The Task of the Working Class c. 1585

Curator: Here we have Adriaen Collaert’s engraving, "The Task of the Working Class," a piece currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. What strikes you about this piece? Editor: Well, it's certainly busy. There’s almost a sense of overburdened chaos, isn't there? Like a morality play about the weight of labor itself. Curator: Indeed. The allegory is thick here, with figures embodying virtues and burdens. Look how the cross seems to grow directly from the head of one figure. This signals religious duty and self-sacrifice. Editor: And the animals weighed down with tools, that's got to be a direct reference to beasts of burden. It makes me consider how our technology, even then, was just transferring weight, not alleviating it. Are we really any different now? Curator: Perhaps we've just complicated the task. I find the serene expressions of those in the cart fascinating, as though transcending the toil. It speaks volumes about endurance. Editor: I see that now. It adds a layer of stoicism. It makes the whole thing feel both exhausting and oddly… hopeful? Food for thought, literally and figuratively.