Giraffe, gordeldier, ram en eenhoorn in een landschap 1583

This print, made by Marcus Gheeraerts around the mid-16th century, depicts a menagerie of animals using the intaglio process. Lines are incised into a metal plate, which is then inked and pressed onto paper. The material qualities of the print – its monochrome palette and fine, precise lines – lend themselves to a kind of taxonomic study. Consider the way the giraffe's height, the armadillo's segmented shell, the ram's woolly coat, and the unicorn’s singular horn are meticulously rendered. The making of prints like these was labor-intensive, requiring the skilled hand of a trained artisan. They were luxury goods, often bound into books or collected as individual sheets. In this way, prints circulated images and knowledge about the world, and were collected by those who could afford them. So, next time you look at a print, consider not just the image it depicts, but also the labor and materials that went into its creation, and how it circulated within a specific social and economic context.