Cartoon of Pisa 18th-19th century

Curator: "Cartoon of Pisa," by Luigi Schiavonetti. Schiavonetti, who lived from 1765 to 1810, left us this piece now residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It’s a swarm! A tangle of bodies tumbling towards the water. Is it violent? Playful? I can't quite tell. Curator: The printmaking process itself—likely etching or engraving—would have been labor-intensive, involving meticulous work to achieve such fine detail. Considering the production, it mirrors the exertion depicted. Editor: Precisely! The bodies almost seem to be carved from stone, reflecting the physical effort in both the depicted scene and its creation, a dance of labor and leisure. Curator: It reflects a moment when craft and art blurred, with printed images like these circulating widely, impacting taste and disseminating classical ideals. Editor: It has a weight to it, a seriousness belied by the apparent chaos. I feel I've witnessed a buried memory surfacing.