Fotoreproductie van een gravure van De bewening van Christus door Paulus Pontius, naar het schilderij door Peter Paul Rubens before 1858

Jean Louis Bargignac made this photogravure of The Lamentation of Christ after a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. Here we have a copy of a copy, and as such the image reflects the changing social role of the art object in the 19th century. Rubens was working in the 17th century in a very different economic and institutional setting. As court painter to the Habsburgs his paintings affirmed the power of the church and monarchy. By the 19th century, however, images like this one were increasingly encountered in secular spaces like museums, galleries, and the pages of books. The photogravure enabled the mass reproduction of artworks like this one. Bargignac was working at a time when art was becoming progressively democratized; its value no longer lay in its uniqueness, but in its reproducibility. Understanding the changing technologies of image production and circulation allows us to think more deeply about art’s evolving role in the modern world.