Man markeert op ruit het punt waar hij een object ziet door de ruit heen 1679

Curator: The artwork we’re looking at, dating back to 1679, is by Sébastien Leclerc I. It’s titled "Man markeert op ruit het punt waar hij een object ziet door de ruit heen", housed here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My initial response is one of cool detachment. The subdued line work and analytical subject creates distance, doesn’t it? The monochrome amplifies this detached feeling, as does the geometrical drawing on the upper register of the artwork. Curator: Indeed. Leclerc’s process involved engraving and printing. Given his background, the print would have likely been fairly accessible, widely disseminated among artists to reproduce at different scales, playing a pedagogical role by distributing knowledge of geometrical techniques that served production within other social crafts. Editor: Focus, therefore, is clearly drawn to the geometry of sight, with those sharply defined lines bisecting planes, creating vanishing points to which the viewer's eye is helplessly led. Look at the clean rendition of perspective demonstrated in both planes. It has all the crisp logic of Euclid, doesn’t it? Curator: Yes, and we have to also consider the labor that went into creating and then teaching these geometrical formulas, and who it excluded, from women to non-Europeans who didn’t adopt these specific linear drawing techniques in artistic or scientific practice. The man represented drawing on the surface is actively shaping how future individuals will perceive depth and distance in representational projects to come. Editor: Absolutely, the intersection of the theory and practice gives this engraving a lasting presence. Its bare simplicity lets that foundational work of defining an artistic perspective shine through with remarkable efficacy. Curator: Looking closer at the print again makes me ponder the implications behind the scientific knowledge we take for granted and whose labor went into solidifying it, the politics and implications behind techniques such as perspective that have come to define our vision. Editor: Agreed. And in contemplating its lines, shapes and perspectives, the Leclerc has encouraged me to think further, considering its design, structure and materiality afresh.