Sterfbed van koning Lodewijk I van Spanje, 1724 1724 - 1727

Curator: Leonard Schenk brings us this 1724 print titled "Sterfbed van koning Lodewijk I van Spanje," or "The Deathbed of King Louis I of Spain." It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Oh, it has quite the somber air about it, doesn’t it? The king reclines in bed, surrounded by what I imagine are grieving members of the court, or perhaps, opportunistic vultures. Curator: Vultures maybe, in a political sense! The details are exquisite, considering it's an engraving. You see the ornate details on the bed frame and the tapestry, suggesting the luxury that defined his brief reign. Just barely a year...gone by smallpox, at 17. Editor: Seventeen! A devastating detail, really hitting the fact that so much work has gone into recording this very moment. The material act of commemoration, even. Engravings were really the newspapers of the day for the non-elites, churning out narratives, reproducing a specific message for consumption...almost a memento mori for the masses. Curator: Right, engravings made these royal events tangible to the public, and this piece really emphasizes the drama of death in the Baroque style. History painting becoming almost like a morbid "genre painting". You feel the staged quality, but also the weight of historical record. Editor: And how interesting to see genre blended with history... Death isn’t usually a scene we can walk in on, but the choice of print – and the detail invested into conveying it - feels like a bid to capture the real. One almost wonders about the engraver: about how the lines translate the original grief. Curator: Yes, to think of Schenk laboring over these details, translating not just a scene but a complex network of social power into a series of lines on a copper plate…fascinating. He immortalizes not only Louis's death but also the machinery of monarchy. Editor: A tangible record, etched forever by a very earthly hand. Something for us to meditate upon, about labor and impermanence, power and material realities, all in a humble little print. Curator: It does put it all into perspective, doesn’t it? From king to a crafted object, the layers of meaning and making swirling together.