Grafmonument van Steven van Welderen in de Grote of Sint-Maartenskerk te Tiel 1893

Curator: What strikes me first is how ghostly it appears, like a memory fading away. Editor: Indeed. We're looking at an 1893 photograph, likely taken by an anonymous photographer working with Monumentenzorg, depicting the grafmonument, or grave monument, of Steven van Welderen in the Grote of Sint-Maartenskerk in Tiel, Netherlands. Curator: It’s almost monochromatic, bleached of colour, which heightens the ethereal mood. It looks sculpted, perhaps marble or some kind of plasterwork? So tactile but at the same time untouchable. Editor: The material of the actual monument would indeed be very informative to know. We can see the sculptural relief showing figures, maybe allegorical, angels too. Considering its placement within a church setting, materials like marble or limestone, signifying permanence and status, would certainly have been deliberately chosen to communicate social power and, ultimately, transcendence of earthly labor. Curator: Transcendence... yes, that's what the verticality of the piece suggests to me, all these little cherubs, they seem to climb towards heaven. Is that what they're telling us, you think? We shall all become cherubic after our death. I wonder about Mr. Van Welderen himself. Did he choose it, or did someone do this in his name? Editor: The choices of monument and artistic expression were certainly tied to social practices and commissioned patronage. Who paid for this, and why this particular form was chosen reveals volumes about the means of both artistic production and memorialising power. We might also ask how these material choices resonated with church-goers; were they moved by displays of piety and power through art? How has it changed over the century between its making and now? Curator: So true. The context really shifts everything. Now I'm viewing it as both a place for devotional viewing but a declaration of civic and economic achievement. A double-edged memorial. Editor: Exactly! The nuances are embedded in the materiality. The choice and means communicate something much larger, I find. Curator: What a thing to contemplate… almost makes me wish to see the monument itself, to touch it with my own hands, and try and capture some truth of the artwork through that sense. Thanks!