Andreas en Thomas 1520

Sebald Beham made this tiny print of Andrew and Thomas from metal, sometime in the first half of the 16th century. Look closely, and you’ll notice that it's composed entirely of lines, close-packed to create dark tones, and further apart for lighter ones. That's how printmaking works. The artist incises lines into a metal plate, which is then inked, and the ink transferred to paper under great pressure. The result is the opposite of drawing, where the artist adds dark marks to a light ground. Here, the artist is removing material, like a sculptor, to create the image. The method requires immense skill and patience, but it had the advantage of producing multiple images, which could then be sold relatively cheaply. This print gives us a glimpse into the early years of capitalism, when art became a commodity available to a much wider public. It’s a long way from our digital age, but consider that without prints like this one, we wouldn't have the mass media that defines our world.