New Künstlichs Modelbuch (Page 11 recto) 1600

Curator: Here we have a page from Bernhard Jobin's "New Künstlichs Modelbuch," dating back to around 1600. It's a woodcut print, one of many designs compiled into what we'd now call a reference book or sketchbook. Editor: Woah, it feels like looking at a medieval video game! So pixelated and yet so full of chaotic energy, a rabbit escaping on top left! A really strange mix of wild nature and formal pattern. Curator: Exactly. These "model books" served artisans, offering patterns for everything from embroidery to intarsia. They reflect not just artistic trends, but the very practical needs of workshops across Europe. The grid-like appearance comes from the woodcut technique, where the artist carves away at the woodblock, leaving raised lines to be inked and printed. Editor: The limited details are cool; that means these figures and animals only need a few stitches to take on the basic, simplified shape. There’s an appealing weirdness to them all—that horse's stiff legs, the elongated rabbit; even a person on that horse. And then all placed with that dense dark ink! You could get very creative riffing on them, each artist adding its style. Curator: Precisely. They're launching points. The book represents the exchange of ideas. Print technology enabled to create and disperse all of these visual resources; the artists weren't working in isolation; this way we find here that design becomes a collaborative process in the Early Modern world. Editor: It does make you wonder how an image that starts from some artist imagination takes new shapes later in real embroidered stuff or some sort of wood work with just the idea here to make things by following it, kind of fun process for a simple image with tons of copies, really inspiring! Curator: A mass distributed template of design and ingenuity to influence the eye and work of artisans across the region. It is indeed an artifact of artistic sharing. Editor: A good proof to rethink those older ages by thinking of sharing creativity!