Large Triumphal Carriage of Maximilian I c. 1518 - 1522

Curator: Looking at this print, I'm immediately struck by the sheer industriousness of it all, a testament to the workshop system. The detail! Editor: This is the "Large Triumphal Carriage of Maximilian I," made around 1518 to 1522, credited to Albrecht Durer but also assistants. It's a woodcut and engraving on laid paper currently residing at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. A pretty grand collaborative endeavor if you ask me, almost an early form of industrialized image-making. Curator: It's like a dream logic of power. This massive, ornate carriage pulled along by virtues themselves, goodness, glory... it’s utterly confident and yet teetering on the edge of absurdity. I feel the weight of expectation and the inherent precariousness of rule, it's a lovely tension. Editor: That “dream logic” comes from the complex production – someone had to carve each block. Consider the sheer physical labor— transferring a design of that complexity onto multiple wood blocks. It highlights the socio-economic context that enabled its creation. And remember, prints like these circulated, carrying imperial ideology with each impression sold or gifted. Curator: Absolutely! You see it almost as a form of propaganda; I am more moved by how deeply human are Durer’s struggles in this monumental task. I think it transcends its intention—the level of obsessive detail tips into something else—like a monk illuminating manuscripts, where the intention to praise shifts imperceptibly to being just deeply involved in the act of making, almost transcending it. Editor: That engagement has always been fraught with its own power dynamics, who is enabled to engage in this type of ‘transcendence’ due to wealth and resources is also something worth pausing over. Think about the labor needed just for materials—the paper, the inks—the whole network needed for Durer to get there! Curator: Very true. In this view, we look less to the sky and more to the earth; a network is being pulled forward and revealed; I'll certainly reflect upon it as a process from now on. Thank you! Editor: You’re welcome; I'm struck, in turn, by its ambition and by how it also reveals labor in art and history in such a striking way. A network as both the topic and the process itself!