The Harvest and the Wine-Press of Blood 1500 - 1540

Curator: Immediately striking. So stark, yet bustling with heavenly and earthly labor. Editor: Indeed. We're looking at "The Harvest and the Wine-Press of Blood," a print made sometime between 1500 and 1540, attributed to Hans Schäufelein. You'll find this Northern Renaissance engraving in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator: Wine-press of blood. An odd title, if you consider just the immediate genre painting details – folks tending to what looks like a harvest of grain and grapes, albeit in the company of floating, ethereal figures. Editor: But those figures above… God enthroned amidst clouds, angels fluttering nearby, certainly adds a layer of...judgment? Divine overseeing, perhaps, suggesting this is not *just* a harvest scene? Curator: Exactly. The "wine-press of blood" alludes to the wine of communion and, by extension, Christ's sacrifice. This seemingly ordinary genre scene is laden with religious allegory and symbolic association that reflects the religious tensions brewing at the time this image was created. It brings me back to the cultural history books I so devoured in college. The way images became ideological battlegrounds... Editor: Right. You've got the earthly toil juxtaposed with the divine realm – a common visual trope, but Schäufelein renders it with such dynamic energy. I find the angular lines quite gripping actually. They emphasize movement in the pressing of grapes but then these static robes on God and on some angles just these very still faces and postures that kind of makes you hold your breath for a moment. A certain rawness pervades the image. Even in the details of those angel's faces. A humanity I never would have thought possible. Curator: And Schäufelein, who trained under Dürer, also engages in this sort of… artistic commentary, you could say, where the traditional themes and formal innovations mix quite dramatically! These prints allowed a wider audience to access these complex ideas, beyond the patronage of the church or wealthy elites. That, I think, is worth remembering too. It has me wondering of art's responsibility to the masses and the powers in control. Editor: Absolutely, and thinking of its accessibility to the masses allows its impact to last centuries on end. Each person that beholds it connects to each character on different levels through the art alone. You start realizing you know their intentions like old acquaintances from years gone by. In every line, they persist, reminding us of an entanglement that continues its expansion long after we've forgotten it. Curator: Well put. An entanglement. Perfect way to close us out on this image. Editor: A gift, a haunting entanglement, for sure!