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The invention of printmaking in the 15th century brought about a revolution in the creation and dissemination of devotional imagery. With the advent of this new technology, pictures of saints could be reproduced with relative ease, and they became available to an audience that had previously been unable to afford images. The identities of the makers of the earliest prints are unknown; documents of the period often refer to them only as "saint makers" or "Jesus makers." Their works were simple but effective, as the "saint makers" sought to create images that conveyed sacred stories in the most straightforward way possible. In the later years of the 15th century, these "saint makers" realized that printmaking offered opportunities to display their talents to a wide audience. Individuals like Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Daniel Hopfer, and Lucas van Leyden designed almost impossibly refined woodcuts and investigated the effects of line and modeling that can be achieved in engravings and etchings. This exhibition is organized by Assistant Professor of Art History Stephen Perkinson in conjunction with his class Art History 226, Northern Renaissance Art.
Pictured above:
Albrecht Dürer, German, 1471-1528, Sudarium Displayed by Two Angels, 1516, engraving, Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 1985.66
