Moses' Hands Held Up, from "Dalziels' Bible Gallery" 1865 - 1881

This is “Moses’ Hands Held Up”, a wood engraving made by Frederick Richard Pickersgill in the 19th century, for a publication called "Dalziels' Bible Gallery." The image is made from carving a design into the end-grain of a block of wood, then inking and printing it. Wood engraving is an intricate process, requiring specialized tools and immense skill to achieve such fine detail, like the musculature in the arms or the folds of the clothing. Look closely, and you can see the mark of the burin that has been used to carve out these areas of light. The technique became a favored method of illustration during the Industrial Revolution, because it allowed images to be reproduced quickly, at an unprecedented scale, and integrated directly with text. As such, this seemingly straightforward devotional image is actually deeply tied to the technologies of mass production and consumption. It represents a moment when handcraft met industrialization, and printmaking became a powerful tool for disseminating ideas and stories. Remember that when we look at any work of art, we are also seeing the history of its making.