Petrus' visioen van de onreine dieren 1643 - 1646

This is an engraving, made by an anonymous artist. Look closely, and you’ll see the artist has used line after line to create this composition, pressing a sharp tool into a metal plate, inking the surface, and then transferring the image to paper. This highly skilled process allowed for the relatively quick reproduction of images, aligning with the rise of print culture during this period. Observe the busy scene depicted here. It seems to show a biblical vision. What might the labor and material processes depicted here tell us? Consider the act of cleaning, indicated by the figure laundering in the foreground. We can see how the artist carefully rendered the folds of the fabric, giving it a tactile quality. Engravings like these demonstrate the deep integration of craft and art. They challenge us to think about the many hands and processes involved in bringing images like these into being, and how their circulation shapes social values.