Isaac Blessing Jacob 1725 - 1735

This print, "Isaac Blessing Jacob," was created by Lorenzo Zucchi, using engraving – a process of incising lines into a metal plate, inking it, and then pressing the image onto paper. Look closely, and you can see the fineness of the lines that define the figures and their garments. The material qualities of the print – its paper support, the dark ink – lend the image a distinctive presence, at once delicate and forceful. Engraving demanded immense skill and patience, not to mention physical strength. Here, Zucchi has translated the painterly qualities of the original painting into a graphic idiom. This print also reflects a social transaction, reproducing another artist's work for wider circulation, and embedding a painter's unique invention into the expanding world of consumer culture. The act of blessing becomes one of art making, distribution, and consumption. Recognizing the labor and social context behind a print like this helps us appreciate its full significance.