Ovidius vergezeld door twee muzen 1713 - 1727

This engraving, "Ovidius vergezeld door twee muzen," was made by Matthijs Pool, around the turn of the 18th century. It’s an image made entirely by manual labor, through the patient use of a tool called a burin, which incises lines into a copper plate. Consider the skill and time involved in creating this kind of detail, all by hand, and the rich blacks that are a consequence of the ink being pressed into the paper. The graphic quality of the medium lends itself well to the allegorical subject matter. Ovid, the Roman poet, is crowned by muses in a classical landscape. This print, with its precise lines and tonal gradations, bears witness to the premium placed on skilled craftsmanship at the time. It suggests a world of specialized knowledge, placing printmaking alongside other refined art practices. Appreciating the labor involved in its production allows us to move past thinking of this image as simply a reproduction, recognizing it instead as a potent object in its own right.