Zwei Soldaten treiben zwei Ziegen vor sich her 

Curator: Here we have "Zwei Soldaten treiben zwei Ziegen vor sich her", or "Two Soldiers Driving Two Goats Before Them" in English, a delicate intaglio print and ink drawing. It's held here at the Städel Museum and attributed to Jacques Callot. Editor: My initial reaction? Bleak, strangely so. Despite the rustic subject matter, there’s an anxiety radiating from those hastily etched lines. It's almost cartoonish. Curator: Cartoonish perhaps, in the exaggeration, but Callot lived through, and depicted, some seriously un-cartoonish conflicts. He became renowned for capturing the gritty realities of the Thirty Years' War, documenting the brutal everyday existence. I can sense he put much into capturing war. Editor: Exactly. And looking at this, I'm immediately drawn to the labor involved. Engraving, especially at this scale, is incredibly precise work. Imagine the social and material conditions that supported Callot's craft, the workshops, the apprentices, the very trade of image-making. It depended on these conditions! Curator: It's compelling to imagine. These are early examples of the relationship of art with capitalism... Do you think he pondered what his tools did to the artwork's narrative and symbolism? Because those scraggly goats definitely suggest hardship. Those soldiers look exhausted, more like brigands than a proper army. It has an interesting narrative with their presence. Editor: Right! These aren't idealized figures. And consider the implications of reproducing and distributing this image widely via prints. Think about how labor-intensive producing multiples of this image would be in his context. We take this image and share it widely on our phones, it is much simpler and faster! Curator: Absolutely, that touches the pulse of the work so perfectly! His method of intaglio revolutionized printmaking—deeper cuts in the plate allowed for more impressions. One might consider the labor of producing, printing, and selling this very image as part of that world. And what are they escaping? Or is it conquering? It leaves you in an unknown landscape... Editor: That interplay between technique and subject matter is key. Looking at it through that lens lets you think about everything, right down to how those animals get pulled across a field and make marks in a landscape. Materially, conceptually, there are echoes everywhere. I will carry that image with me. Curator: Well, I think you've given me a fresh perspective to chew on! And those bleating goats feel somehow very present, don't they? It seems to show just a small piece of this moment we’ve been studying so much.