The Emperor Meeting the Warrior 1514 - 1536

Agostino Veneziano made this engraving, "The Emperor Meeting the Warrior," sometime in the first half of the 16th century. It’s created by incising lines into a metal plate, inking the surface, and then pressing paper onto it. Printmaking was at this point a relatively new medium, with the potential to circulate images widely. Note the tight, controlled hatching that models the figures and architectural backdrop; these are the marks of a skilled hand. The composition derives from classical sources, and the print is an aesthetic object. But it is also a product of labor and the market. Veneziano, like other printmakers, was working within an expanding network of production and consumption. His expertise in engraving, combined with the scalability of printmaking, allowed for the relatively inexpensive distribution of this image, engaging with wider social issues of labor and politics. So, when looking at this print, think about the meeting of artistic skill, classical subject matter, and early capitalist enterprise that it embodies.