Wapenschild en landschap 1726

Bernard Picart made this image of a coat-of-arms and landscape sometime before 1733, using etching. This printmaking technique involves coating a metal plate with wax, then scratching an image into the wax. The plate is then submerged in acid, which bites into the exposed metal. Consider the implications of this indirect process. Picart could create finely detailed scenes, as we see here in the fields, sheep, and figures, but only through an elaborate process of mediation. The very phrase "acid etching" suggests something of the corrosive social dynamics of the time. Notice that the Latin motto at the top, “Sic vos non vobis,” translates to “Thus do you labor, but not for yourselves.” This phrase, often associated with Virgil, speaks volumes about the relationship between labor and reward. It challenges the traditional hierarchy between high art and craft, inviting us to consider how all forms of making are intertwined with social and economic realities.