Bust of woman with wide-open mouth and long curly hair falling over her shoulders, wearing low-cut dress with ribbon round her waist, in profile to left 1665

Curator: Here we have an etching from 1665 by Wenceslaus Hollar. Its full title is quite descriptive: "Bust of woman with wide-open mouth and long curly hair falling over her shoulders, wearing low-cut dress with ribbon round her waist, in profile to left." It’s currently held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: Wow, what a scream! Not literally, maybe, but it's got that raw, open-throated kind of energy. The linework feels frantic, almost vibrating off the page. And those wild curls cascading down, contrasting sharply with the... well, "low-cut dress" is one way to put it. Curator: It’s intriguing, isn't it? Consider Hollar’s process here: the controlled, repeatable medium of etching to create something so seemingly untamed. How did he achieve that texture, that sense of unrestrained emotion within a commercially viable art form? Editor: I love how the mouth, that dark void, becomes the focal point. The details in the hair almost soften the... severity of the other features. She could be singing, yelling, or simply amazed; the ambiguity is delicious! Almost comedic, a tragic clown, perhaps? Curator: Perhaps Hollar meant this print to be viewed ironically. Its ties to the conventions of Renaissance portraiture—note the profile view and the attention to decorative detail—set in stark contrast with what many today would consider features deemed "unflattering." The production suggests dissemination; for whom was such an image circulating and why? Editor: Or maybe Hollar saw beauty in this... unconventional face? Artists often challenge norms of beauty. Think of Picasso’s disfigured faces or even Jenny Saville's monumental nudes! Perhaps he wanted us to reconsider our notions of what’s "acceptable" or "beautiful." There's something powerfully subversive about making this her formal "portrait." Curator: That’s a wonderful counterpoint! And one worth pondering in context, where we examine ideas surrounding the concept of feminine representation, consumption and what could possibly be perceived as 'deviant' from within acceptable portraiture and commercial viability of etching. The piece becomes far richer considering that lens. Editor: Absolutely. I think the genius of Hollar lies in that very tension – the beautiful and the grotesque, frozen in a moment of glorious, uncensored expression. Curator: Precisely. Thanks for reminding us to see beyond the surface, or indeed in the material surface itself!