Four Angels holding back the Winds, from the Apocalypse 1480 - 1570

Jean Duvet created this print, Four Angels Holding Back the Winds, sometime in the 16th century. It’s made using the intaglio process. The entire image is born from labor. Duvet would have painstakingly used a tool called a burin to carve lines into a copper plate. Ink is then pressed into these lines, and the plate is run through a press with paper, transferring the image. The resulting visual texture is quite remarkable. Notice the incredible detail, the artist’s ability to create light and shadow with nothing but these tiny engraved lines. The composition is incredibly dense, packed with figures rendered with incredible care. The act of engraving itself is a slow, deliberate process, each line a testament to the artist’s skill and patience. By understanding this process, we can begin to appreciate the work not just as an image, but also as a record of skilled labor, a dialogue between artist, material, and the wider social context of 16th-century Europe.