Essempio di recammi, page 9 (recto) 1530

This is page 9 from Giovanni Antonio Tagliente’s “Essempio di recammi”, created in Venice around 1530. It’s made with woodcut on paper – a relatively inexpensive method of printing that allowed for the wide dissemination of images. The black lines articulate four vignettes, each offering a different scene: a ship at sea, figures with swine, a basket of fruit, and fowl gathered around a birdhouse. These images weren't intended as artworks in themselves, but as templates. The “recammi” of the title refers to embroidery, and this book was meant as a pattern book for artisans. Consider the labor implied here. The woodcutter who produced the block, the printer, and the embroiderers who would then translate these images into fabric, stitch by stitch. The stark, graphic quality of the woodcut, born of its direct carving process, would be softened and enriched by the textures of thread. This book exemplifies the close relationship between art, craft, and commerce in the Renaissance, and how printed images played a role in shaping visual culture and the decorative arts.