Death and the Woodman in a Coastal Landscape with Ruins 

This print, Death and the Woodman in a Coastal Landscape with Ruins, was made by Ercole Bazicaluva sometime before 1643. It’s made using etching, where lines are bitten into a metal plate with acid, then inked and pressed onto paper. What I find compelling is how the artist's skilled labor contrasts with the woodman's. Bazicaluva carefully manipulates the etching process to create depth and texture. Look at the detail in the trees, the shading on the rocks, even the skeletal figure of Death. In contrast, the woodman's labor is presented as crude and backbreaking. He struggles with his load, unaware of the grim reaper approaching. The print highlights the division between intellectual and manual labor, the artist's refined craft versus the woodman's toil. It asks us to consider the social hierarchy of labor, and the artist's own place within it. It reminds us that even in the face of death, labor and class distinctions persist.