Alexander and Timoclea c. 18th century

Editor: This is Georg Friedrich Schmidt's "Alexander and Timoclea," currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums. It's a complex scene rendered in, I believe, engraving. The composition feels very theatrical. What do you see in this piece from a formalist perspective? Curator: Indeed. Note the artist's masterful control of line, how it delineates form and creates depth. The interplay of light and shadow guides the viewer's eye, doesn't it? Consider, too, how the artist employs classical motifs to enhance the work's visual and theoretical weight. Editor: I'm starting to see how the artist uses line to build the drama of the scene. Thanks for pointing that out. Curator: Precisely! By attending to such formal elements, we begin to decode the artwork's structure.