Allegorie op het huwelijk 1588 - 1595

Johann Sadeler I made this print, Allegory on Marriage, sometime before his death in 1601. It is an engraving, meaning that the image was incised into a copper plate, inked, and then printed. The burin, a specialized tool for engraving, allowed Sadeler to create incredibly fine lines and textures. Look closely, and you’ll see how he used hatching and cross-hatching to create the illusion of depth and volume, especially in the figures’ clothing. Engraving like this was a highly skilled craft. In the 16th century, printmaking was a key means of disseminating information and ideas, and prints like this one would have been widely circulated and collected. The labor involved in creating the printing plate shows the increasing role of the artist as skilled worker and entrepreneur, operating within an expanding market for art and imagery. The material means of production really shaped the visual language of the time.