Heilige Sebastiaan in een nis 1488 - 1492

This image of Saint Sebastian in a Niche was created by the Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet, using drypoint on paper. Drypoint is a printmaking technique in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed needle. Look closely, and you'll notice the marks have a soft, slightly blurred quality. That’s because the incising process raises a slight ridge of metal alongside the furrow, which retains ink and prints along with the intended line. This gives drypoint a distinctive velvety quality not found in other forms of intaglio printmaking. It takes a good amount of skill to execute a print like this: the artist had to control pressure and angle to achieve just the right effect. The technique is less physically demanding than engraving or woodcutting, and in that sense it democratized printmaking. The Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet also used the technique to explore subjects beyond the purely religious, helping to usher in a new era of artistic freedom. The image invites us to consider the intersection of technical craft and social context. It challenges traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.