Cherubs with a Goat 1735

Curator: Immediately, I’m struck by the overall lightness—ethereal almost, despite all that detailed inkwork. It's a whimsical daydream. Editor: Precisely. Let's ground that impression in its creation. This is "Cherubs with a Goat," an etching and ink drawing rendered on paper by Charles-Joseph Natoire in 1735. Its current home is the Art Institute of Chicago. What stands out for me is the reproductive aspect of printmaking. Curator: Yes! It’s both free-flowing in its lines, but it carries also this constraint, you know? The precision needed to transfer that freedom...almost like choreography. How else can one dance? Editor: Thinking materially, consider how Natoire employed etching to mass-produce copies of this imagery for broader consumption. He didn't physically sculpt clay or mix his colours, rather relied on his skill in drawing, a prepared plate, and the printing press as extension of hand and the capitalist drivers affecting such decisions. Curator: True! So, beyond the frolicking cherubs—which are adorable, by the way, even their behinds! There's this tension between elite patronage, you see that wall in the corner over there where children watch? And the possibility for wider dissemination that printmaking enables! It is very nice and intimate as it comes across as innocent with these frolicking creatures, isn't it. Editor: Exactly! Furthermore, let's consider the symbolic function of this drawing; in what world could a basketful of innocent kids tame even a sleepy looking goat. Was that some aristocrats daydreaming, or making the world a safe space through children? What impact do you reckon? Curator: So the material making has enabled such innocent play with serious underlying social implications in today's society, and I did feel the effect! To be honest it got me smiling a while before reflecting further Editor: Indeed, its social nature lies in it! From medium to allegory—a confluence for considering 18th-century modes of production, imagination and societal expectation.