Christ Asked to Identify Himself c. 1503

Editor: This woodcut, "Christ Asked to Identify Himself" by Ambrosius Holbein, shows a scene packed with figures. I'm curious about the production of this print. What can we infer about the making process and its socio-economic context? Curator: The labor involved in creating this woodcut is significant. Think about the artisans required to produce the paper, the tools, and the ink, and the skill required to carve the block, which would have been reversed, line by line. What does this level of material and human investment suggest about the intended audience and the function of such prints at the time? Editor: It’s interesting to consider how this would have been reproduced and disseminated. It makes you think about who had access to this imagery, and how they might have understood its meaning. Curator: Precisely. By examining the materials and labor, we begin to understand the artwork's role within the economic and social networks of its time.