Romerske almuesfolk købe en abbate hat til deres lille søn 1880s

Curator: This lithograph from the 1880s, held in the collection of the SMK—the National Gallery of Denmark—is by Adolph Kittendorff. The title translates from Danish to "Roman Common People Buying an Abbot's Hat for Their Little Son". Editor: My immediate reaction is the weight of expectations; all that potential condensed into that tiny hat, sitting on a young head. You can almost feel the hopes and dreams hovering around the room! Curator: Precisely! It's realism, of course, but there's a wonderful staging happening. Note the print medium allows for sharp delineation and cross hatching detail on the figures to emphasise form and texture. What does this work tells us about labor and craft? How accessible were these trades to folks of all social stations? Editor: Good point. Look at the proprietor, he’s very clearly a working man; the tools of his trade are at his elbow, a reminder that these things, however fanciful, are *made*. The labour… it’s almost invisible when you see the finished product. Consider also the supply chains and skill passed down to the craftspeople involved. The material life, or, if you like, the raw matter of society. Curator: And it really hits that intersection between the grand historical narrative – think historical genre painting! – and the deeply personal. Look at the slight smile on the father’s face. A mixture of pride, calculation. It’s not just a hat, it’s an investment. It says something powerful about aspiration, doesn't it? Even today. Editor: Yes, and note the almost anthropological nature. He presents us not just with a family portrait, but offers a vision of commerce: that push and pull between classes and consumer choice. To put a sharper point on it, in making these histories 'real', are we not engaging with a set of economic, power-laden relationships that continues today? Curator: So we began, didn’t we, with the idea of expectation. And, now, maybe we can add to it a sense of ongoing historical relevance. Editor: I think that's fair to say; this hat still carries weight.