Reformatie in Engeland, ca. 1530 1818 - 1830

Editor: This is "Reformatie in Engeland, ca. 1530", a print made sometime between 1818 and 1830 by Robert Graves. It has this very formal, staged feel, almost like a theatre backdrop. What should we make of it? Curator: Exactly. It is about staging a pivotal moment in English history, the Reformation. Notice how the architecture behind the figures looks more like set construction than real architecture? And consider who is in the foreground; Henry VIII and presumably Thomas More; it’s interesting how the artist juxtaposes figures complicit and defiant to the Reformation and the making (or unmaking) of the English Church. What narrative is being prioritized here and whose stories get marginalized? Editor: So it's less about an accurate depiction, and more about... a symbolic representation? You mean the image tells as much about how the English understood this moment in the 19th century, as it does about the 16th? Curator: Precisely. It's crucial to examine whose perspectives are being centered in this historical reconstruction, and what political project this image might have been serving at the time of its making in the early 19th Century. Consider how class, gender, and religious identities are all implicitly woven into this narrative. Are those on the construction crew the unsung heros here? Editor: That's a point that never would have occured to me! Seeing how social issues are baked into historical pieces offers so much insight on the motives behind the image. Curator: It is all about questioning the power dynamics that are embedded in how history gets represented, always from someone’s point of view. What’s exciting here is that you see how contemporary critical lenses allow us to engage with historical artworks in new ways, and question the politics of their time – as well as ours.