Zinnebeeldig portret van Theodorus de Cock, 1705 1706 - 1707

Carel Allard created this engraving of Theodorus de Cock in 1705, using ink on paper. The image is essentially a portrait, but done in the form of a rooster. Look closely, and you’ll see that the rooster is actually composed of densely packed text. This is no accident. Printmaking was then a relatively new technology, its proliferation fueled by the rise of both scientific culture and capitalism. The precise, repetitive labor required to set type and run a printing press was itself a kind of industrial process, yielding identical copies on a large scale. The artist is making a visual pun about the subject's name, "de Cock," a play on the Dutch word for rooster. But on a deeper level, the use of printed text as a material signifies the subject's own involvement with the world of commerce and communication. This symbolic portrait blurs the boundary between image and text. By considering the material and processes of its making, we recognize the profound interconnectedness of art, craft, and society.