Portret van koning Frans I van Frankrijk c. 1538s

Cornelis Anthonisz. made this print of King Francis I of France sometime in the first half of the 16th century. It's a woodcut, a relatively accessible medium at the time, then painstakingly hand-colored. The choice of this technique tells us something important. Unlike a unique painting, a print can be reproduced. It’s a medium perfectly suited to spreading information. The details here aren’t subtle; we’re meant to see the king’s finery, the cut of his clothes, the colors of his heraldry. The hand-coloring adds to this effect; the application of each separate color required an additional step of labor. Prints like this one helped to solidify Francis’s image as a powerful, wealthy ruler, and, as such, were vital components in the early-modern machinery of statecraft. Though it’s ‘just’ a print, it speaks volumes about the relationship between labor, materials, and the construction of power.