Portret van Willem II, prins van Oranje 19th century

This portrait of Willem II, Prince of Orange, is an engraving, likely made not long after the prince's death in 1650. Engraving is an indirect printing technique, one that relies on skilled labor. An image is incised into a metal plate, which is then inked and pressed onto paper. The lines of the image don’t simply appear: they are carefully and deliberately cut, using a tool called a burin. This allows for astonishing feats of detail. The shiny surface of Willem’s armor, for example, is rendered by subtle gradations of light and shadow. But engravings were also ideal for mass production. They could be reproduced many times over – which suited the purpose of broadcasting Willem’s princely image to a wide audience. So while this work looks like a conventional portrait, it’s actually a manufactured image, deeply implicated in the social and political forces of its time. It shows how the hand-made and the mass-produced can come together, even at this early date.