Pablo Bronstein
Dressing table, Lisbon earthquake, 2019, a new hand-coloured etching, is an ironic, imaginary view of the aftereffects of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake in the form of a shattered domestic dressing table at the moment of impact.
The earthquake was one of the deadliest natural disasters of the eighteenth-century, destroying an entire city instantly. An entire civilization collapsed under its own weight and a whole way of life came to an abrupt end. The devastation led to a total reconsideration of science, philosophy and theology. The implications of the disaster were discussed widely by philosophers such as Voltaire and Kant and eventually culminated in the birth of The Age of Reason in Europe.
Elements of the composition, including the dressing table, are Baroque in style. Bronstein's depictions of eighteenth-century silverware are often also inspired by his own personal collection. The act of hand-colouring itself is also a reference to an historical tradition: prior to the nineteenth century, the application of colour on prints was almost always done by hand.
This new edition follows our first print project with Pablo Bronstein in 2017, a group of hand-coloured etchings featuring silverware placed into architectural settings. These works are also illustrated below.
