The Pharisees Wish to Stone Christ 

Curator: This print, titled "The Pharisees Wish to Stone Christ", presents a stark and somewhat unsettling scene. There's a clear tension brewing within the composition. Editor: Absolutely. The mood is tense. You see the anger etched on the faces of the figures on the left, in sharp contrast to the calm demeanor of Christ on the right. How interesting. Curator: Yes, the scene is skillfully rendered in engraving by Georg Pencz, who worked in the 16th century. The level of detail he achieves through these fine lines is impressive, particularly in the rendering of textures like the drapery and stone. The artist makes great use of engraving to highlight contrasts. Notice the stark shading! Editor: It is powerful. The act of making this work accessible through print speaks to a broader distribution and consumption of religious narratives at the time. It makes me wonder about the role this sort of print played in shaping public opinion, religious education, and even political discourse. The artist uses their medium, and in turn the socio-political machine adopts the imagery to communicate. Curator: It’s interesting to see the composition, a clear delineation between the crowd of Pharisees and Christ. There's a theatrical quality to it, with figures positioned almost as if on a stage. And look, some people seem to be actually gathering stones to hurl! Editor: And those stones, as material objects, become laden with symbolic weight, don't they? What began as mere geology, becomes weaponized, fueled by social and religious antagonisms. And this antagonism then reproduced via printed matter for the consumption of viewers... I can't help but see it all in terms of process. Curator: It’s true. In a sense, we are implicated too in Pencz's distribution machine, and perhaps can gain some insights through it. Thanks for your thoughts. Editor: A worthwhile conversation that highlights art’s place within a wider matrix of things!