Het gehoor (Auditus) 1561

This engraving, Auditus, or Hearing, was made by Cornelis Cort sometime in the 16th century. Cort was a master printmaker, known for his ability to translate paintings into black and white through a painstaking process of carving lines into a copper plate. Here, line by line, he has described a figure representing hearing, surrounded by musical instruments. It’s a veritable inventory: lutes, flutes, a violin, bagpipes, an organ. Look closely, and you can see how the density of lines creates shading and volume. Cort varied the quality of the lines to give the illusion of texture, from the soft fur of the deer to the smooth wood of the instruments. Engraving was a highly skilled and specialized craft. The engraver needed a deep understanding of materials, tools, and techniques. But more than that, he had to have an eye for detail and a steady hand. In the sixteenth century, prints like this one were more than just works of art, they were also a key means of communicating ideas. Cort’s mastery reminds us that all art is, in the end, the result of skillful making.