Fotoreproductie van de Kruisdraging door Peter Paul Rubens before 1863

Edmond Fierlants made this photogravure reproduction of Peter Paul Reubens's "The Bearing of the Cross" sometime in the mid-19th century. It was a time when photography was still a relatively new medium, and reproductions like this played a crucial role in disseminating knowledge of art to a wider public. Consider how the image creates meaning through visual codes and historical associations. Rubens's original painting was a grand, Baroque masterpiece, commissioned for a church in Antwerp. The painting was made in the 17th century, in the Spanish Netherlands, a society that was deeply religious and hierarchical. It served to reinforce the power of the Church and the monarchy. Now consider how Fierlants's reproduction changes our relationship to that original artwork. It democratizes the image, making it accessible to a new audience. It also reduces the scale of it, taking it out of its original religious setting. Photogravure prints like this one can teach us a lot about the changing social role of art in the 19th century. We can better understand this shift by looking at sources like museum archives and period publications.