Portret van Guilielmus Macdowell 1654

Curator: Here we have Steven van Lamsweerde’s 1654 engraving, "Portret van Guilielmus Macdowell." Editor: It’s incredibly detailed for an engraving. The way light seems to catch on his satin cloak gives it a tactile quality, despite being a print. The labor involved in creating this plate must have been considerable. Curator: Indeed. Notice the sitter's austere expression and the text encircling the portrait oval – details hinting at Macdowell’s stature and position in society. Look closer, and the texture created mimics the richness and class that can be afforded from an elite military rank. Editor: Do you think that texture serves solely to represent his class, or do you read anything else from it? I'm particularly interested in how the etching process reflects broader societal techniques. Curator: Certainly, there’s more at play than just status. In a psychological reading, the etching conveys a sense of permanence, but one made painstakingly from small delicate marks. The laborious texture is, on the one hand, a product of skill that speaks of his reputation. Yet on another, his grim expression reads heavy and burdensome, laden perhaps by the implications of his military position. Editor: Right, there's an interesting contrast. This rigid representation, meant to reflect some greater truth, is created through layers of labor that reveal much about the materials used and what those mean materially, to make that "truth". You have the marks, you have the class implications. But then you can consider the accessibility afforded by engraving... it seems to speak to power and dissemination in the period. Curator: Yes, and in thinking of historical dissemination of portraiture—this kind of rendering, particularly as the sitter would have looked at age 57, becomes a type of memento mori as much as a record. Editor: It makes you wonder, given all these interpretations… what did it mean to McDowell at the time? Curator: A vital question, as we strive to understand his era through both symbolic readings and materiality! Editor: Indeed. Examining how art is made offers such potent insights into our past.