Leopold I of Austria as Jupiter with his wife enthroned in the clouds, looking down on the struggling giants below 1654 - 1682

Curator: Looking at this, I’m struck by its almost frantic energy. All these figures straining and tumbling, it feels like the universe is about to burst apart. What's your take? Editor: Well, first, let's give context. This is an engraving made between 1654 and 1682 by Mathäus Küsel, depicting Leopold I of Austria as Jupiter, enthroned with his wife above a chaotic scene of giants. It's currently housed here at the Met. But beyond the aesthetic, I think it reveals how power constructs itself, literally crushing those who challenge it. Curator: Right, you see that political weightiness. I was too busy being dazzled—the technical skill is pretty evident here, I mean, look at the texture of those clouds. It almost feels like you could sink right into them...even with all that turbulent energy roiling beneath. Did Küsel work with alchemists too? All that light feels like he found some way to trap mercury in ink! Editor: Mercury, a slippery element indeed, suits the propaganda purpose here. It presents a neat allegory: Leopold, divinely appointed, subduing the "giants" – the internal and external enemies threatening his reign. It's classic Baroque, designed to awe and submit, masking political anxieties behind grand symbolism. But I am still struggling with how such allegories served to uphold deeply unequal social structures. Curator: Propaganda can be stunning sometimes, don’t you think? The sheer force of visual rhetoric kind of hypnotizes you even centuries later. I wonder if Leopold saw it, recognized himself, and maybe smirked just a little bit. Knowing history, perhaps he only saw how good he looked? Editor: Exactly! The performance of power is key. And engravings like this were critical in disseminating that performance, creating a visual language of authority. But let’s remember that while it may have mesmerized some, it likely also stoked resentment among those on the losing end of Leopold's reign. Curator: I love how art, even something so overtly constructed to prop up power, manages to seep its truth regardless. All that ambition... the hubris, struggle! There’s a universality that continues to echo today. It also reminds me to avoid hubris as I continue on my journey! Editor: A useful lesson, and a fitting takeaway from an artwork that showcases both the heights of power and the inevitable struggle against it. Power and resistance. That sounds just about right.