Beleg van Thionville 1838 - 1841

Curator: "Beleg van Thionville," or the Siege of Thionville, created between 1838 and 1841 by Ferdinand Delannoy. It's a print, specifically an engraving. Editor: This engraving has such a formal, staged quality, doesn’t it? It’s quite a detailed rendering. How do you read this piece? Curator: For me, it speaks to the very processes of power. Engraving itself was a technology democratizing images. Looking at Delannoy's artistic production, think of the economic investment required to make these kinds of images. Editor: So the image is an artefact related to both high-art production, but also dissemination to a potentially wider market. Curator: Exactly. How might the artist’s labor and workshop structure influence how this historical event is seen and interpreted? Who had access to these images? What class values are embedded within its creation and circulation? What implications do you think those decisions about circulation have on the subject depicted here? Editor: That's interesting, how the print becomes an object embedded in social hierarchies. In terms of consumption, do you think that a print like this reinforced a particular understanding of history for its viewers? Curator: Absolutely. It wasn't just about depicting the event, but solidifying a specific narrative controlled by the social structures supporting the artist's work. The work exists due to these means, as you can't remove one from the other. Editor: That emphasis on production makes me rethink how prints were used and consumed. I mean, prints could democratize history, but the social underpinnings of this work suggest otherwise. Curator: Indeed. So the focus is drawn towards social context and what materials it took to build the machine of art, challenging the boundaries of art as merely aesthetic expression.