Oude man aan schrijftafel schrikt op van een vrouw met de duivel als schaduw 1758

Curator: I see paranoia rendered in fragile lines. What catches your eye? Editor: It’s spectral, isn’t it? A glimpse into some poor fellow’s psyche. The very texture of the etching – the frantic strokes of ink on paper – communicates anxiety. Johann Daniel Laurentz produced this etching, titled "Old man at a writing table, startled by a woman with the devil as a shadow", sometime around 1758. Curator: And those devilish shadows trailing the woman are *literal*, cast, dare I say it, in the dark heart of this scene. Editor: Absolutely. Considering the cultural landscape of the Baroque, you see a renewed interest in the theatrics of religion. Beyond the literal, the materials themselves – paper, ink, the etched plate – represent knowledge, dissemination, perhaps even subversive ideas taking form during the Enlightenment. The printmaking process democratized imagery. Curator: This artist transforms anxieties of the time. That fear—of temptation, of unseen forces working through feminine wiles…he puts it down using readily available tools and materials. In doing so, I believe it also acts as catharsis for us, the viewers, when confronted with these shadowy anxieties that creep out of this etching. Editor: So the means of production speak volumes, quite literally bringing darkness to light. It makes me wonder, who was commissioning or purchasing these prints? To have access to even these humble materials…was there a working class collector market we often overlook? Curator: That’s a brilliant question that bears a greater scope to investigate. But back to the immediate visceral impact of Laurentz’s “startled man," it does still work its unsettling charm. As though one should keep the devils in one’s shadow far from the light of awareness and inspiration. What else would you add as final thought? Editor: Its power to unnerve even centuries later. The materiality almost accentuates that sense of timeless unease. Perhaps he captured something universal in his etching; about what haunts us from just beyond sight.