Prophet mit Buch auf Wolken schwebend 

Curator: Welcome to the Städel Museum. We are now standing before an intriguing drawing by Luca Giordano entitled "Prophet mit Buch auf Wolken schwebend." While undated, it exemplifies the dynamism of Baroque figuration. Editor: It has a rather ethereal quality. The prophet's upward gaze, the billowing robes, and those cloud formations evoke a sense of spiritual ascension. There's a feeling of lightness despite the density of line work. Curator: Precisely. Observe Giordano's masterful use of line to create volume and movement. The cross-hatching technique to delineate form, particularly within the drapery, is striking, wouldn’t you agree? Notice also how the very line seems to almost physically model and form those dense clouds. Editor: Yes, and speaking of that line work, I'm fascinated by the medium. It looks like ink on paper. Given that, it's impressive how he achieves such a range of tones, from almost stark white highlights to rich, deep shadows. One can almost feel the pressure he exerted, the speed of his hand as he worked. How immediate it is, that the labour that created it is so present! Curator: Indeed, Giordano often utilized drawing as a preparatory study for larger paintings. This particular work, in its dramatic composition and figure placement, points to its purpose as perhaps a model for figures in an altarpiece or ceiling fresco. Note also, that the materiality almost suggests it might also have been a mode of personal meditation – perhaps more ‘play’ than laborious drawing for production’s sake. Editor: That relationship, of the drawing as a model but also as a mode of play or a first material investigation, is telling. The freedom of the line, unconstrained in this exploratory mode, highlights his skill in both design and the physical act of art making. And seeing those qualities side-by-side emphasizes a certain tension inherent in devotional, ‘commissioned’ images and those images exploring the more earthy, active role of creating images with a hand and a tool, so to speak! Curator: Ultimately, the drawing's strength lies in its capacity to synthesize intellectual conceptualization with technical precision. Editor: Indeed, the artwork provides us insight not only to skill but how such representations were forged in a given time through the physical hand, material investigation, and in collaboration and relation to that hand.