The Resurrection, from The Passion of Christ, plate 24 1664

Curator: Let's discuss "The Resurrection, from The Passion of Christ, plate 24," a 1664 engraving by Grégoire Huret, currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. My initial reaction is to its visual drama. The swirling composition immediately draws the eye. Editor: My gaze goes to the lower portion first—all that frenetic activity. What is your assessment of Huret’s engraving technique itself? The lines look quite delicate, a network of labor hours spent carefully pressing ink. Curator: Precisely. Note the contrasts: the chaotic, contorted figures below and the serene, almost weightless Christ hovering above. It is baroque theatricality at its finest. He manipulates line and shadow to create depth, almost sculpting with ink. Editor: It is certainly effective. Though, it appears much less detailed than the standard for engraving in its period. Do you get a sense that the production of copies mattered here? Given the relative efficiency with which Huret could make multiple copies to supply popular demand, did this affect the value he gave the materiality of the engraving itself? Curator: The relative thinness in detailing directs attention to the very conceptual schema and underlying philosophical argument behind it: divinity's transcendence over earthly disorder. He uses dynamism to direct us, the viewers, towards the figure of Christ and upward. Editor: Yes, the narrative clarity is undeniable, as is its religious aim. I’m compelled by the thought of this existing both as an object of faith and of early consumer culture—an accessible luxury for the pious perhaps. Curator: A complex interplay of meaning and material indeed, which I can appreciate. Huret encapsulates a significant theological and art historical moment in this single plate. Editor: Yes, by looking at it in terms of its purpose, it reveals a history of belief, skill, and the economy of art.