Soldiers Attacking Travelers c. 1633

Curator: This etching, attributed to Jacques Callot and held at the Harvard Art Museums, is titled "Soldiers Attacking Travelers". Look at that chaotic scene! Editor: It’s incredibly dynamic for such a small print. You can almost feel the grit and chaos of the attack. The line work itself seems frantic. Curator: Absolutely. The small scale allowed for widespread distribution of these images, turning the violence of 17th-century conflicts into a consumable commodity. Editor: Precisely. The material, the print itself, allowed for a democratization of imagery depicting state-sanctioned violence and the social disruption of conflict. Note the layers of action, too, the fallen bodies in the foreground, which draw us in. Curator: Exactly. These images were meant to educate and warn audiences of the social dangers of the time, and underscore the disruption soldiers caused to everyday life. Editor: Thinking about its production, this etching, so precisely made, serves as a stark reminder of the brutal, often messy realities of early modern Europe. It makes you think about the labor involved in both the violence and the reproduction of it. Curator: Well, seeing it with you has certainly given me a new appreciation for its place in popular culture, and the way it acted as a form of news dissemination. Editor: Agreed. It brings an important, if unflattering, aspect of everyday life during the period into stark relief.