X-radiograph(s) of "Pieter Stuyvesant" 

Curator: This is an X-radiograph of "Pieter Stuyvesant," believed to be in the style of Aelbert Cuyp. The artwork resides here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: My first impression is the stark contrast and ghostly visage. There's a haunting quality to this X-ray. Curator: Indeed. The X-ray reveals the underpainting, offering a glimpse into the artist's process. Stuyvesant, as a figure, embodies Dutch colonial power and its complex legacies. Editor: The composition, even in this skeletal form, showcases a clear hierarchy of light and shadow, almost a semiotic encoding of power and status. Curator: Absolutely. Understanding Stuyvesant's role in the dispossession of Indigenous lands and the establishment of slavery in New Amsterdam contextualizes the portrait within a broader narrative of oppression. Editor: Fascinating how the very bones of the painting—its understructure—speak to both artistic intention and the weight of history. Curator: Precisely. This radiographic insight allows for a deconstruction of not only the artwork, but of the historical narrative. Editor: Seeing through the surface in this way offers such an intriguing perspective, it allows a view of the artwork in a new and compelling way.