Book VI.20. Marcus Manlius is thrown from the Tarpean Rock {Primae Decadis Liber Sextus p. LV} 1493

Curator: Look, there's such brutal elegance in this anonymous woodcut, "Book VI.20. Marcus Manlius is thrown from the Tarpean Rock". It vibrates with a stark theatricality, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely! The stark black lines and the contrast, immediately drawing your eye to the action. It’s all about process: the labor of carving the block, the paper it’s printed on, the very act of dissemination through printmaking. Curator: It’s a violent ballet, really. A man tumbling, propelled—no, *gifted*—into the abyss by another silhouetted against a somewhat crude tower. Do you feel the horror of the moment? The drama? Editor: I think the medium is a commentary on social control; mass-produced images influencing popular opinion, reflecting the power dynamics of the time. This piece, itself, becomes an object of political and cultural consumption. Curator: Yes, exactly! This wasn’t just art. It was something designed to move hearts, to frighten, to warn. You see the history etched in its creation. Editor: Indeed, it's all about the interplay of craft, labor, and the grim narrative it conveys. It makes you wonder about the hands and the society that gave rise to it.