Tobit Rises from the Table to Remove the Corpse c. 16th century

Curator: This is Georg Pencz's engraving, "Tobit Rises from the Table to Remove the Corpse." Note the compressed space, typical of early printmaking. Editor: My first impression is of a really awkward dinner party. Someone just keeled over in the background. Curator: Precisely. Pencz captures a dramatic biblical moment. Observe the clear demarcation between foreground and background through line weight and spatial recession. Editor: The guy at the table looks less than thrilled. It is as if he's thinking, "Oh, not again!" The emotional restraint is rather funny. Curator: The formal tension resides in the contrast between the mundane—dinner—and the macabre—death, challenging social decorum. Editor: True. And the scale! The detail jammed into such a tiny space, just over 6 x 10 cm, is incredible. Like a whole play unfolding in a dollhouse. Curator: Indeed. The composition invites us to consider the interplay of morality and mortality within an ordered domestic setting. Editor: It makes you wonder what sort of shenanigans folks got up to at their dinner parties back then. Curator: A testament to Pencz's skill in distilling narrative and symbolic weight into miniature form. Editor: Ultimately, it's a surprisingly humorous take on a morbid tale.