Lichaam van Christus door engelen naar hemel gedragen 1515 - 1517

Editor: This is "The Body of Christ Carried to Heaven by Angels," created by Hans Baldung around 1515 to 1517. It's an engraving rendered in ink. I find the sheer amount of detail in this relatively small print so striking. What do you make of this piece? Curator: For me, it’s crucial to consider the historical means of production. This engraving would have been created using a painstaking process. Consider the labor involved: the careful carving into the metal plate, the inking, the printing itself. These were valuable skills in a nascent print market, yes? Editor: Absolutely! I hadn’t thought of it that way. Curator: And look closer: The image depicts Christ’s ascent, right? But where does this image circulate, and for whom? Were these mass-produced devotional images for private contemplation, luxury goods for a wealthy merchant class, or something else entirely? The act of mechanical reproduction democratizes the sacred in some sense, changing its mode of consumption. Editor: So the *materiality* of the print—the ink, the paper—changes how people interacted with religious imagery at the time? Curator: Exactly! Prints like this helped disseminate new ideas, reformist theologies perhaps, challenging the singular authority of the Church through relatively accessible, reproducible images. Editor: I never considered that before. So it's not just about *what* the image represents, but also *how* it was made and *who* could access it. That gives me a whole new perspective. Thanks! Curator: Indeed! It compels us to contemplate not just spiritual matters, but also matters of craft, labor, and social influence inherent to artistic production.