Aanbidding van het Christuskind door Maria, Jozef en de engelen 1661 - 1683

This print, showing the adoration of Christ, was made in the 17th century by Guillaume Chasteau, using engraving. It’s a process that demands great skill and time. Consider the nature of engraving. The image isn't drawn on the surface, but rather cut into a metal plate. This requires immense precision, as every line must be carefully incised with specialized tools. Chasteau would have used a burin to carve lines into a copper plate, creating grooves that hold ink. The plate is then inked, wiped clean, and pressed onto paper, transferring the image. The act of engraving itself brings a certain formality to the composition. The sharp, deliberate lines lend the scene a sense of clarity and order. Look closely, and you'll appreciate the labor involved, the intense focus required to produce such detail. In valuing the handwork and the social context of its creation, we can move beyond thinking of images like this as simply illustrations, and understand them as the products of skilled labor, embedded in a particular time and place.