Seven boys 1646 - 1654

Editor: This is "Seven Boys," a print and drawing by Wenceslaus Hollar, dating back to somewhere between 1646 and 1654. I'm really struck by how much detail Hollar packed into a relatively small engraving. It seems so playful and busy. What do you see in this piece? Curator: For me, the key is the process of production. Consider the labor involved in creating such intricate details using engraving techniques. We are meant to explore how prints, often seen as reproducible and lesser, actually involve immense skill and time. This engraving also invites us to think about the material realities of childhood in the Baroque period, where cherubic figures often mask real societal structures. Do you notice anything about their activity? Editor: I do, they seem to be making music or reveling, celebrating maybe? Is there something about that imagery that ties in to Baroque notions of class and labor? Curator: Exactly! Look closely – are these children at work or play? What is being consumed here, labor or grapes? Are these boys performing innocence, which is in turn consumed by a patron of the artwork, for the purpose of their self-display? This tension between innocence and implied servitude is key to the period’s economic systems and power structures. It’s important to question how representations like these circulated and who had access to them, which informs our own access now, through mass digitization in places like The Met. Editor: That is fascinating! I hadn't considered that what I viewed as just "play" had this embedded in its construction and reception! Thanks so much. Curator: It just demonstrates that what we sometimes overlook are how things are made, who makes them and under what conditions of access! It helps give a broader perspective.