X-radiograph(s) of "Young Girl Peeling Potatoes" 

Editor: This is an X-radiograph of Nicolaes Maes' "Young Girl Peeling Potatoes." It’s fascinating to see the painting’s structure revealed like this. What can we learn from viewing the piece in this way? Curator: It directs our attention to the materiality of artmaking. We see the density of pigments, the construction of the support, the very labor embedded within the layers. What does this process reveal about artistic production? Editor: It makes me think about the artist's hand and also the social context of the materials themselves. Curator: Precisely. The pigments, the canvas, they all have histories tied to trade and labor. This x-ray allows us to consider the painting as a constructed object, reflecting broader economic and social forces. Editor: I never really thought about art that way before, considering its material origins. Curator: It challenges the traditional view of art as purely aesthetic. We can begin to see paintings as cultural objects, resulting from a specific historical and material process.