Calvary (Golgotha) 1517

This engraving of 'Calvary,' or 'Golgotha' was made by Lucas van Leyden, and it's a masterpiece of the printmaking medium. Look closely, and you can see it’s made up of thousands of tiny etched lines. Each one of these was carved into a copper plate with a tool called a burin, then inked and printed onto paper. This was painstaking work and required incredible skill. In a way, the printmaking process mirrors the painting itself. Just as Christ’s sacrifice was made for a multitude of people, so too was this image created to be reproduced and disseminated widely. The labor is almost invisible here, but it's important to remember the intense craft that makes the image available to us now. The print medium allowed artists like van Leyden to reach a broad audience, spreading religious and moral messages far beyond the elite circles who could afford paintings. It’s a powerful example of how new technologies can democratize art.