Kind betreurt het voorbijgaan van de tijd 1628

Christoffel van Sichem II made this woodcut, “Kind betreurt het voorbijgaan van de tijd,” at the turn of the 17th century. Woodcut is a relief printing process, in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the cut-away areas inked and printed. The stark, high-contrast aesthetic owes to the inherent qualities of wood. The relative softness of the material allows for expressive lines, seen here in the figures’ drapery and the radiating light. But the wood grain also limits the fineness of detail. Sichem would have used specialized knives, gouges and chisels to meticulously carve away the wood, a labor-intensive process requiring immense skill. As a professional printmaker, he was part of a sophisticated system of production and commerce. Woodcuts like this were made in multiples, to be circulated widely and consumed by a broad public. This reflects a shift away from unique, handcrafted artworks toward a model of mass production that changed the social significance of art. The very materiality of this print, and the process by which it was made, challenge our traditional ideas of artistic value.