Tronende Maria met Kind c. 1595

Zacharias Dolendo made this engraving of the Virgin and Child. He worked in the late 16th and early 17th century, a time when printmaking was really taking off as a means of mass communication. The image is made by incising lines into a copper plate, inking it, and then pressing it onto paper. Look closely, and you can see the remarkable detail achieved by this process. Notice the fine lines that create the illusion of shadow and form, the texture of the fabrics, and the delicate features of the figures. The skill involved in creating such a print was considerable. Printmakers were highly trained artisans, and this was a painstaking, laborious process. But the results could be reproduced many times over, allowing images and ideas to circulate widely. In this way, printmaking democratized art, making it accessible to a broader public. It also helped to fuel the rise of a commercial art market, with prints being bought and sold like any other commodity.