Soldaat met schild en pikhouweel 1500 - 1556

Curator: Ah, yes, Heinrich Vogtherr’s "Soldier with Shield and Mattock," an engraving from the mid-16th century. Editor: It has an intriguing quality with so much texture in what appears to be such a small format. I'm curious about the artist's focus in this piece. What strikes you about it? Curator: The work to produce the print itself intrigues me first and foremost. The means of production were tied into a very specific class structure and consumption pattern. Engravings, specifically, demanded a degree of skill but also, in their replication, could democratize images. Does the artist want to uplift this figure of a simple soldier, or immortalize those who enabled war through material making? Editor: That’s an interesting tension – elevating an individual while the method disseminates copies broadly. Were such prints like this, given the labor to make them, affordable during this period? Curator: Possibly to a rising middle class; this is part of a burgeoning visual marketplace! So consider not just the singular image, but also how such images circulated, became commodities, and shaped perception and power dynamics. The figure carries the tools, both of destruction and of labor: that is a powerful message about how society functions and persists! What are your thoughts? Editor: It hadn't occurred to me that the printing process was part of the subject itself, which is a great reminder to look beyond the single image and towards the system surrounding it! Thanks for opening my eyes. Curator: Indeed! Recognizing those layers adds another dimension to viewing the image; thinking of this print now brings fresh layers to unpack.