Fotoreproductie van een schilderij, voorstellende Siegmund in gesprek met Brünnhilde naast de flauwgevallen Sieglinde before 1876

This is a reproduction of a painting by Victor Angerer, rendered as a photograph. The image's material qualities bear witness to a transformation in reproductive technologies during the late 19th century, shifting from laborious hand-reproduction to mechanical processes. Angerer's photography collapses the distinction between fine art and mass culture. The photographic process, with its chemical baths and precisely calibrated exposures, stands in stark contrast to the slower, more deliberate art of painting. Photography, with its inherent capacity for replication, democratized art consumption. In this image, the artist captured a pivotal moment in Wagner's opera, Die Walküre. It allowed for the dissemination of high art to a wider audience and invites us to consider the complex relationship between art, technology, and accessibility.