Man en vrouw dragen een kist met spullen 1625 - 1635

Editor: We're looking at an engraving from between 1625 and 1635, called "Man en vrouw dragen een kist met spullen," currently held at the Rijksmuseum, by an anonymous artist. The scene shows a man and a woman carrying a chest. There’s something weary about it. How do you interpret this work? Curator: As a materialist, I’m drawn to the production of this engraving and how it relates to social conditions of the time. The line work is incredibly detailed for an engraving of this size, implying a significant amount of labor by the printmaker, who might not even be the artist whose design is represented here. Consider what the act of engraving—of mass producing imagery—meant in early modern Europe. What sort of social function would this image have had? Editor: You’re saying to think about how prints were made, like a little industry? Who would have been buying this sort of thing? Curator: Precisely! Think about the audience. It wasn’t the elite commissioning grand history paintings, but perhaps a growing merchant class interested in images reflecting their own daily lives and values. The text gives a clue to its social use, likely intended to adorn domestic spaces and convey moral lessons, but do you think its visual execution and mode of circulation adds to or contradicts that meaning? Editor: Interesting, so this wasn’t just a pretty picture, it was connected to bigger changes in society and the way people were living. The effort that went into creating multiple versions of this piece reflects on what’s valued, both in making and observing this print. Curator: Exactly. It bridges that divide we sometimes impose between "high" art and craft and opens it to social commentary. Thank you, it has highlighted elements I hadn't fully appreciated before. Editor: I hadn't considered art-making from this social point of view, seeing artistic decisions rooted in economic reality. Thank you!