Inferno According to Dante c. 1470th century

This engraving, Inferno According to Dante, was made by someone in the circle of Baccio Baldini. Look at all those tiny lines! I love how printmaking is essentially just mark-making taken to an extreme. I’m really drawn to the way the image is structured, like a series of stacked platforms, each teeming with figures. What’s amazing is the way the artist uses the density and direction of the lines to create depth and shadow. Take a look at the figure of Lucifer in the center, all that hatching to describe his hairy chest makes him feels both imposing and vulnerable. It reminds me a bit of the obsessive detail in the work of someone like Martin Ramirez, though here it's all put to the service of illustrating a story. The fact that the artist chose printmaking, a medium that allows for reproduction and dissemination, suggests that they wanted to share their vision of Dante's Inferno with a wide audience. So cool!