from The Set of The Bears 1659 - 1669

Editor: Here we have Marcus de Bye’s "from The Set of The Bears," dating back to sometime between 1659 and 1669. It's an engraving, and it feels quite stark with the limited detail, yet also carefully composed. What catches your eye in terms of what's depicted here? Curator: I see an engraving rooted deeply in its material and its making. The act of incising lines into a copper plate demands labor, a kind of skilled craft often separated from "high art". What story does the *process* of printmaking tell us about this image? Is de Bye highlighting the bear as a commodity, a resource, through the act of reproducing it? The paper itself is a product, think of the economics implied. Editor: So, you’re suggesting that the printmaking process isn’t just about reproducing an image, but also about the bear’s economic role in 17th-century Dutch society? Curator: Exactly! And consider how landscape prints were consumed. Were they scientific studies? Decorative pieces for bourgeois homes? Or even documents of hunting expeditions, thus linked to exploitation? The starkness isn't just aesthetic. The lack of color throws the pure physicality of the depicted animal, the material reality of the engraver's mark making and the consumption context in sharp relief. How many impressions were pulled? Who purchased them, and for what purpose? Editor: That definitely shifts how I see the piece. I was focusing on the image itself, the sort of melancholy feeling it evokes. But the implications about labor, commodification, and accessibility, really expand the understanding. Curator: Indeed. By tracing the artwork back to its materials, we can uncover deeper meanings about production, labor and society. It all becomes intertwined.