Zie hier drie vaderen van de eerste wereld, met / De drie aartsvaderen van Isrel, vóór de wet [(...)] 1715 - 1813

This print, made by Erven Weduwe Cornelis Stichter, is an etching, a process that democratized image-making in its time. Think of it as the early modern equivalent of digital printing. The lines you see were incised into a copper plate, which was then inked and pressed onto paper. The coloring? That would have been applied by hand, a repetitive task, but one that didn’t require the skill of a trained artist. Look closely, and you see the layers of labor embedded here: the etcher, the printer, the colorist, and, of course, the person who distributed the print to the public. This piece tells us about a biblical history, but also about the means of production and consumption in 18th-century Amsterdam. It's a flat thing that contains a world. Understanding prints like this requires us to look beyond conventional art history, and consider the social and economic context of their making. This gives us a much richer understanding of the work’s meaning and significance.