An ornamental Italiante pond 

Editor: This is “An Ornamental Italianate Pond,” attributed to Enrico Nardi, created using watercolor and what looks like impasto. There's a hazy quality to the water and the scene overall, creating a dreamy effect. How might we interpret Nardi's emphasis on materials and method here? Curator: Focusing on the materials is key. Consider the accessibility of watercolor and its historical context. Who had the leisure time and access to these materials to depict such scenes? Also, think about the "plein-air" aspect. Was Nardi capturing the light as an end in itself, or was the landscape intended to celebrate a cultivated upper class leisure? Editor: So, the act of creating this piece, choosing watercolor, and painting en plein air inherently connects it to specific social and economic structures of the time? Curator: Precisely. And the impasto technique—how does that change our understanding of the watercolor? Impasto brings texture, a sense of the artist's hand laboring over the image. It seems almost paradoxical alongside the traditionally light and fluid watercolor medium. Why mix an emphasis on labor with something so ephemeral? Editor: Perhaps to elevate what might be considered a simple watercolor landscape, drawing attention to the craft involved. Making the "ephemeral" more solid through tactile material. Curator: Indeed. The very act of combining these things – the consumable materials like the watercolor and the artistic gesture creates an image for our consumption that simultaneously asks to be understood as process. Is this simply documentation, or does the mixing of styles point to something beyond the scene? Editor: That makes me see it in a completely new light. I was initially caught up in the aesthetics, but now I see how much the piece has to say about labor and social class, thanks to Nardi's specific choices about medium. Curator: Right? Now, when you see landscape paintings, it might provoke thinking about what resources and hands played a part in what looks like mere idyllic fantasy.