St. Erasmus (copy) 1512 - 1600

This small, early 16th-century woodcut, now at the Met, presents St. Erasmus enthroned. It was made by Hans Baldung, a German artist who was really plugged into the ways that images could circulate widely in his era. The key to that circulation was, of course, printmaking. Baldung would have used a knife to carve away the areas of a woodblock that he *didn’t* want to print. This painstaking process results in a design of stark contrasts. The remaining raised areas were then inked and pressed onto paper, leaving a crisp, graphic image. The color added here, makes it all the more visually appealing. Woodcuts like this one were relatively inexpensive, and this allowed them to reach a broad audience. They were often used for religious imagery, but also for more secular subjects. It is an early version of mass production, where an artist like Baldung could profit from the labor of their own hands, and distribute their artistic vision far and wide. Ultimately, this challenged traditional notions of artistic uniqueness.