Four children playing with dice 1700 - 1800

Editor: Here we have "Four children playing with dice," dating from sometime in the 1700s. It's attributed to an anonymous artist and created with pen, ink, and etching. The figures look very informally rendered, yet there’s something really tender about the scene. How should we interpret this artwork? Curator: Looking at the materials – the relative accessibility of pen, ink and etching suggests something about the potential patronage or, indeed, lack of it. It raises interesting questions about who could afford or even *desired* more 'refined' art during this period and the consumption of images such as these by a growing middle class. Editor: That makes me wonder: would this have been seen as “fine art” at the time, or more as a casual genre scene, something less formal? Curator: That’s a key question! It invites us to consider the prevailing artistic hierarchies. Intaglio, as a printmaking technique, enables reproduction, shifting the emphasis from unique artwork to accessible commodity. So, we might ask: How does its status as a reproducible print challenge notions of originality and artistic genius prevalent at that time? And does this suggest an emergent 'art market', or the transformation of the role of images in popular culture? Editor: It’s fascinating to consider the social life of an image, beyond just its aesthetic qualities! So much information can be drawn by examining the means of production and reproduction and how accessible it was to audiences from the period. Curator: Exactly! The dice, too, are fascinating. We tend to consider paintings and sculpture, but less so, sometimes, the context that surrounded the reproduction of popular imagery and pastimes like games with dice during the medieval era. Thinking of their materiality as much as their form transforms how we consider a work of art, don’t you agree?