De verkondiging aan de herders 1736 - 1767

Curator: This engraving by Frans de Bakker, sometime between 1736 and 1767, depicts the Annunciation to the Shepherds. It’s quite a fascinating interpretation of a well-known biblical scene. Editor: Yes, I find the landscape so striking, almost overwhelmed by the clouds. They give the scene such drama, making it feel almost like a stage set, particularly because of the rather cramped vertical format. Curator: The choice of print as the medium raises questions of accessibility and dissemination. How does a religious scene, reproduced and distributed widely, influence popular understandings of faith and authority, particularly when many people likely worked with print? Editor: Absolutely, this image’s success depended on skilled labor and careful selection of material inputs. The paper itself, the inks, and the tools to carve—each reflects resources shaped by trade, reflecting global and local distribution networks. We see not just faith here, but also a very intricate network of creation and distribution of a reproducible religious item. Curator: Consider how the shepherds and the celestial figure in the clouds might be understood by those who lived in very hierarchical times, both divinely ordained and societally ingrained. There's such dynamic play here. How did their lived experiences inform their relationship with these kinds of images? Does art like this, in a way, affirm or disrupt those norms, especially when these figures are placed side-by-side on the page, the noble in the clouds and laborers in the fields? Editor: Right. Think of how the artist had to be skillful at etching these intricate lines on copper. Labor is inscribed even into this piece: long hours for each line drawn, each impression made. What did labor mean in society? Was it virtuous to live as laborers, as it’s implied in this historical image? The image's context must have everything to do with that, doesn’t it? Curator: This exploration certainly highlights how intertwined faith, art, and labor were in shaping the society of the time. Editor: It forces us to look at not just what the piece portrays, but also how it physically came to be and was disseminated, opening up whole new levels of meaning!