Portret van Philippus Erard van der Noot 1676 - 1755

This print, "Portret van Philippus Erard van der Noot", was made by Pieter Balthasar Bouttats in the 18th century using engraving. The image is carefully constructed, a painstaking process involving precise cuts into a metal plate. This would have been a highly skilled tradition at the time. It is a world apart from our contemporary modes of digital image production. Consider the labor involved, and the economic conditions that enabled it. Who was this man, Philippus Erard van der Noot, that he could afford such a finely wrought object? Engraving like this often served as a medium of reproduction, taking artworks and making them widely available. It could also be deployed to make likenesses such as this one, where we see the sitter framed by an oval, perched above his heraldic shield. These were tools of power and status, crafted with care. Thinking about the making of this object gets us closer to understanding the social dynamics of its time, and allows us to challenge distinctions between high art and the applied arts.