Gezicht op de Dom van Keulen in aanbouw, voltooid en gezien vanaf de overzijde van de Rijn 1844

Curator: Ah, there’s a certain hushed grandeur to this piece. It’s titled "View of Cologne Cathedral under Construction, Completed, and Seen from Across the Rhine," created in 1844 by the 19th-century artist known only as Monogrammist CB. It’s an engraving, a meticulous one at that. What catches your eye? Editor: It strikes me as a paean to industry, this painstaking process to document another equally painstaking process – building the Dom. It speaks of labor, investment, a commitment that literally reaches for the sky. Curator: Precisely! And see how CB, the engraver, captures three phases: construction, completion, and the serene vista across the Rhine? There’s a real narrative arc compressed into a single sheet. To me, it feels incredibly Romantic, doesn't it? A celebration of German spirit through architecture, really hitting you in your patriotic feels. Editor: True. But I also think about the sheer material effort – the paper, the ink, the metal plate… each impression representing another act of consumption, another drop in the capitalist engine that fuelled these grand building projects and fueled the printing industry itself. This print as a product of its time as much as it is a reflection. Curator: Good point. I mean, this wasn't a unique work intended to sit on a mantlepiece. These prints would be distributed and potentially consumed by a wider middle-class audience to create, for them, a sense of pride about the work done and materials used in their era. Now, think of that labour as translated through the sharp, unforgiving lines of the engraving process. What do you feel? A somber note there, certainly. Editor: Exactly, the contrast – grand ambition rendered with this incredibly controlled, reproducible medium—highlights the gap between vision and tangible, distributable reality. The work is so clean, so perfect... what do we lose through those layers of representation? Curator: It’s certainly worth pondering – this dance between artistic intention and the nuts and bolts of getting the job done. The choice of graphic art emphasizes its potential, how one can dream but only with the backing of money and social push. It’s rather telling. Editor: Yes. And the image does, to me, evoke this feeling that architecture as a labor activity is one way to get in touch with yourself. So, in the end, how could we even avoid buying it in multiples if we can?