Study for the same 1710 - 1780

Curator: Alright, let's delve into this intriguing sketch. This pencil drawing, titled "Study for the same," comes to us from sometime between 1710 and 1780 and the hand of Francesco La Marra. It currently resides at the SMK, the Statens Museum for Kunst. Editor: Woah, this looks like the visual equivalent of a half-remembered dream. Like when you wake up, and the details are already slipping away! There’s this ethereal, floating quality about it. It looks…fragile, you know? Curator: Fragility is a keen observation. The lightness of touch, the almost ghostly rendering, does lend itself to that interpretation. I think we can also view that ephemerality through the lens of its status as a study, a preliminary investigation. What is La Marra attempting to capture here? And perhaps more importantly, who is the "same" referenced in the title, and how are the identity politics playing out? Editor: Good point, who IS the "same?" Maybe a more innocent reading – and here's where I probably romanticize it a bit too much! – it almost has this weightless feeling about it, almost a pre-Raphaelite sense of capturing pure, idealized, dare I say, beauty. Curator: The baroque stylistic elements certainly encourage a reach toward idealized forms, although in the 18th century it became somewhat more stylized, emphasizing spectacle and sometimes concealing power structures, specifically around representation. It might even be useful to apply feminist theories here, exploring the objectification inherent in capturing female figures. How do societal expectations influence the rendering? Editor: Oh definitely! Now, you've yanked me back to earth. Okay, it makes me consider if it captures a "truth," a moment, or what the expectations were around capturing "feminine virtue." What is more "important?" Is it the artistic talent and "virtuosity" of the image making, or that this is not actually trying to make a picture of an individual with feelings. Which honestly makes it less of a weightless reverie. And more ghostly, even morbid in a sense. Yikes! Curator: Exactly. It allows a glimpse into a time when depictions, especially of women, served very specific, ideologically charged purposes. It moves the discussion beyond mere artistic appreciation, placing it within social critique and intersectional feminist analysis. Editor: You know, when I first glanced at it, I was ready to wax poetic about ethereal beauty and artistic genius. But seeing it with a more critical lens…wow, it just hits differently. Curator: That interplay, that tension, is where the value lies. Art doesn't exist in a vacuum. Editor: Absolutely! Makes you wonder what else this “sketch” holds!