The Bride of Messina 

Alfred Rethel created this drawing, "The Bride of Messina," in the mid-19th century using pen and brown ink, heightened with white and gray wash, over graphite. These are traditional art materials, and yet, Rethel’s technique is closer to illustration than academic painting. The drawing's tonality – variations in the application of the ink wash – gives it a somber quality fitting for the tragic scenes that surround the central figure. Look at how the white heightening is used selectively to bring out details, like the folds of the writer's robe. The scenes are framed as discrete images, almost like panels in a printed book. Rethel was working at a time when printmaking was becoming increasingly important. The ability to reproduce images cheaply and widely was transforming visual culture. Here, Rethel seems interested in emulating that look. He is using handmade techniques to evoke a new, modern form of image production. In doing so, he collapses the distinction between fine art and popular culture, asking us to consider how new technologies change our expectations of art.