Het martelaarschap van de Heilige Sebastiaan c. 1660

Editor: Here we have Moses ter Borch's "The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian," a drawing from around 1660. It's a striking image – stark and immediate. What jumps out to you about it? Curator: What interests me here is the materiality of suffering. Consider the artist’s tools: charcoal and pencil. Modest materials for depicting such an emotionally charged subject. How does this affect our interpretation? Editor: It feels almost like a sketch, unfinished, raw… less grand than a large-scale painting depicting the same scene might be. Curator: Exactly. We’re presented with a depiction of labor in multiple registers: the visible, brutal labor being done to St. Sebastian by other workers, contrasted with the labor involved in artmaking itself. The drawing allows us to focus on the act, on process. Look at the tentative lines around the angel—what does this tell us about artistic skill as a kind of labour? Editor: So, you're saying the drawing medium democratizes the subject in a way? High art is brought down to earth by… earth, literally, as charcoal. Curator: Precisely! This artwork encourages questions. Was the purpose to elevate or memorialize Saint Sebastian? And how might our consumption of this work in a museum, divorced from its original context, transform its significance? Editor: That makes me think about the materials used to preserve this work today – archival paper, special lighting… the labour involved in conservation, a whole other layer. Curator: Yes! By acknowledging this, we reveal the network of production surrounding even a single drawing, spanning centuries and disciplines. Editor: I never thought about it that way before. Seeing the labor behind the art *and* in the art. Thanks! Curator: And thanks to you for prompting such vital questions. We often overlook the conditions that allow us to view art in the first place.