Letter D c. 16th century

Curator: This woodcut, titled "Letter D" is held here at the Harvard Art Museums. It's by an anonymous artist. Editor: Well, it feels like a portal to some enchanted forest. The dense lines, the fantastical creatures...it buzzes with hidden energy. Curator: Absolutely, there's a lot of detail packed into a small space. The medium, woodcut, speaks to accessibility, the potential for mass production... Editor: That's true, but I also see the hand in it – the slightly uneven lines, the unique character of each impression. It whispers of medieval manuscripts and craft guilds. Curator: It is charming. The letterform itself becomes a vessel, a container for these imagined worlds. Editor: It's a tiny universe, isn’t it? Makes you wonder about the stories it held, and what it was meant to illuminate!