Drunken Bacchantes and Putti 1720 - 1799

Editor: This print, "Drunken Bacchantes and Putti," comes to us from sometime in the 18th century. What really grabs my eye is the way the figures interact with the natural landscape around them, kind of like it's this whole playground made just for them. It makes me wonder, how do you view this interaction between figures and their surroundings in relation to art of this era? Curator: I see here an example of a very calculated exploitation of both material and idea. An engraving is a multiplication of the art object. These images were often disseminated widely through the culture, reaching a public who might never directly engage with painting or sculpture. In that distribution and consumption of images we must ask what's at play? Editor: Are you saying the act of reproducing it changes its artistic purpose? Curator: Precisely. Consider the Baroque fascination with extravagance and drama and the expense needed to create it. Here, those concepts are commodified. We consider labor to create an engraving. The materials are inexpensive: ink, paper, metal plates; these are easy to make into something the rising merchant class can consume and enjoy, democratizing the elite image while retaining its original symbolic weight. Do you see that in the expressions of excess on their little faces? Editor: That’s a sharp insight; so the medium shapes the message by expanding access? Curator: The materiality _is_ the message, as is its availability and distribution within the culture. These were likely images intended to titillate and reflect status back to their new bourgeois owners through the knowing reference to the artistic conventions of their aristocratic betters. It raises questions about the intent of art-making itself in the face of changing economic structures. Editor: It's incredible how different materials and their circulation can dramatically shift an artwork’s story. Thank you, this gave me a lot to consider. Curator: My pleasure; keep questioning everything!