Personificatie van de Armoede als dochter van de Oorlog c. 1540 - 1560

Lambertus Suavius made this print, Personification of Poverty as the Daughter of War, in the mid-16th century, using engraving. Look closely, and you'll notice that the image is composed of thousands of tiny lines, each one carefully etched into a metal plate. This would have been a painstaking process, demanding great skill and patience. The lines create tone and shadow, giving depth to the figure of Poverty, who sits disconsolately amidst the ruins of war. Engraving, like many printmaking techniques, was crucial to the development of capitalism. It allowed for the mass production of images, spreading ideas and information more widely than ever before. This print, therefore, isn't just a depiction of poverty, it's also an example of how new technologies were transforming European society. It prompts us to consider the labor, and the new systems of production, that underpinned the artistic practices of the time.