Hier ziet gy afgebeeldt / ô jeugt! heldt Paulus leeven; Die u een voorbeeldt strekt / om hemelwaardts te streeven 1725 - 1738

This broadside, narrating the life of St. Paul, was printed by the widow Gijsbert de Groot in Amsterdam. It’s an example of a woodcut, a relief printing technique that was ubiquitous in early modern Europe. Think about the labor involved: the careful carving of the woodblock, the inking and pressing, all done by hand. The use of wood as a matrix gives the print a graphic quality, with bold lines and flat planes of color, here augmented with simple stencils. These visual qualities aren’t incidental; they’re an index of the immense amount of labor it took to produce these images. Broadsides like this were cheap, plentiful, and disposable, intended for a wide audience. They belong to a history of distribution, commerce, and consumption – mass media in its infancy. And although they are often overlooked in favor of ‘high art’, prints like this played a crucial role in shaping early modern visual culture. So, when you look at this object, remember that it testifies to the centrality of craft in everyday life.