Bybelsche figuuren van het Nieuwe Testament 1725 - 1780

Johannes Kannewet made this print of New Testament scenes in Amsterdam, using woodcut techniques. The image is made up of twelve scenes, each with a short caption below. Woodcut is a relief printing method, where the artist carves into a block of wood, removing the areas that will not be inked. The remaining raised surface is then inked and pressed onto paper. This is a relatively low-cost way of producing images. The labor is intensive, but the equipment isn’t expensive, and the prints can be sold in large numbers. You can see the characteristic marks of the wood grain and the clean, sharp lines, giving the image a bold graphic quality. It is further enhanced with red and yellow. Prints like these were made in large numbers and sold to a broad public. It’s a reminder that art has always been entangled with commerce, and that the circulation of images is as old as printmaking itself.