Heilige Johannes van Lycopolis als kluizenaar 1644

This engraving of Saint John of Lycopolis was made by Christoffel van Sichem II. It is a print, made by cutting lines into a block of wood, inking it, and then pressing it onto paper. The stark black lines define the figure of the saint against a ground that seems to be made up of text. Look closely, and you'll notice that the figure is defined by a network of carefully incised lines. Sichem was a master of this craft, using the burin to create a wide range of tonal effects. The stark contrasts create a graphic intensity. Woodcuts like this were relatively inexpensive to produce. The technique allowed for a degree of standardization, which meant that images, and the ideas that they carried, could be efficiently reproduced and disseminated. We can think about printmaking as a key technology in its time, allowing a democratization of knowledge and belief. It challenges our conventional definition of what art is.