[title not known] 

Curator: This page from a sketchbook by John Flaxman, held at the Tate, presents three delicate pencil and watercolor studies. They remind me of faint echoes from a dream, all neoclassical calm and contained. Editor: Yes, I see that serenity. But I also read these as designs reflecting the period's intense focus on civic virtue and the idealization of leaders, almost like prototypes for public monuments. Curator: Perhaps Flaxman was playing with the idea of immortality and legacy through sculpture. The blank tablets below each bust suggest names waiting to be inscribed, stories yet to be told. Editor: And who gets to tell those stories? The classical motifs, while elegant, often served to perpetuate power structures and exclude marginalized voices. Curator: True. It's a dance, isn't it? The beauty of form versus the politics of representation. Flaxman gives us a glimpse of both in these quiet studies. Editor: He invites us to consider the narratives we choose to immortalize, and the silences we must actively challenge. Curator: A reminder that art, even in its most ethereal state, is never truly neutral. Editor: Exactly. It is a testament to the ongoing dialogue between art, power, and memory.