Toespraak van Lodewijk XVI 1796

Curator: Luigi Schiavonetti's engraving, "Toespraak van Lodewijk XVI," made in 1796, offers a fascinating window into a pivotal moment. What catches your eye first? Editor: The sheer number of figures! And how their gazes are all directed toward this solitary figure on the platform. It feels weighty, you know? A room filled with watchful eyes... feels like destiny hanging in the air. Curator: Absolutely. This scene, housed here at the Rijksmuseum, depicts Louis XVI addressing the National Convention. Schiavonetti, master engraver that he was, translated an earlier design, capturing the drama of the Revolution. I see a convergence of labor in this image. First, there's the original conceptualization and physical artistic labour by an artist we don't even know by name and who remains subordinate in the engraving's textual details. Next, there is Schiavonetti as craftsman working to create and proliferate multiple originals. The scale, of course, alters with each print produced from the master plate, distributed to be collected. It becomes this symbol made of its own materiality. Editor: And speaking of translation, the act of engraving itself transforms the original artwork, doesn't it? It’s not just a copy; it's an interpretation through line and texture. Consider the sheer labor involved in etching that level of detail! One wrong move could ruin the plate. The materials have a voice. Curator: It does invite reflection on those echoes. Louis on that stage; stripped bare from his royal signifiers addressing an assembly seething with republican ideals... a heartrending performance unfolding with all eyes locked on the gilded cage. A monarch pleading for clemency before the inevitable... Editor: Well, the image gives me a funny feeling; there is tension there, yes, but what strikes me more is the tedium... Everyone crammed in that space listening for something of profound meaning and import; what, in the end, did their presence there signify except a lot of wasted breath? A scene that is historical, monumental, tedious. Curator: It’s fascinating how you arrive there, isn’t it? We see echoes of revolution but also a foreshadowing perhaps that something else may linger. An excellent point. For me, this engraving, "Toespraak van Lodewijk XVI", is an invitation to observe an echo. An object with power and yet such humble form. It is a reminder that even the grandest historical dramas can be reduced to carefully etched lines and then spun into myriad reproductions… each holding a small piece of that potent historical breath. Editor: An artifact carrying weight... historical and material... yes. The image is charged by everything but not because it has resolved anything... that might be what moves me, after all, as an interpreter of materiality.