The Cow and the Calf 1626 - 1678

Curator: Let's consider Karel Du Jardin’s etching, "The Cow and the Calf," made sometime between 1626 and 1678. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: It’s quite charming! The detail in the animals is striking, especially considering it’s a print. I’m curious though – what am I supposed to make of this rather bucolic scene? What do you see in this piece? Curator: Well, focusing on the material realities, the print medium itself is crucial. Etchings allowed for relatively inexpensive reproductions, making art accessible to a wider audience. How does the accessibility of prints influence how genre scenes depicting farm animals can move away from allegories and towards observations? The image is made through a series of reproducible steps from artist to viewer; how do the layers of making relate to the different meanings someone can interpret? Editor: That’s interesting. So, you're saying the technique itself democratizes the subject matter? I hadn’t thought about the labor and commerce connected to printmaking that way. Curator: Exactly! Consider, too, the rural labor embedded in the image – the cow, a commodity, represents agriculture, food production, even wealth. Is Du Jardin glorifying that labour, or simply depicting it? And for whom was this image intended? Editor: So, by considering the process and the materials – both in the image and making the image – we start to uncover a deeper understanding of its historical and social context. It definitely makes me think about art outside the high art/craft divide, too. I wonder if there are ways that printmakers are like laborers of the image-making world! Curator: Precisely! Analyzing the “stuff” of art, whether pigment or process, allows us to grapple with bigger issues of consumption and class. That's an interesting thought, indeed. Thank you!