One of twenty-one seals c. 800

Editor: Here we have “One of twenty-one seals,” crafted around the year 800 by an anonymous artist. It's a small carving currently residing at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. There is such remarkable detail for a seal, so small and yet bearing so much implied meaning! What functions and meanings do you read in it? Curator: A vital question. We must consider its historical context. As an object made in that period, it would have been deeply enmeshed within social and power structures. Seals functioned less as decorative pieces and more as signatures of authority. Given it belongs to a set, do you imagine a religious, social, or political role for them? Editor: Probably an official function, yeah. Considering it was a set… Maybe each represented a dignitary? Like an early form of official ID? I see what appears to be a stylized animal – what looks like an eagle with antlers – do you think its representation held specific significance within its contemporary culture? Curator: Exactly! Visual imagery was power. What narratives would this creature evoke in its time and what political message was the commissioner of this object making? And also, whose narrative? Who has the ability to commission and own the seal? Did the average person in society have any power within that image? Editor: That’s fascinating to consider…It almost makes you think about logos today, and how we instantly understand the values they are supposed to represent, even if it is really corporate symbolism. Curator: Precisely! Art acts within its own time and ripples across history. These miniature power statements reflect broader power dynamics and ideologies. We should always question who shapes and benefits from these representations.