Kruisiging van Christus 1624 - 1636

Editor: Here we have Claude Mellan’s “Crucifixion of Christ,” made between 1624 and 1636, a Baroque print in the Rijksmuseum collection. It’s such a powerfully rendered scene. What really jumps out at me is the line work, the precision. How do you interpret this work within its historical context? Curator: That precision you noted is fascinating, isn’t it? Mellan was celebrated for a technique using a single line, swelling and diminishing to create form and shadow, emulating the flesh he depicted, but more significantly for us, its suffering and pain, under a Catholic reformist banner. Prints were critical for disseminating religious and political ideas, reaching wide audiences in ways paintings couldn't. Editor: So the medium itself had political agency? Curator: Absolutely. Consider the image itself. What narratives is Mellan trying to craft with such detail and, what political agenda could this suggest during a religiously fraught time? Note the expressions, poses. What are your immediate feelings and how do these images appeal to particular audience beliefs? Editor: I see... the expressions of grief on the faces of the figures surrounding the cross are certainly intended to evoke an emotional response. Would the average person during this time understand this the same way we might today? Curator: Possibly not in its immediate visceral feeling. They would know the narrative well but perhaps contemplate its religious intensity as being for, by, and of the moment. As social and institutional circumstances change over time, it is perhaps less important how the figures within are portrayed and more to contemplate how religious dogma and institutions have altered since its print and subsequent availability in a now contemporary institution such as this. Editor: That's really broadened my understanding, both of the artwork and its context! Curator: And, hopefully, the understanding of how the politics of the time shaped not only art but also religious perceptions within different institutions that carry and uphold varying socio-political beliefs even today.