Plate 17: The Romans Misled by Civilis' Horse to Believe that He was Dead or Injured, from The War of the Romans Against the Batavians (Romanorvm et Batavorvm societas) 1611 - 1612

This print, made by Antonio Tempesta around the turn of the 17th century, depicts a scene from the uprising of the Batavians against the Roman Empire. It’s made using the intaglio process. This involves incising an image into a metal plate, applying ink, and then using a press to transfer the ink to paper. Note how the action is built up through a dense layering of lines. Tempesta wasn’t just trying to record the scene, he was creating a very particular effect. The extreme detail and compressed composition reflects a printmaking tradition, where images were more like precious documents than autonomous artworks. Consider the labor that went into this print – the artist's work, the skilled printmaker, and the papermaker. It was made to be circulated, consumed, and, in a very real sense, put to work. It’s a potent reminder that even seemingly straightforward images are the product of complex processes, all of which contribute to their meaning.