Scene from the Story of Job 16th-17th century

Editor: This is "Scene from the Story of Job," by an anonymous artist. It’s a detailed engraving, seemingly depicting Job's wealth. What do you see in this piece, considering its materiality and context? Curator: The engraving medium itself is crucial. It suggests a reproductive process, making the image accessible to a wider audience, thus enabling a broader dissemination of the Job narrative and ideas of prosperity, labor and class. Editor: How does that change how we view the artwork? Curator: The accessibility shifts our focus from the artist's individual genius to the social function of the image. Consider, too, the labor involved in creating the engraving, and who consumed these images and how. What might it tell us about societal values at the time? Editor: I hadn't thought about it like that. It makes me consider how these images were tools for spreading ideas. Curator: Exactly! And how the materials and process shaped that dissemination.