Conway Castle 

Editor: Here we have John Sell Cotman’s etching, Conway Castle. The stark lines create this feeling of romantic decay. The castle seems to be dissolving back into the landscape. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, it whispers to me of time, and how even the grandest ambitions crumble. Cotman seems to be asking: What survives? Nature, perhaps? Or maybe just the faintest echo of human endeavor. What do you make of the animals in the foreground? Editor: I hadn’t considered them! They're so small, but now they suggest life continues, indifferent to the castle’s fate. Curator: Precisely! I keep wondering if this piece is a reflection of England's own shifting identity at the time. A past grandeur slowly consumed by the present? Editor: That gives the piece a whole new layer of meaning! Curator: Art has a delightful way of doing that, doesn’t it?