Maria met Christuskind c. 1615 - 1623

This print of Mary with the Christ Child was made by an anonymous artist using an etching technique. Images of the Madonna and Child have a long history in Christian art, and their meaning has shifted over time along with changing social values. In earlier periods, the focus was often on Mary as the Queen of Heaven, emphasizing her divine status. But prints like this one, produced in the Netherlands, reflect a cultural shift towards a more intimate and human portrayal of Mary. The lack of identifying information about the artist can tell us something about the changing status of art and artists at that time. Art production was becoming more of a commercial enterprise, rather than solely something done under the patronage of the church. The tools of the historian, like archival records, help us trace the changing status of art, and how religious art shifted from objects of veneration to cultural artifacts within a changing economy of art.