Saint John on the Island of Patmos 1480 - 1490

This depiction of Saint John on the Island of Patmos was created by an anonymous artist using woodcut and then colored by hand. This was a relatively common practice in the early days of printmaking, before color printing became more widespread. The image's texture reveals its making. The artist used knives and gouges to carve away wood from a block, leaving the lines of the composition in relief. The block was then inked, and pressed onto paper. Hand-coloring added another layer of craftsmanship, though it was likely done by less skilled workshop members. The print medium enabled the mass production of images and texts in the late medieval period, thereby enabling the wide dispersal of religious iconography to a broader population of believers, and changing the ways in which labor was valued. While woodcut prints were more accessible than paintings, they still required specialized labor, blending technical skill with artistry. These combined processes give us a glimpse into the intertwined histories of art, craft, and the democratizing potential of printmaking.