Man met baret met veer en bontkraag 1739 - 1804

Curator: Ah, the swish and swagger of it all. Editor: Right? Before us, we have an engraving titled "Man met baret met veer en bontkraag"—or, "Man with a Beret with Feather and Fur Collar." It was made by Johann Andreas Benjamin Nothnagel sometime between 1739 and 1804. Talk about decadent luxury. All that fur and feathers, rendered in such fine lines. Curator: The labor involved is truly astounding. Think of the engraver hunched over, carefully cutting away at the metal plate, hour after hour. You see not just a man but a physical manifestation of concentrated effort. It feels precious in a way a quick sketch never could. Editor: And the fashion! Look at that rakish angle of the beret, the plume daring to defy gravity. The fellow clearly takes pleasure in appearances; I'd bet his daily life was rife with playful affectation and social posturing. Is this art as commodity display? Curator: Oh, without a doubt! The print itself makes this accessible and reproducible. It whispers stories of social structures and how information or perceived class moved about. But more than that, to me it's a record of human contact, a quiet collaboration between artist and model across time. His gaze is a little flirtatious, don't you think? It feels as though this gallant could step out of the print and charm us silly. Editor: Flirtatious perhaps, but I wonder about the system of craft and patronage that makes this image available to be owned and shared across an imagined public. Still, its beauty is undeniable; the material is secondary only to the power of reproduction. Curator: Well said. It's as much about aspiration, and about memory, perhaps, as it is about capturing any one person. What else could that feather represent but fleeting whimsy? What does all of it conceal, just under the surface, in each tiny stroke? Editor: In sum, it brings questions of what it mean to produce both art, but in that, what it costs for accessibility. I have lots to consider. Curator: I can’t agree more: maybe a single object can tell all truths at once! Thank you.