View of Antioch from Supplementum Chronicarum, Plate 50 from Woodcuts from Books of the 15th Century c. 1492 - 1929

This woodcut of Antioch, now in modern-day Turkey, was made by an anonymous artist around 1483, and illustrates Hartmann Schedel’s ‘Nuremberg Chronicle.’ It’s a relatively early example of a printed illustration. Woodcuts were made by carving away the negative space around an image from a block of wood. The remaining raised lines would then be inked and pressed onto paper, in a process that is not too dissimilar from letterpress printing. Look closely, and you can appreciate how the material influences the appearance of the print. The relatively soft nature of wood allowed for the creation of bold lines and simplified forms, which gave the image a graphic quality. The production of woodcuts was labor-intensive, requiring skilled artisans to carve the blocks. The prints themselves, however, were relatively inexpensive to produce. This made them accessible to a wide audience and allowed for the dissemination of information and imagery on a scale previously unimaginable, contributing to the expansion of visual culture.