaos and resurrection. It's a scene bursting with religious zeal. Curator: Indeed. It exemplifies the Baroque style, with its emphasis on intense emotion and dynamic composition. This is achieved through the printmaking process using the carefully incised lines that produce these visual effects when pressed on the paper. Matham, known for his skill with burin and etching needle, captures a pivotal scene. Note how the narrative unfolds in layers, almost as if on a stage set. Editor: Right, look at those tiny figures rising from the earth, that strange light above...and the central figure. I feel he's in this space, as a beacon. Makes me think of creation. Curator: Think about the materiality – ink, paper, the pressure of the printing press—all meticulously controlled by the artist. Matham skillfully orchestrates the tonal range of this scene with lines alone. He creates these open, less concentrated clusters of lines that produce the effect of highlight and lightness versus condensed denser groupings that manifest areas of dark. Editor: There is some writing there below him - like a kind of placard giving an insight? Almost an act of 'promotion' as would be done in commerce. Curator: The writing indeed describes the raising of the bones. You see how this print, a relatively reproducible format, helped spread these biblical stories across Europe and wider contexts of cultural practice and production. Editor: Fascinating how something so technically intricate could spark such wild imagination. You start thinking beyond what you're seeing and you imagine its use in those other realms! Curator: Precisely. And that's perhaps the genius of Matham. Editor: Well, it definitely gave me goosebumps... in the best way.