Slotvignet met de Eeuwige Faam 1605

Curator: This is a page removed from a book made around 1605, titled "Slotvignet met de Eeuwige Faam" which translates to Tailpiece with Eternal Fame. It's an engraving done in ink on paper. Editor: Wow, it's so delicate! Looking at all the swirling lines makes me feel like I’ve stepped into a dream. All of those interwoven patterns – so detailed. It feels busy, but beautifully so. Curator: The detail comes from the engraving process itself, which necessitates painstaking labour. It was designed for reproduction on a printing press which makes it accessible to many more people than, say, a unique oil painting. How was fame commodified and disseminated through the printing press at this time? That’s something that this image hints at. Editor: Yes, there’s definitely something about mass production that takes away from the “aura” as Walter Benjamin might say, but I still find myself lost in its little world. The central oval cartouche... it's pure theater! Curator: Precisely. The "Eternal Fame" it depicts also points to the book’s social purpose and the desire of its maker, and patron, to promote lasting legacies. Printmaking was key for circulating visual rhetoric tied to status, virtue and moral claims. Editor: That text right beneath the central image, “Rien n'eft meilleur en cefte Terre, Que l'Homme de bien puifle querre, Comm' le Roy Salomon proclame, Que d'avoir vne bonne FAME”— “Nothing is better on this earth, Than the good man can seek, As King Solomon proclaims, Than to have a good FAME.” I mean...the pursuit of reputation! Curator: Which also opens up important questions around cultural value and patronage. We see then the complex entanglement between materials, techniques and also societal structures of the time. The actual cost of production factored into the object's value. Editor: Makes you wonder what these creators might think about us dissecting their labor centuries later. It’s almost a dialogue through time, isn’t it? A really charming artefact. Curator: Exactly! It's not just the image; it's the production and reception. These small things speak volumes about their era.