Spes (Hope) 

Curator: Looking at this engraving, titled "Spes," the Latin word for Hope, I’m immediately drawn to its almost austere beauty. The figure of Hope, attributed to Master I.B., presents itself with hands clasped in prayer, eyes fixed on a distant point, set against a delicately rendered landscape. What is your impression? Editor: A pensive melancholy. There's an intense stillness to her, yet the details—the billowing fabric, the town in the background— hint at a world in motion, of trade networks extending all around. Who was Master I.B. making this print for, and how did those socio-economic conditions frame our understanding of something like "hope"? Curator: Master I.B. remains somewhat of an enigma; an artist working within the sphere of the Northern Renaissance, possibly in Southern Germany. His prints often explore allegorical themes, imbued with symbols that reflect both classical and Christian ideas about virtue and the human condition. In this image, we see how hope is not merely a passive wish, but something almost akin to a spiritual plea, emphasized by that window overlooking a distant cityscape. The print’s dependence on a well established symbol vocabulary suggests an educated, worldly audience. Editor: Indeed, notice the ewer, how it seems to weep continuously? That symbol ties the idealized classical figure directly into this Northern humanist cultural program; both rely on that well-understood visual shorthand to get to this new concept of nationhood or collective purpose. The "hope" here then really is about that possibility. Curator: The ewer also calls to mind the waters of baptism, promising renewal. The landscape behind her also speaks to a world slowly becoming navigable— less a chaotic wilderness and more a managed, mappable geography. All things becoming available to someone of I.B.’s era. Editor: All of that resonates through those strong, simple lines and forms that Master I.B. uses. And there's the inherent politics of printmaking itself – this image, Hope, becomes accessible, repeatable, circulating through a society that might urgently require it. Curator: Absolutely, and perhaps even now it's easy to still see it that way: As the possibility for something better to still arise within even trying conditions. Editor: Well said. To view this piece is, maybe now more than ever, to face our collective aspirations squarely, and to meditate on the labor required to achieve them.