De Heilige Martina gemarteld met kokende olie 1654 - 1702

Antonio Gherardi’s “The Martyrdom of Saint Martina with Boiling Oil” is an engraving, a printmaking process that demands precision. Here, an image is carefully etched into a metal plate, which then takes ink to transfer the design onto paper. Note the stark contrast between the dark lines and the light background; this effect depends on the artist's control over the etching process. But the material isn't just the medium, it's part of the message. Consider the historical context: prints like this were a form of mass communication, designed for wide distribution, especially of religious stories. Here the artist conveys violence through the rendering of the naked bodies of Saint Martina and her torturers. The engraving medium itself, with its capacity for exacting detail, becomes a tool to depict both the horror and the supposed righteousness of the act. Ultimately, the material conditions of this artwork—its making, and the wider culture in which it circulated—are inseparable from its meaning.