Portret van dichter en schrijver D. Angelus met schrijfveer 1806 - 1830

This is a portrait of the poet and writer D. Angelus, made by Giuseppe Benaglia, likely around the early 19th century. It's an engraving, meaning the artist would have used a sharp tool to incise lines into a metal plate, which was then inked and printed onto paper. The material quality of the print – its fineness and delicate lines – speaks to a moment of expanding print culture, where images could be reproduced and disseminated widely. Look closely, and you'll notice the incredibly fine hatch marks that create the tonal variations. This was painstaking work, requiring immense skill. Engraving was, in a sense, a proto-industrial technique, reliant on specialized labor. This image reminds us that even seemingly straightforward portraits are the result of complex social and material processes. By attending to these, we can better appreciate the artistry involved, and question traditional hierarchies between art and craft.