Maria met kind, Johannes de Doper en engelen 1750 - 1804

Charles Phillips made this print of Mary with Child, John the Baptist, and angels sometime in the 18th century. It’s made using a technique called mezzotint, which creates velvety blacks and smooth gradations of tone. Think of it like this: the metal plate is systematically roughened to hold ink all over. The artist then works back into this field of potential darkness, burnishing areas to make them lighter, and scraping others to create pure white. It’s painstaking work, and the results are quite different from the crisp lines of an engraving or etching. What Phillips has given us here is more atmospheric, a study in light and shadow that pulls you into the scene. The texture is almost like charcoal. And note, this wasn't an original composition by Phillips; rather, it reproduced a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Correggio. Mezzotints like this one played a crucial role in disseminating paintings to a wider audience. This was reproductive labor, pure and simple, but requiring tremendous skill. It brings up interesting questions about originality, labor and value.