Ex. III c. 16th century

Curator: This woodcut, attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger, is titled Ex. III. It depicts a scene with a shepherd and a rather dramatic divine visitation. Editor: There's something so raw about it, the stark lines create an almost unsettling, yet powerful image. You can almost feel the grit of the wood. Curator: Holbein uses the limited medium of woodcut to convey a powerful story. The burning bush, so vividly rendered, immediately draws on centuries of symbolic meaning related to revelation and the divine. Editor: And those sheep—their fleecy texture is amazing given the material. I'm curious about the tools used to carve the block, and the number of prints that could be made before the wood degraded. It speaks to accessibility too, right? Woodcuts democratized image distribution. Curator: Precisely! This wasn't just about religious instruction, it was about making it accessible. The artist employs familiar imagery to touch upon universal themes: faith, calling, and the experience of the sacred. Editor: Looking at this now, I’m really struck by how a relatively simple, yet materially and technically complex, process can yield such a resonant image. Curator: Indeed. A reminder that enduring symbols often find their power in the simplest forms.