Great Holy Family 16th-17th century

Curator: This is Pieter de Jode the Elder’s, Great Holy Family, currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums. I’m struck by how much detail he achieved in this print. Editor: Yes, the line work is incredibly fine. It gives the whole scene a soft, almost dreamlike quality. You can almost feel the weight of those draped fabrics. What do you make of the composition? Curator: Well, the arrangement of figures and the landscape elements would certainly have been guided by prevailing religious and social expectations. The Holy Family is central, while the background landscapes allude to both earthly and heavenly realms. It's a constructed vision, you know? Editor: And what about the materiality of the print itself? How does the medium shape our understanding? These prints were, after all, relatively accessible objects, allowing for the wider dissemination of religious imagery. Curator: Absolutely, this was about making these images available, and that affected how people engaged with religious ideas. It shifts power from the church to the people through accessible reproduction. Editor: So, it’s a story about faith, skillfully crafted, and shrewdly distributed. An image that, in its time, participated in a broader cultural and political landscape. Curator: Precisely. When we look beyond the surface we begin to see the mechanics behind visual devotion.