Letter F c. 16th century

Curator: Here we have an intriguing woodcut print, an anonymous piece held at the Harvard Art Museums, known simply as "Letter F." Editor: It's teeming with life! A playful, almost chaotic energy radiates from the composition, despite the restrictions of the single letter. Curator: Indeed. Note the dog and rabbit, the snails, the winged creature at the top; all dancing around the rigid form. One wonders what symbolic weight these creatures carried. The dog, fidelity, perhaps? The rabbit, fertility? Editor: And how the anonymous artisan carved this miniature world! The pressure of the block, the skill needed to coax such detail from the wood grain...it really speaks to the labor behind even seemingly simple printed matter. Curator: It’s a reminder that even something as utilitarian as a letter could be a carrier of deeper meaning, a reflection of a wider cultural understanding. Editor: Absolutely. Looking at it through the lens of production, it speaks of a vibrant ecosystem of printers, workshops, and the public hungry for visual content, however small.