The Midwife Taking Leave of the girl from Andros. From Terence´s Andria 1801

Editor: Here we have Nicolai Abildgaard’s 1801 painting, "The Midwife Taking Leave of the Girl from Andros. From Terence’s Andria," made with oil paint. I'm immediately struck by the staged theatricality and the contrast between the foreground action and the idealized, almost sterile, architectural background. What can you tell me about this piece, considering the materials and the context it was created in? Curator: Let’s consider the materiality. Abildgaard, using oil paint – a then-established but evolving medium – constructs this scene. Look at the application, thinly layered, mimicking the smooth surfaces favored by neoclassical sculptors. Do you see how that links the manual labor of painting with a particular social and artistic aspiration? Editor: Yes, it’s less about the brushstroke and more about achieving that polished, almost ‘untouched’ finish. How does that relate to the story itself? Curator: "The Midwife" references a classical play. Neoclassicism, in its pursuit of an idealized past, often sanitized it. Labor is mostly absent from this depiction. However, where *is* labor explicitly shown here? Consider the narrative implied. Editor: I suppose the midwife *is* labor…her leaving suggests her job is done. Perhaps Abildgaard is commenting on the hidden labor involved in maintaining this ideal of beauty and classical order, especially concerning childbirth, which would have been very difficult? Curator: Precisely! Abildgaard highlights a moment where social structures and the physical reality of the human body intersect. Think about the source material of the play – How might this work of art reflect its role within a specific economy of artistic production? Editor: I see, it's not just about an aesthetic revival, but about the active, sometimes obscured, production of a particular version of history and beauty using specific artistic and theatrical tools. Curator: And by highlighting the human element, Abildgaard is also implicitly questioning the boundaries of that aesthetic project. It encourages us to reconsider art's connection to labour and the lived human experience behind these grand narratives.