Patience 1540

Curator: Sebald Beham's "Patience," an engraving dating back to 1540, really gets under your skin, doesn't it? Editor: Immediately! There’s a real tension there, a push and pull between the comforting embrace and the unsettling figure lurking nearby. I find the close hatching technique particularly affecting; the overall design produces a complex surface effect and an arresting allegory about temperance. Curator: Absolutely, and that’s exactly what Beham was after. It’s this fascinating allegorical representation. See how Patience, depicted as a beautiful, almost mournful angel, embraces a lamb? The cherubs float above as her benevolent virtues shield her, and us, from this hideous devil to the right, representing human temptation and impetuosity. Editor: Precisely. The composition seems almost structured like an equation, in which the balance and symmetry create the central dynamic: angelic patience, embracing love, protecting against evil. Also, I think the "linear" character of the image contributes to a dynamic, but at the same time serene, representation. Curator: It speaks to the very human struggle of needing to cultivate serenity amid inner turmoil. In fact, Beham returned again and again to this subject during the 1530s and 1540s, giving different representations of vices, virtues, and heroes. Perhaps because it’s something that requires continuous learning... Or maybe he struggled, same as anyone else? Editor: Undoubtedly. I think what's powerful about this rendition, as rendered in black and white, is its insistence on rendering virtues not simply as ideals but, rather, the daily grind of emotional resistance, that "daily exercise," as Kierkegaard called it, the daily choice of salvation over destruction. Curator: That's a potent thought! When you step back, “Patience” is more than just ink on paper from the German Renaissance, it mirrors, you know, the battles we still face within ourselves. Editor: Indeed; “Patience” challenges us to cultivate the very virtues necessary to see and create lasting good. And now I will think about all this when I will face my next challenge at work.