Gezicht op de colonnades in de tuinen van Het Loo 1694 - 1697

Editor: This engraving, "Gezicht op de colonnades in de tuinen van Het Loo" by Jan van Call, was created between 1694 and 1697. I'm immediately struck by the formality, but also by the detail in the garden layout. How do you approach understanding a piece like this? Curator: From a materialist perspective, this engraving allows us to examine the labor and resources involved in creating and disseminating images of power and wealth. Consider the paper, the ink, the skill of the engraver…these weren't universally accessible. Editor: So, you're thinking about the materials and production itself being indicative of something? Curator: Precisely! The print is not just a neutral depiction, it's actively constructing a view of the Dutch elite and their dominion over both nature and artistic production. What effect might such widespread visual depictions have? Editor: It sounds like the circulation of images like this established social status. By depicting this ideal form of manufactured, architectural, landscaping, the print serves as propaganda for those in power by reminding those consuming this print just how vast and seemingly unreachable the heights of the elite are. Curator: Indeed. And consider the architecture itself. These colonnades, the precisely ordered garden... these are resources and the transformation of resources—stone, water, land—into displays of control. It begs us to think, then, who had the leisure to wander these gardens and appreciate this image, and who didn't. Editor: So it is less about the idyllic nature scene, and more about what and whom the scene portrays and how that imagery functions within a material world. This has shifted my thinking entirely! Curator: Excellent! Paying attention to the material conditions behind art production is key.