Susanna Accused c. 18th century

Editor: This is "Susanna Accused," by Jean-Baptiste de Poilly. It’s quite striking. All those figures, the architecture… it feels very staged. What stands out to you in terms of how it was made? Curator: The print medium itself speaks volumes. Consider the economics of printmaking in Poilly's time. It facilitated the wide dissemination of images, impacting social and religious ideologies. How did this affect the perception and consumption of Susanna's story? Editor: That’s a good point! The printmaking process itself made the story more accessible. I never thought about it that way. Curator: Exactly! The materiality and mass production of the print transform what was once a biblical story into a commodity circulated within a specific social and economic framework.