Malchus van Chalcis als kluizenaar 1583 - 1588

Johann Sadeler I made this print, "Malchus van Chalcis als kluizenaar", with engraving techniques sometime between 1560 and 1600. This method, entirely by hand, demanded intense skill and patience, where the artist incised lines into a metal plate, and then used this to make a print. Sadeler was one of the premier printmakers of his day, a master of disseminating images to a wide audience. In this print we see a religious subject, but one depicted in the everyday guise of a shepherd at rest. He is surrounded by the tools and materials of his trade: livestock, a crook, vessels for carrying water, and perhaps cheese for eating. Sadeler has painstakingly rendered the textures of wool, bark, and clothing, all with the same network of precise lines. This print is a testament to the labor involved in both its making and its subject, showing how much work goes into the supposedly simple life. It reminds us that every image, like every loaf of cheese, comes from somewhere.