Station of the Cross No. 13: "Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross" c. 1936

Editor: Here we have William Herbert's watercolor, "Station of the Cross No. 13: 'Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross'," created around 1936. The piece strikes me as surprisingly raw in its emotion and quite medieval looking. What do you see in this work? Curator: The medium itself speaks volumes. Herbert's choice of watercolor, often associated with preliminary sketches or amateur art, for such a weighty subject forces us to reconsider the modes of production for religious iconography. Is this an act of devotion expressed through accessible materials? Consider the context: a moment when traditional crafts and ‘high art’ were being rigorously redefined, it challenges our understanding of value within art making itself. Editor: So you're saying the material itself carries meaning, beyond just depicting the scene? How so? Curator: Absolutely. The handmade quality and the evident labor challenge notions of mass-produced religious images, placing emphasis on the personal connection to faith and artistic creation. We have to consider what the act of making this piece represents for the artist and its audience in that time. Were more traditional devotional works available at that time or did material limitations play a role in this choice? Editor: That makes sense. Thinking about it as a product of labor and choice changes my view completely. I’d been stuck on its sort of crude rendering, but it’s deliberately less polished, focusing attention back onto production itself. Curator: Precisely. Herbert’s piece serves as a stark reminder that we must look beyond surface aesthetics to the socio-economic circumstances in which art is produced and consumed. This really reshapes how we give value to artworks, even those with familiar subject matter.