Suggestion for the Decoration of Top Right Side of Portal, Plate 4 from 'Allerneueste Façon von Auszierungen zu Portalen' 1745 - 1755

Curator: Immediately I think, oh, baroque fantasy. Like a confectionery castle but make it stone. Editor: Indeed. Here we have "Suggestion for the Decoration of Top Right Side of Portal, Plate 4 from 'Allerneueste Façon von Auszierungen zu Portalen,'" a design on laid paper created sometime between 1745 and 1755 by Jeremias Wachsmuth. It’s currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The plate shows an engraving detailing architectural ornamentation. Curator: Ornamentation that, were it built full scale, would definitely prompt some internal existential crisis, right? It teeters into pure indulgence; you would design with so much elaborate flourish for purely decorative purposes, wouldn't you? What statement would you even be making with that, you know? It is interesting to contemplate its intended setting and purpose. Editor: Baroque architecture, especially in its ornamentation, spoke of power and triumph. Every scroll, leaf, and flourish was intended to overwhelm, creating a sense of awe, communicating status through sheer excess. Consider the symbolic weight: repetitive, naturalistic motifs implying abundance and prosperity, while the organized composition gives an order to that chaotic, energetic sense of luxury, controlling it, much like Baroque authorities tried to reign in social freedoms! Curator: So it’s architecture doing…PR? Like, showing off isn't enough; there has to be like some deeper message justifying the fanciness? The shapes themselves - those curves, it's almost liquid. I feel the tension between the rigidity architecture imposes and its inherent, earthly connection with malleable shape. Do you think people back then thought about that too? Editor: I think they experienced that tension viscerally. Architecture shapes not only the body’s movement through space but also its perspective on power and authority, you know. It makes one consider their role within such structures. Wachsmuth's genius lies in capturing this dynamism, where every element—the historical nods, the engraving technique, even the considered page layout—speaks volumes. Curator: And so, looking at this, in all of its intricate details and the stories locked in its lines, I find I am reminded what visual storytelling is truly about: showing something and implying so much more. Editor: A dance between decadence and control, tradition and a novel statement; you nailed it: a captured visual narrative with lingering questions on the values and memories such a portal symbolizes!