Heilige Familie 1588 - 1615

Curator: Let’s take a look at this print titled “Heilige Familie” by Bartolomeo Schedoni, likely created between 1588 and 1615. It's an engraving depicting the Holy Family. Editor: Immediately, I notice the soft, diffused light and the delicate linework. There’s a certain tenderness, despite the starkness of the medium. It feels intimate, even. Curator: Absolutely. Considering its likely context within the Baroque period, printmaking allowed for wider dissemination of religious iconography and Schedoni's workshop practices likely included various collaborators. The materiality of the print itself—the paper, the ink, the labor—speaks to a complex web of production and consumption. Editor: And the formal composition, though seemingly simple, directs our eye. The arrangement of figures within that limited space – a pyramidal configuration with Mary at the apex. The way their gazes converge toward the Christ child, and he with his little cross…It builds a potent sense of connection. Curator: How the act of creating the print affects how the work reaches different kinds of viewers is intriguing. Each impression pulls from a limited stock of available materials and contributes to the construction of new layers of engagement with art. What impact does it create with respect to class, belief, location? Editor: I think that the emotional intensity derives from both form and theme working in harmony. Note, for instance, the textures, built up solely through the accumulation of line. Even in the limited tones offered by printmaking, the range created through mark-making choices still conjures real dynamism. Curator: These early prints, as a commercial form, reveal so much about religious values in Schedoni’s time and his contributions to disseminating that dogma across different segments of society through artisanal practice. Editor: Ultimately, though, what stands out to me is the expressive nature achieved through form. The lines, light, and figures evoke something very immediate: a connection of family—humanity in faith and the intimacy within that. Curator: Yes, this intersection of the devotional with practical modes of production is where so much cultural meaning resides. Editor: Precisely, an interplay we've only just begun to uncover.