Vulvan Orders Up a Fireworks Display c. 1530 - 1535

Curator: Let's discuss Domenico Beccafumi's "Vulvan Orders Up a Fireworks Display," currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It strikes me immediately as something chaotic, almost frenzied. All those lines! What's going on here? Curator: Beccafumi was a master of the Italian Renaissance, and here, we see his engagement with printmaking. The medium itself – the labor, the inking, the very process of reproduction – speaks to a wider accessibility of imagery at the time. Editor: Absolutely. And think about the social context: Fireworks were a spectacle, a form of public entertainment. This print captures that celebratory spirit, but also perhaps the inherent dangers and volatility. Who controlled the pyrotechnics, who was excluded? Curator: Exactly. The subject, Vulvan, directs the process itself—linking mythology, craftsmanship, and societal power. It underscores the connection between the mythological and the everyday through the spectacle of fireworks. Editor: It's a small piece, but it contains so much. I'm left wondering about the audiences and implications of such displays. Curator: Indeed, a small format, yet a powerful reminder that art engages the world in diverse, material, and visual ways.