Gezicht op Glarus, 1726 1726

Curator: Immediately, I’m struck by the sharp contrasts, the density of lines… it's a very dramatic portrayal. Editor: Indeed. What we’re looking at is "Gezicht op Glarus, 1726," an engraving that resides here at the Rijksmuseum. It presents a panoramic cityscape of Glarus, Switzerland. Curator: The composition is really compelling; this contrast of the cultivated, almost regimented city plan with the wild, untamed mountains towering above is really central. Editor: Exactly. And understanding that interplay is vital. The print, while topographical, tells us so much about power structures of the era. The sharp definition given to each roof, garden plot, riverbank reflects labor’s relationship to resources at the time. It suggests the attempt of civil control over the landscape’s material yield. Curator: So you see this as documenting the taming of nature for productivity. I see more of a statement about human existence situated beneath this indifferent grandeur of the natural world. It places humans in the context of the landscape around them, showing them against such dramatic heights that symbolize ideas of beauty and the sublime in the 18th Century. Editor: I acknowledge those qualities but wonder whether the means of production here also serve ideological purposes. Consider the precise nature of engraving, of print making: a technique itself relying upon controlled, measured application of tools. In that precision, perhaps we find the true subject matter of social command through craft. Curator: It’s difficult to say definitively what was meant to be conveyed. Certainly we have no way of truly entering the mind of the artist who is simply listed as anonymous in our records. But perhaps in understanding art, this type of questioning and contemplation itself yields truth. Editor: Precisely. This work's focus on topographical detail alongside landscape, compels a further consideration for the modes and materials necessary in establishing that vantage point.