Reproductie van een schilderij van Maria met Christus als kind met aan weerszijden een engel, door Filippo Lippi before 1883

This is a reproduction of a painting by Filippo Lippi, depicting Mary with Christ as a child, flanked by angels. While Lippi himself worked in egg tempera, perhaps with some oil glazing, this version is a mechanically produced print, created with ink on paper. The image would have been produced by transferring the original design onto a printing plate, likely metal, and then repeatedly pressing the inked plate onto paper. This procedure meant that the image could be widely disseminated, bringing the artistry of Lippi to a broad audience. Consider the labor involved – not of an individual artist, but of a whole workshop geared towards mass production. The quality of line and tone, though clearly derived from Lippi's original, has a graphic character all its own, a consequence of the printing process. By considering the material transformation from paint to print, we can appreciate how images circulate and gain new meanings in different social contexts, challenging our understanding of originality and value.