Page from Ein new kunstlich Modelbuch...(Page 49r) 1544

This page from Peter Quentel’s model book, dating from around 1500, is a woodcut on paper. The black ink sits slightly raised on the page – you can imagine the artist carefully carving away at a block of wood, leaving only the design to catch the ink. Each band presents a different pattern, a lexicon of design for artisans to draw upon. These weren’t meant to be hung on a wall, but to be put to practical use. Model books like these were crucial to the circulation of design ideas in the early modern period, a kind of proto-internet for makers. The designs here speak to a world of craft production. Imagine a goldsmith using these patterns to decorate a chalice, or a textile worker incorporating them into a woven fabric. The act of reproducing these designs, translating them into different materials, is where the real labor lies. Considering this page, we can appreciate how printed images, seemingly simple, played a vital role in shaping the material world around us. They remind us that design is never a purely aesthetic pursuit, but always intertwined with the realities of labor, production, and use.