Zicht op de Quai Masséna te Nice 1854

Curator: We're looking at a print today, Jacques Guiaud’s "View of the Quai Masséna in Nice" from 1854. It’s an engraving. What stands out to you initially? Editor: The mood it evokes is overwhelmingly peaceful, if not somber. The light is flat, almost bleached. And those endless rows of buildings… they create a sense of monumental calm, yet almost suffocating in their order. Curator: Engravings, with their linear precision, are wonderful tools for documenting architectural feats and societal development. Look at the Quai Masséna itself, how it’s presented. We see a deliberate staging of urban improvement, perhaps alluding to burgeoning industrial processes and land development impacting the coastal economy. Editor: True, but the rigid architecture hints at more than just material progress. Doesn't the rigid, repetitive form of the buildings also imply social control and hierarchy? The unsmiling faces, the regulated traffic… it seems like a careful choreography of life itself. Note how the eye is directed to specific points that lead toward the architecture, implying the city takes precedence over nature or natural living. Curator: I’m more interested in the physical process, the way the printmaker translated the scene. An engraving of this detail would’ve involved intense labour, painstaking cuts into a metal plate, the wiping of ink, the pressure of the printing press… These manual processes tell a history of production that painting sometimes obscures. Editor: The technique surely mattered but looking beyond, there’s a romantic undercurrent. It captures Nice on the cusp of becoming a tourist haven. The buildings aren’t just buildings. The orderly arrangement can easily translate to order of civility and community, where trade is abundant, life is safe, and a day at the shore leads to social improvement. Curator: Possibly, or maybe it’s a manufactured vision intended to project a specific idea of Nice onto the world. Either way, by documenting what humans build with earthly materials we understand the forces shaping this city. Editor: Agreed. It’s about how buildings affect humanity. Those straight lines almost lead our thoughts and even dreams. An impactful observation on the enduring dance between symbolic aspiration and societal progress.