Laatste samenzijn van Lodewijk XVI en zijn familie 1794

Curator: The stark emotion practically leaps off this print, doesn't it? Editor: It’s positively heart-wrenching. What are we looking at? A scene of profound grief? Curator: Exactly. This is "Laatste samenzijn van Lodewijk XVI en zijn familie," or "Last Reunion of Louis XVI and his Family." It’s an engraving from 1794, created by Luigi Schiavonetti. We are so lucky to see it at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It does have that historical novel sort of weight to it. And a terrible claustrophobia. Everyone's crowded together but terribly isolated in their despair. How do you find a tender moment in something so political, if that makes sense? Curator: That tension, that attempt at tenderness within historical inevitability, is precisely where I think its power lies. It's propaganda, of course, intended to stir royalist sentiments, but it's also incredibly vulnerable. You can see the attempts at neoclassical dignity, even serenity, in the figures' poses, but their anguish cracks through. Look at Marie Antoinette’s wild, despairing gestures, versus the carefully balanced composition of the whole scene. Editor: Yes, even in what should be a balanced domestic scene, everything seems askew. It really feels like everyone is teetering, about to fall. Even the priest to the left feels sort of shifty. This might sound crazy, but it reminds me of an early silent film still; exaggerated poses, a kind of desperate stagecraft. Curator: What you see in it relates back to the history of its creation. Remember that images like this were explicitly designed to tug at heartstrings. That very artificiality, that “stagecraft” as you call it, is a conscious choice meant to elicit a powerful emotional response from the viewer. The pen work allows for dramatic tonal contrast; and by the careful arrangement of each family member, Schiavonetti created maximum drama. Editor: A tragic opera in monochrome! Still, to witness something so deliberately manufactured, yet conveying real despondency, it creates this peculiar feeling, like an echo of something profoundly upsetting. A sense of genuine humanity bleeding through the calculation, wouldn't you say? Curator: I would, absolutely. It's that friction between intention and outcome that continues to draw me back to this image. It leaves me considering not just what happened, but also how we are *supposed* to feel about it. Editor: Definitely a moment to ponder. It’s always about more than meets the eye isn’t it? Thanks for walking me through that!