Zeemonnik 1562

This is François Desprez’s ‘Zeemonnik,’ or ‘sea monk,’ a woodcut made sometime in the 16th century. The printmaking process is crucial to understanding the image. A woodcut involves carving an image into the surface of a block of wood, inking the remaining raised surface, and then pressing paper against it. Here, Desprez uses this relatively accessible technology to depict a fantastical creature. The woodcut's crisp lines and contrasting tones give the sea monk a striking presence. The texture of the wood grain is apparent, adding a tactile quality to the image. Desprez would have used gouges and knives to carefully remove the wood, and the precision of the lines suggests considerable skill. Woodcuts like this weren’t considered high art, but a populist medium, and were widely circulated as illustrations in books, broadsides, and pamphlets. They democratized images and ideas at a time when access to art was limited. The sea monk becomes a symbol of accessible information, and challenges traditional distinctions between art and craft.