Twaalf neuzen en monden Possibly 1796

Editor: Right, so, "Twelve Noses and Mouths," possibly from 1796, a pencil drawing by Francesco Bartolozzi. It feels so clinical, almost like a practice sheet, but I'm also strangely drawn to it. All those almost-faces... it’s unsettling. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Unsettling is a good word. It's like stumbling upon someone's discarded dreams. Look closely – notice the nuances in each rendering. The slight upturn of a lip, the way a nose is subtly shaded. It reminds me of those anatomical studies artists would create, dissecting the human form not literally, but artistically. Editor: So it's a study in expression, or rather, the lack thereof? These mouths seem... neutral. Curator: Precisely. But consider the period – Neoclassicism. It's all about order, reason, ideal forms. Maybe Bartolozzi is exploring the building blocks of expression, those tiny details that, when combined, create the full spectrum of human emotion. It also echoes the enlightenment pursuit of objective understanding. I wonder if the very slight differences between each version could represent someone in particular? Editor: Like, trying to distill the essence of portraiture down to its simplest elements? But if it’s objective, why make so many variations? Is he searching for a singular ideal? Curator: Maybe he’s showing us there is no single ideal! Perhaps he understood that even the smallest variance creates something completely new, something undeniably human. It’s like each one whispers secrets from a life never fully lived. Editor: Wow, I never considered it that way! Now they seem less like cold studies and more like… possibilities. Each slightly different set a completely new individual. Curator: Exactly. The absence tells its own story. It challenges us to fill in the blanks, to see beyond the fragment and imagine the whole.