Flora met een cornucopia onder een boom 1617

This engraving of Flora with a cornucopia under a tree was made by Simon van de Passe, sometime in the first half of the 17th century. As an engraving, this image was made by hand, using a technique called intaglio, where lines are cut into a metal plate, which is then inked and printed. The medium influences our understanding of the image. Engravings like this were relatively inexpensive to produce and could be widely disseminated. This one may have been included in a book, given its small size and the text included at the bottom. The medium allowed for intricate details, which you can see in the rendering of Flora’s hair and clothing, as well as in the various flowers in the cornucopia. The artist would have used specialized tools to create this detail, slowly and laboriously cutting away at the metal. Consider the sharp contrast between light and shadow, achieved by carefully controlled strokes that give depth and volume to the scene. In a world before photography, the ability to communicate information widely through such a process was highly valued. The print is not just an image but a product of skilled labor, reflective of the social and economic conditions of its time.