Three-Quarter View of a Statue of a Seated Bishop, San Zenone, Verona 19th-20th century

Editor: Here we have John Singer Sargent's sketch, "Three-Quarter View of a Statue of a Seated Bishop, San Zenone, Verona." It's intriguing as it captures a statue, but it's also a work on paper. How do you interpret this work through its materials and process? Curator: I see Sargent engaging with the very materiality of art production. He’s not just depicting a statue; he’s actively translating the monumentality of stone into the immediate and accessible medium of pencil on paper. What does this translation suggest about the value we place on artistic skill and labor? Editor: That’s a fascinating point. It's like he’s democratizing the statue through drawing. I never considered it that way.