Landschap met jagers c. 17th century

Editor: Here we have a print titled "Landschap met jagers", or "Landscape with Hunters," from around the 17th century. It’s an engraving. The landscape has such fine details, it looks almost like a pen sketch. I find the everyday activities of the people quite charming. What strikes you when you look at this work? Curator: The term "everyday activities" is precisely what interests me. This genre scene is meticulously rendered through engraving, which as a process highlights the labor invested in creating a seemingly simple image of hunters in a landscape. Editor: Labor? Curator: Absolutely. Consider the materials: the metal plate, the inks, the paper, the tools used to incise the design. Engraving itself is a craft, a skill passed down through workshops. In that respect, it mirrors the work the figures are engaged in here, seemingly obtaining and butchering some fresh meat. In a way, that labor links to how this would have been viewed and consumed at the time, possibly catering to a growing middle class interested in depictions of familiar, rural scenes. The materiality extends into the realm of economics. How do you view the inscription? Editor: The inscription at the bottom? I confess I haven't translated it. Does it perhaps comment on hunting, connecting it to…well, labor and commerce? Curator: In part, yes. But more broadly, its very presence, typeset directly beneath the image, connects the tangible work of the engraver, creating line by line, to that of a typesetter carefully selecting letters in anticipation of commerce. The creation and consumption of this work ties directly to period craftsmanship. Editor: So by looking at the materials and the method, we can better understand not only the scene, but how it existed in society as an object itself. That's a great point. Curator: Precisely. Art as more than just a representation, but as a product with a complex story embedded within its making.