Aanbidding door de koningen 1626

Francesco Villamena made this engraving, "Adoration of the Kings," sometime between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It’s made by cutting lines into a metal plate and then using ink to transfer that design onto paper. Look closely at those crisp, deliberate lines. Villamena would have used a tool called a burin to carve the image into the metal. This was highly skilled work that required precision and control, more akin to the work of a goldsmith than a painter. The technique allows for very fine detail, as you can see in the figures' faces and clothing. The texture is created by hatching and cross-hatching, building up areas of shadow. Engravings like this one were often made in multiples, and were relatively inexpensive. This meant that religious imagery could be widely disseminated in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. So while the subject matter speaks of reverence, the print itself speaks to a new kind of accessibility, made possible by a skilled artisan and the printing press. It collapses traditional distinctions between high art and craft.