View of Amalfi 30 - 1835

Editor: Here we have Carl Morgenstern's "View of Amalfi," created in 1835 using pencil on paper. There’s something so delicate about this drawing, like a memory fading into the landscape. What strikes you most about it? Curator: I see a romanticized vision steeped in the complex power dynamics of the Grand Tour era. The privileged classes, primarily white men, flocked to Italy, seeking “authentic” experiences. But what was left out of that picture? Editor: I suppose the lives of ordinary people living in Amalfi? Curator: Precisely! And also consider the imperial gaze – how the act of viewing, of drawing, could reinforce existing power structures. Morgenstern isn't just capturing a scene; he's participating in a narrative where the artist, and by extension, the viewer, is the observer and Amalfi is the observed, framed through a Western lens. How might this seemingly innocuous landscape actually perpetuate an unequal exchange? Editor: So the romanticism, the delicate lines, could actually mask a more complicated reality. The artwork as a participant, not just a document. Curator: Absolutely. Think about who is missing from the drawing, whose story isn’t being told. Who benefits from this particular representation of Amalfi, and who might be marginalized by it? Editor: That's a really important perspective I hadn’t considered. I was so focused on the visual, I forgot to ask who gets to do the seeing. Curator: It's a crucial question to ask, always. Seeing isn’t passive; it's active, and it carries responsibility. Hopefully that changes the way you interpret similar artwork going forward.