Ontwerp voor een schede met een naakte man en een vrouw 1532

This 16th-century design for a sheath featuring a naked man and woman was etched by Heinrich Aldegrever. The design is executed in a traditional printmaking technique. Aldegrever used a sharp tool to draw lines into a metal plate, which was then inked and pressed onto paper. The fine lines and intricate details would have required a high degree of skill and precision. Note that the image is not a drawing, but an incision. The quality of the print depends on the number of incisions made on the plate, and the number of prints that were eventually produced from it. The act of printing here is crucial. It allowed images and ideas to be circulated more widely than ever before, democratizing access to art and knowledge. The very nature of printmaking meant that it was reproducible and marketable, therefore embedded within emerging capitalist structures. In understanding an artwork, considering its materials, making, and context is of the utmost importance, blurring conventional divisions between fine art and craft.