Veldslag bij rotswand 1574

Christoffel van Sichem I made this woodcut, *Veldslag bij rotswand*, which translates to "Battlefield by Rock Wall", probably around the turn of the 17th century. The process of woodcutting is key here. Van Sichem would have used knives and gouges to carve away the wood around his design. The remaining raised areas would then be inked and pressed onto paper. The density of the lines dictates the darkness of the image. Look closely, and you can see how the chaos of battle is conveyed through a dense network of lines, each one carefully incised. Printmaking like this was a crucial technology in early modern Europe. It allowed for the mass production and dissemination of images, fueling the spread of news, propaganda, and artistic ideas. This print is a record, and itself a product, of a society undergoing constant upheaval, where warfare was a fact of life. The intense labor needed to produce the block would have been considerable, and contrasts vividly with our contemporary digital image culture. So, as you consider this battle scene, think about the labor and craft embedded in its very making. The material and process are inseparable from the image's meaning.