Vignet til "Thurah: Hafnia Hodierna" 1748

Curator: This is "Vignet til "Thurah: Hafnia Hodierna"", an engraving created around 1748 by Odvardt Helmoldt de Lode. It’s currently housed at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Editor: The scene feels like a carefully constructed stage. I'm struck by the detailed border contrasting the openness of the distant cityscape. Almost like a dream imposed on a grid, with lines suggesting order... or constraint. Curator: It's designed as a vignette, literally a decorative element for Thurah's "Hafnia Hodierna", a book documenting Copenhagen. The surrounding baroque border echoes motifs of wealth and progress from the time. Editor: Baroque excess seems apt. Look at how figures, both affluent citizens and what look like artisans or labourers, are carefully arranged around symbols of scholarship and architecture. Who, exactly, are we meant to focus on, I wonder? Is this for all or just a wealthy, educated class? Curator: Perhaps for those who had a vested interest in upholding Copenhagen’s reputation? The buildings represented held symbolic importance, conveying ideals of order and enlightened governance in a growing, powerful city. And the line work also alludes to that Age of Reason clarity. Editor: But who benefited from that perceived order and power? Notice the workers seem to be subservient within the carefully designed scene. It’s all rather performative, staged for external audiences while the social structure remained uneven and arguably unfair. Curator: Symbols can definitely possess duality. Looking beyond the workers’ poses, one could read in their actions and implements, a sense of progress being diligently pursued in the arts and sciences; their purpose elevated by those structures behind them. Editor: Fair. And from my vantage point, I must allow the complexity to emerge through our perspectives of it today. Though there may be that pursuit of something hopeful or idealistic present, this print nonetheless preserves a very specific hierarchical view of Copenhagen at that time, revealing how symbolic structures have often concealed inequality, and indeed continues to influence present structures and ideals today. Curator: I think we both found our personal symbology there – and it’s clear to me the weight symbols have had on our interpretations even today.