Three Luchese saints interceding with the Virgin for the victims of the plague 1600 - 1650

Editor: This is "Three Luchese Saints Interceding with the Virgin for the Victims of the Plague" made sometime between 1600 and 1650 by Pietro Testa, and it’s currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s an etching printed with ink, giving it these detailed, dark lines. The scene is quite powerful, but I'm curious how you see the production influencing our understanding of the piece? Curator: This work's materiality, an etching, speaks volumes. Printmaking allowed for the wide dissemination of images. Testa was commenting on widespread suffering through accessible means. Consider the labour: the etching process, the press, the very act of distribution. It democratizes access to this plea, challenging the exclusive nature of painted commissions of that period. What do you notice about how bodies are represented? Editor: They are strikingly vulnerable and, well, disposable almost. Their posture conveys the weight and toll of the epidemic that struck people down with impunity. The plague created these large amounts of bodies without the traditional and communal care. Curator: Exactly. And ink, an inexpensive substance, becomes the medium for showing this large number of bodies ravaged by a devastating historical plague that took away the community network. How do you interpret that connection between materiality and subject? Does that resonate with the idea that this is social commentary? Editor: It does. The accessibility of printmaking really throws the suffering of the people into high relief. If it was say, only a painting made for the Church, it's power would be lost within elitism. The choice to represent that accessible narrative of community care speaks to the very real suffering of the communities struck by illness. Thank you for pointing out those social dimensions! Curator: Of course! Reflecting on Testa's choices allows us to unpack broader questions about the relationship between artistic production, access, and the experience of societal crisis.