Portret van de kanunnik Hieronymus van Winghe 1609

Editor: This is “Portret van de kanunnik Hieronymus van Winghe,” a 1609 engraving by Wierix, housed at the Rijksmuseum. The detail achieved in the etching, especially in the face, is striking. What's your take on this portrait? Curator: The lines created through the engraving process aren't merely representational, they’re constitutive. Look at how they delineate social status: the sitter’s garments, the careful etching to simulate luxurious fabrics versus the coarser lines defining his facial features which speak volumes about the labor this man performed during his life. Editor: Labor? I thought he was a canon, wasn’t his labor more… intellectual? Curator: Precisely, and this is where materiality complicates assumptions. The act of portrayal, particularly through such a reproducible medium like engraving, transformed that intellectual labour into a commodity, subject to market forces. The material conditions dictated who could access or afford such likenesses. How does the Latin inscription at the bottom "LIBERTAS AVRO POTIOR" change your view when coupled with the status of a reproducible image for potential wide scale distribution? Editor: That phrase – “liberty is worth more than gold" – does contrast oddly with the potential for commodity consumption you mention. It makes me consider if there's commentary on the Canon's value versus the inherent ideals the engraving seems to suggest... How are these conflicting ideologies captured within its composition, then? Curator: They aren’t reconciled, are they? It speaks to tensions inherent within the burgeoning merchant classes. The very material production reveals these social frictions. Even in its seemingly static form, we see a reflection of the era’s complicated economic and ideological landscape. Editor: I’d never considered how the engraving medium itself speaks to those socioeconomic factors so clearly. Thanks, that was fascinating. Curator: Likewise, a reminder that even a portrait serves as product of material and economic systems that affect not only its creation, but our perceptions of it.