The House of God 1751

Curator: Well, this is a fascinating example of cartomancy! Here we have "The House of God," a print made by Claude Burdel in 1751, currently residing at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. It's an engraving that clearly taps into the rich tradition of allegorical representation, using figuration in a really direct way. Editor: My goodness, it's delightfully disastrous! People tumbling from a tower, a crown askew… it's like a really bad day captured in a tiny rectangle. I love it. Curator: Disastrous is one way to put it! Given its symbolism within tarot traditions, we can read the destruction as a kind of... forced awakening, perhaps the violent collapse of outdated structures. This print could be contextualized through the lens of, say, architectural metaphors within sociopolitical movements. How the fall from grace… Editor: Hold on, hold on... sociopolitical movements?! I just see two blokes having a really bad fall and a tower going ka-blooey. Sometimes, a falling tower is just a falling tower, right? Though I do see how one could see the collapse as representing shifts in the established order. What’s interesting to me is the color—it is quite subtle, though I can also sense drama—a sense of fate at play. What does that evoke, you know? Curator: Ah, but the colors! That careful application of line and colour directs our eye toward a deconstruction that also contains renewal, right? If we think about power structures through history and where this piece emerges, its really difficult not to read this without at least acknowledging the power structures in Europe in the mid-18th century... The piece as disruption. Editor: Hmm, a colorful deconstruction! I’m picturing using this as the album art for my new collection of heartbroken torch songs! Maybe I’d retitle it "Tumbling Hearts," something melancholic... but powerful, I think. The image just hums with an odd sort of hope, even in the midst of the chaos. Curator: So, for me, "The House of God" encapsulates this moment of dramatic shift, a rejection of the past’s architectural dominance through an image that encourages conversation about the instability of systems. And for you? Editor: It's like the universe saying, “Oops!” but with a wink and a promise of something new… perhaps even… better? It reminds me that even when things fall apart—and sometimes they absolutely must fall apart—there's a beautiful kind of liberation to be found.