Uninterpreted sacrificial scene 

Curator: Here we have a work by Abraham van Diepenbeeck, a drawing currently titled "Uninterpreted Sacrificial Scene" housed here at the Städel Museum. The artist employed pencil and chalk to realize this piece. My initial response to this drawing is its overall feeling of subdued drama and melancholy, in spite of the sacrificial event it portrays. The gray scale is very impactful. Editor: Absolutely, and given the subject matter—a possible scene of human sacrifice—it is tempting to read into what might motivate its uninterpreted state. Is this Diepenbeeck’s commentary on religious sacrifice as barbaric? Curator: I agree it invites those readings. If we think about sacrifice as a material process of offering, it makes sense that Van Diepenbeeck chose to depict this with rather humble and easily attainable media like pencil and chalk. The materiality suggests the everyday realities intertwined with even the most profound rituals. Editor: Precisely! He also renders bodies both upright, attending to the rite, but also slumped or prone and, from my perspective, resisting. He shows, too, what happens to bodies under circumstances of ritual violence. Curator: It prompts a crucial question about the social function of violence, its impact, and its recipients in baroque society. One can also ponder the role gender plays in this “sacrificial scene.” Note that the actors carrying what seems to be a body, they might be female or read as male with female hair styles. Editor: So, in terms of social labor, this artwork seems to reflect upon gender as labor, especially in these ceremonial roles. Are we meant to assume the body is to be eaten by a privileged few? Curator: Potentially, yes. That tension underscores not only what sacrifice can mean historically, but how those social roles surrounding it translate across gender and social boundaries, leaving viewers questioning those ritual performances. Editor: Thanks for guiding our listening audience through this. Curator: My pleasure. Hopefully it sparks some consideration of materials, both tangible and bodily!