Portrait of Ulrich Varnbuler 1485 - 1528

This portrait of Ulrich Varnbüler was made by Albrecht Durer around 1522, using the technique of woodcutting. Look closely and you'll see it is made up of thousands of tiny lines, all carefully carved into a block of wood. Durer was a master of this process. He understood how the material of the woodblock – its grain, its density – could be used to create an image of striking detail. You might even say that the image is a collaboration between artist and material. In that time, printmaking was becoming increasingly important, since the printing press democratized images, spreading them far and wide. Here, the very process by which the artwork was made – a multiple, reproducible technique – speaks to the social and political changes that were underway in Durer’s time. Next time you look at a print, don't just see the image, but think about the labor and the innovative processes that brought it into being.