Grafmonument van grootmeester Nicola Cottoner in de kapel van Aragón van de Sint-Janscokathedraal in Valletta, Malta 1855 - 1875

Curator: Looking at this stereo photograph from between 1855 and 1875, we see the gravestone monument of Grandmaster Nicola Cottoner within the Chapel of Aragon of the Saint John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta. What’s your immediate reaction? Editor: It's a dizzying amount of ornamentation. The high-contrast in this gelatin silver print definitely emphasizes the three-dimensional extravagance of the baroque style memorial and surrounding chamber. It’s opulent to the extreme, wouldn’t you say? Curator: Indeed, every inch seems designed to overwhelm. It adheres perfectly to Baroque sensibilities: dynamic compositions, deliberate contrasts, and the suggestion of constant movement within its many shapes and figures. Editor: And those shapes and figures--we must consider the material means of their creation! Someone dedicated an enormous amount of skilled labor into sculpting the Carrara marble which comprised its various figural, cartographic, and vegetal elements. Can we truly appreciate this photograph without first acknowledging all of the resources consumed during the original memorial's execution? Curator: Of course, the act of creating art always involves work. In this photograph, though, it’s important to look at how forms coalesce, how light interacts with sculpted forms to express the subject. Note the use of dramatic diagonals within the broader, rectangular form and how that impacts its symbolic function as a work made to express power. Editor: Power made physical! I see labor manifest in those straining allegorical figures--they hold up a monument to power and excess that was carved from rock wrenched from the Earth! I’d further like to stress the impact of the economic factors tied to these pieces. Curator: Certainly a monument like this speaks to societal structures, but what about that composition draws your eye, first? Do the angels direct your gaze upward? Is it the presence of the grandmaster's effigy? The arrangement does compel our eye to wander... Editor: So many different layers--one wonders how a photo from that era was capable of catching all these details. This stereo card is as fascinating as the artwork it pictures; looking at this has been quite edifying! Curator: Agreed. There's something so compelling in examining that spatial representation, and thinking through the monumentality inherent within the architecture itself.