Portretten van twee courtisanes 1635

These portraits of two courtesans were made by Crispijn van de Passe the Younger, likely in the early to mid-17th century. He made them using a printmaking technique called engraving. Look closely and you'll see that the image is composed of thousands of tiny lines, each one carefully incised into a copper plate with a tool called a burin. The plate would then be inked, and the ink transferred to paper under high pressure. The beauty of engraving lies in the control it offers: the artist can achieve subtle gradations of tone, and capture incredible detail. Printmaking in this era was a commercial enterprise. Prints like these were relatively affordable, allowing images to circulate widely. So, while the portraits themselves depict women of privilege, the means of their representation speaks to a burgeoning culture of mass production and consumption. This work shows the artist’s skilled labor, but also points to the way images could be disseminated and consumed in early modern Europe. By understanding the material process, we gain a deeper insight into the artwork's historical and cultural significance.