La fontana Egeria 1792

Editor: This is Jacob Wilhelm Mechau’s etching, "La fontana Egeria." The vegetation feels so overgrown around the ruin. What historical conversations do you think this piece is having? Curator: It’s crucial to consider this work through the lens of eighteenth-century European fascination with the Roman Campagna. Mechau is presenting an Arcadian vision, but one already tinged with the decay of empire and the burdens of labor. How does that romanticized vision mask the realities of power structures and exploitation inherent in landscape ownership and the lives of those who actually worked the land? Editor: That's a perspective I hadn't considered! So, the picturesque hides a more complex story. Curator: Precisely. It asks us to question whose vision is being represented and at whose expense that vision is crafted. Editor: I'll definitely be thinking about that going forward.