Frontispiece: Gaigne Petit, from Le Cris de Paris (The Cries of Paris), plate 1 1721 - 1774

Editor: This is "Frontispiece: Gaigne Petit, from Le Cris de Paris," an engraving by Simon Francis Ravenet the Elder, sometime between 1721 and 1774. It looks like a street vendor sharpening tools. What visual cues stand out to you? Curator: The wheel is certainly a focal point. Its circular form is a very old symbol, going back millennia. Consider the Wheel of Fortune, the cycle of life...but here it’s also literal, about labor. Editor: I hadn't considered the symbolic value of a sharpening wheel beyond its literal function. Curator: And what about the figure’s posture, the way he’s hunched over his work? The hat casts a shadow, obscuring his face...it makes you wonder what kind of "cry" this man is hawking, what service he provides, and what status that gives him. Editor: It seems rather anonymous and lonely, not glorious, even if necessary to life. Like labor itself is unseen, unthanked, despite being indispensable. Curator: Precisely. These prints of street vendors were very popular. Does his trade have a timeless quality, or does it speak to something specific to 18th-century Paris, perhaps an anxiety about the urban underclass? The barely visible landscape background also seems charged, doesn’t it? Almost idyllic...but distant. Editor: I never thought of Baroque prints as subtly political, it's really enlightening to dig deeper into the potential symbolism of these genre scenes. Thank you. Curator: My pleasure. Discovering the silent narratives within these images is always rewarding.