Diana og Aktæon. (Ovid, Net., III, 175 ff.) 1671 - 1738

Hendrik Krock made this drawing, "Diana and Actaeon", in the 17th or 18th century using pencil on paper. It's a classical subject rendered in a fairly traditional way, but the material itself – humble graphite – gives us an interesting point of entry. Think about the labor involved in producing pencils at the time. Graphite had to be mined, processed, and then encased in wood, itself a product of forestry and carpentry. The value of this drawing emerges from the many hands involved in the production. Krock’s virtuosity in the handling of the medium—the way he suggests volume and light with a few deft strokes—belies the vast amount of work involved in its production. We are reminded that even the simplest artistic gestures are embedded in complex networks of labor and production. Appreciating the work thus means understanding it, not just in terms of Krock's skill, but the larger social and economic context in which it was made.