The Dream of Joseph 17th-18th century

Curator: Here we have Robert van Auden-Aerd's "The Dream of Joseph," a small engraving now residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: The angel's gesture is captivating. It feels like a visual paradox: the light emanating from an apparition awakens a sleeping figure, yet the medium itself is stark, monochrome engraving. Curator: Observe how van Auden-Aerd employs hatching and cross-hatching to create tonal gradations, suggesting the ethereal nature of the divine visitation. The angel's form is built from meticulously placed lines, a structured execution. Editor: Yes, but the real story is in the materiality of the print. It's about the labor, the craft of cutting those lines. And, how that repetitive act translates the dream into something palpable, reproducible. Curator: But it’s not just the medium, it is about how the artist uses the material to signify something beyond itself. The composition centers on this play of divine intervention. Editor: I see it as the transformation of a vision through a deeply physical, almost industrial process. Curator: Perhaps we find that vision is itself a product of its making. Editor: Absolutely, a labor of the subconscious expressed through the physical act of creation.