Horse-drawn Carriage in Rome 

Curator: Here we have "Horse-drawn Carriage in Rome," a watercolor and drawing attributed to Fujishima Takeji. Editor: There’s something inherently melancholic about this piece. The muted colors and sketch-like quality give it an ephemeral feeling, like a half-remembered dream of a bygone era. Curator: Yes, and let’s consider the historical context. A horse-drawn carriage, particularly in Rome, speaks volumes about social class and privilege in a period of rapid modernization. It brings to the fore the relationship between mobility and status, and the unequal access to resources that defined the era. Editor: Absolutely. Horses and carriages also carry very loaded symbols. Beyond status, consider the iconography of the horse—power, virility, but also labor. Here, the horse’s role within this leisure scene feels…complicated. Its a potent, complicated animal brought into service. Curator: It is evocative too, to think about that kind of labor specifically within a colonial or post-colonial power dynamic, if this piece does represent the class systems within those eras, and that would also influence our interpretations here. The posture of each figure is fascinating—how it can imply authority, subservience. We might consider it relative to systems of power and control beyond just individual characters within this scene. Editor: I agree. And I am captivated by how even the loose style enhances these feelings. The driver is elevated on the carriage, visually separated from the pedestrian—a silent visual marker of status and class. A formal choice mirrors a societal truth. It reminds me of how we read similar visual cues today in advertising and media. Curator: Precisely. Visual culture is often a very effective tool of encoding existing societal imbalances. Takeji’s style might also serve to critique or question these social structures of his time—that it’s loose quality emphasizes their precarity and unsustainability. Editor: The composition also pulls the viewer back and forth. You look into the scene and also across at that landscape. And that makes me realize it captures something timeless. Despite its specifics—time and location— the class relations, those imbalances are still recognizable. It allows us to confront aspects of our contemporary social landscape that often seem untouchable. Curator: Very insightful. This drawing functions not just as a representation, but as a critical tool. Editor: Indeed. The artist shows how potent such understated imagery can be.