Madonna and Child with Rosaries c. 17th century

Editor: This is Giulio Carpioni's "Madonna and Child with Rosaries". It's an etching, right? The lines are so delicate. What strikes me is how the rosaries and the drapery seem to ground the otherwise ethereal scene. What do you make of the process involved in creating something like this? Curator: Think of the socio-economic context: who had access to these rosaries? How were they produced? And the paper itself—a commodity. Consider, too, the labor involved in etching the metal plate. It's about the production and consumption of these devotional objects. Editor: So, it’s less about the religious narrative and more about the materiality of faith? Curator: Precisely. We examine art as a product of its time, shaped by materials, labor, and the market. It is a reminder that devotion also had a cost. Editor: That’s a really different way of seeing religious art. I'll never look at an etching the same way again!