Biblical Scene (?) 17th-18th century

Curator: Here we have a drawing attributed to Jean Jouvenet, tentatively titled "Biblical Scene." It's currently held here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: Striking! My first thought is theatrical staging; it feels like a dramatic tableau frozen in ink, with the players caught mid-scene. Curator: Yes, Jouvenet captured a certain tension. Look at the costuming—the bishop’s mitre, the soldier’s plumed helmet—each figure meticulously rendered through layering washes of ink to create a sense of depth and texture. Editor: The material heft of those garments…and the drawing itself, made with iron gall ink, likely produced from tannin and iron salts. The labor in creating those inks and then applying them with such deliberate strokes is worth noting. Curator: It does make you wonder what story Jouvenet intended to convey, doesn't it? Editor: I'm less interested in the narrative, and more in the historical materiality… the craft and consumption in early modern Europe. Curator: Perhaps, but the story it hints at still reverberates, doesn't it? A powerful scene rendered with delicate ink. Editor: Precisely. It's the ink's history that speaks volumes.