Allegorie met de wedstrijd tussen Atalanta en Hippomene, 1709 1710

This is an allegorical print of 1709 by Abraham Allard, made with etching on paper. Consider the way this image was made. It’s an etching, a print pulled from a metal plate into which lines have been bitten by acid. The quality of line is sharp, precise, and repeatable. This was the very age of print, when printed images exploded across Europe. News, political satire, religious doctrine – all were spread through the medium of ink on paper. The effect on social and cultural life was transformative. Before this, images were unique and expensive, but now they were cheap and ubiquitous. In this print, we see the integration of word and image, with a commentary framing the visual scene above. This was a common technique for making sense of complex political situations through accessible means, and it democratized information in an unprecedented way. These prints are so important for understanding the world in which they were made.