Apollo 1528

This image of Apollo was made in the 16th century by an artist known only as Monogrammist IB, using the technique of engraving. Look closely and you can see the network of fine lines which give the image its form. These lines weren't drawn directly, but incised into a copper plate with a tool called a burin. This was painstaking work, requiring immense skill. The plate would then have been inked and printed, leaving us with this impression. Engraving like this was a key technology in the early modern period. It allowed images and information to be widely disseminated for the first time, with implications for science, politics, and of course art. Prints like this one were relatively cheap to produce, but only after a huge amount of labour by highly trained specialists. So, even as we admire Apollo, we might also pause to consider the engraver who made this image possible.