Saint John on Patmos 1470 - 1491

Martin Schongauer made this tiny print, Saint John on Patmos, using the technique of engraving. He would have used a tool called a burin to carve lines directly into a copper plate. If you look closely, you'll notice that every mark is made of a line, built up to create areas of tone and shadow. The cross-hatching gives it solidity, like the folds of Saint John's robe, or the textures of the natural world around him. Schongauer was a master of this, and his prints were widely distributed. The beauty of printmaking is that it democratizes images. Because the matrix bears the image, multiple copies can be made. In Schongauer's time, that meant his work was available to a wide range of buyers and facilitated the spread of ideas and imagery, at a time before mechanical reproduction. So, next time you look at a print, remember that it isn't just an image, but a crafted object with a fascinating cultural history all its own.