The Saving of the Infant Pyrrhus (right half) c. 1674

Curator: This is Gérard Audran's "The Saving of the Infant Pyrrhus," a striking plate measuring about 73 by 47 centimeters, currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: The figures are so tense, almost theatrical. The composition, though, feels a bit staged, doesn't it? All the figures are directed on a single plane. Curator: Audran, like many artists of his era, was deeply invested in depicting virtue and leadership. Pyrrhus, saved as an infant, would become a celebrated leader in ancient Epirus. Editor: The rushing men, the overthrown figure in the foreground – they all suggest turmoil. Is that a broken shield? What does it symbolize? Is it the collapse of power, or the chaos of transition? Curator: Indeed. I think we can read the shield as a symbol of shattered authority, a visual cue to the precarious political landscape Pyrrhus was born into. It heightens the stakes of his rescue. Editor: It's fascinating how the visual language of this era could imbue even seemingly simple objects with such loaded significance. It truly invites reflection on the cyclical nature of power.