Portret van Giovan Battista Castaldo 1589 - 1637

This is Lucas Kilian's portrait of Giovan Battista Castaldo, made with engraving, sometime around the early 17th century. Engraving is an intaglio process, meaning that lines are incised into a metal plate, which is then inked and printed. It's a demanding process requiring immense skill and control. Look closely, and you can see how the varying depth and density of the engraved lines create subtle tonal gradations, giving shape to Castaldo’s face and armor. This was not just a reproductive process, but a highly interpretive one. Engravers were not simply technicians, but skilled interpreters in their own right. The rise of printmaking was tied to wider social issues of labor and the economy. Kilian was part of a network of workshops that reproduced images on a commercial scale, satisfying a growing demand for portraits and other imagery. Consider the amount of labor involved in producing not just the original engraving, but the many impressions that would have been made from it. In the end, recognizing the profound skill and artistry involved challenges any notion of printmaking as a purely mechanical process, offering insights into the material culture of the past.