Iphigenia 1514 - 1536

Curator: Agostino Veneziano’s engraving, “Iphigenia,” likely created sometime between 1514 and 1536, currently resides here at The Met. It captures a very particular classical narrative. Editor: A shiver went right through me, looking at this. It’s got such stark light and shadow. Something heavy is about to happen, you can just feel it. Like watching a play where you know the ending is a tragedy. Curator: Well, the tragedy you sense resonates with the subject, the sacrifice of Iphigenia. It reflects the visual language cultivated in Renaissance workshops; look closely, and you will see how it engages with printing processes to democratize art. The production, involving etching tools and the mechanics of printmaking, made classical subjects newly available. Editor: See, for me, it's about more than the means, but about feeling how terrible it is! That girl’s got a fire in her hand, like she's ready to walk into her own funeral pyre. And those dudes around her, acting all stoic, but it’s clear in their bodies how awful this is too. Is it supposed to be a beautiful image? I don’t know... it's almost too real for that. Curator: Its realism emerges, in part, from the techniques Veneziano employed. This print wouldn't exist without highly organized labor. The engraving process—etching lines to make prints accessible to a broad audience—changed not just art's appearance, but also its consumption. Consider its social implications as an object of artistic and economic exchange, tied closely to mercantile flows. Editor: It's powerful stuff. Even centuries later, removed from the politics, and trade...you just feel what Iphigenia might be feeling here. That says something pretty intense about art's power, I think. Thanks for opening my eyes more fully to this dark scene, even with all its beautiful lines. Curator: And thank you, for seeing in its lines also its lingering human truths, as well as their cultural production, here for the viewing.