Jael doodt Sisera en de Engel des Heren verschijnt aan Gideon 1791

This print, "Jael doodt Sisera en de Engel des Heren verschijnt aan Gideon," was made by Jacob Folkema sometime before 1767. It’s a great example of the engraver's art. Folkema would have started with a copper plate, meticulously incising lines into its surface with a tool called a burin. This painstaking process required immense skill and control, as each line determined the final image's contrast and detail. See how the density of lines creates areas of shadow, giving depth to the figures and scenes. This wasn’t just about artistic expression; it was a skilled trade. Prints like these played a crucial role in disseminating information and ideas in the pre-photographic era. They were relatively affordable and could be reproduced in large quantities, making art accessible to a wider audience. In this sense, the print medium democratized images, even if the labor behind their creation often went unacknowledged. Understanding the material and the making helps us appreciate the social function these images served.