Festival of the Aissawah 

Jean-François Portaels created this engraving of the Festival of the Aissawah, using the precise and repeatable medium of printmaking. The choice of this medium is significant. While painting might capture the exoticism of the event, printmaking allowed for the mass dissemination of the image, fitting into the 19th-century European fascination with Orientalism, a style that exoticized Middle Eastern and North African cultures. The fine lines and shading, achieved through skilled engraving techniques, convey the dramatic intensity of the Aissawah ritual. This medium allowed Portaels to create a relatively objective record of the festival. Each line, each mark, is a testament to the artist's labor, but also to the industrial processes that made the reproduction and distribution of such images possible. Consider how the black-and-white medium influences our perception of the scene, perhaps lending a sense of documentary realism while also stripping away the vibrant colors of the actual event. This work prompts us to think about how European artists mediated and commodified foreign cultures through printmaking.