Curatorial notes
Editor: This is a print entitled "John Hancock" by Paul Revere, made in 1774. It's an engraving, so it’s all lines and shading, a portrait within an oval, but the figures around it are what grabbed my attention. It feels like a stage, very posed and deliberate. What symbols do you see at play in this image? Curator: The staging *is* quite theatrical, isn't it? Consider the figures: a Roman soldier representing civic virtue and strength alongside a female figure of Liberty, with a cherubic figure overhead proclaiming Hancock's reputation. But it's the Magna Carta scroll that strikes me most profoundly, acting as a firm nod to Hancock's alignment with principles of liberty, but also constraint of the ruling power. It also grounds Hancock in a tradition of defiance, framing him within the symbolic weight of that historical document, over five centuries old at the time. Editor: So the artist, Paul Revere, is deliberately constructing an image of Hancock as part of this lineage of freedom fighters, even though it’s prior to the Declaration of Independence? Curator: Precisely. Revere is using the visual language of the era – neoclassicism, the references to antiquity – to lend Hancock not just an air of importance, but to cast him as a defender of foundational rights. Note the slain figure at the base of the frame—a commentary on power defeated. How do you see the ensemble performing in its function of conveying propaganda, per se? Editor: It's interesting how they're combining these older symbols with a contemporary portrait, as if to say "this person is *worthy* of being placed alongside these timeless ideals." I wonder, though, if the average person at the time picked up on all those references, or if it was just for a more educated audience. Curator: That’s an excellent point. The effectiveness of symbols lies in their accessibility and how people, generation upon generation, absorb those symbols over time. Even if not every viewer grasped the nuances, the overall message of virtue and leadership would have been clear. We too can view how they wanted their contemporary audience, and thus how history, would view Hancock. Editor: I see what you mean. It's a carefully crafted image meant to resonate on multiple levels, both intellectually and emotionally. Thank you for highlighting the specific symbols and their resonance!