Opening of the Sixth Seal 1555

Curator: Take a moment with Jean Duvet’s "Opening of the Sixth Seal" from 1555. It's a truly remarkable engraving, currently held here at The Art Institute of Chicago. Editor: Wow, it's...intense. A churning mass of bodies and symbols. I'm immediately struck by the incredible detail; it’s a riot of tiny, almost frantic lines. Curator: Absolutely. Duvet's known for packing every inch of his compositions with potent imagery. The title itself alludes to the Book of Revelation, and the print visualizes a chaotic moment of divine judgment. See the figures recoiling, desperately seeking shelter from the cataclysm? Editor: It almost feels like a medieval woodcut in its density, yet also reveals an anatomical sophistication—especially evident when you consider his engravings’ medium and how he had to make each incision matter. What kind of labor goes into this? Curator: It’s important to consider Northern Renaissance artistic practices. Prints were more than just standalone artworks—they circulated ideas, religious ones in this instance, among a wider populace that paintings just couldn’t reach. Think of the means and intention that makes something both high art and a devotional item that ordinary people would obtain. Editor: It becomes much more than just iconography, doesn’t it? I am so curious, though. What symbols would an audience at the time key into immediately? Curator: Consider the lamb, representing Christ, presiding over the turmoil. Or the crowned figures being thrown down, their earthly power proving futile against divine force. Duvet masterfully blended established religious symbolism with his own idiosyncratic visions. It becomes like cultural memory passed down in very few accessible visual terms. Editor: The image's reproduction means it enters new spaces over and over, and perhaps that's how this intense image persists within our shared psyche. Thanks for pointing out the socioeconomic forces that were driving these prints and visual forms forward. Curator: It allows us to access the emotional intensity but also the craft and networks making it happen. Editor: Exactly. It certainly reframes the symbolic gestures with the understanding that material processes are shaping them. Curator: Glad we could pull back some of the layers for our listeners!