Lunette met putti, leeuwen en hoornen des overvloeds in de oostelijke galerij van het Stadhuis op de Dam 1655 - 1665

This print, made by Hubert Quellinus, captures a lunette in the east gallery of Amsterdam’s Town Hall. It’s rendered using etching, a printmaking technique where acid bites into a metal plate to create an image. Here, Quellinus shows us sculptural details from the Town Hall. We see putti – those chubby cherubs so popular in the Renaissance and Baroque periods – along with lions and horns of plenty. The very idea of a ‘horn of plenty’ speaks to a culture of high production and consumption. The print would have been produced in multiples, allowing the dissemination of luxury goods and artistic ideas. Note the precision of the etched lines. The process involves skilled labor, and the finished print serves not only as art but as a document of craft. By focusing on these kinds of images, Quellinus brings the architecture of labor into the gallery space. It’s a reminder that every artwork is the product of many hands, many processes, and a whole social world.