Broadside with a Barge Sailing on Ice
Medium
Engraving and letterpress on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 13.8 × 42.2 cm (5 7/16 × 16 5/8 in.); sheet: 27.9 × 43.5 cm (11 × 17 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
268642
Art Historical Context
Created in 1605 by the Dutch printmaker Christoffel van Sichem I, *Broadside with a Barge Sailing on Ice* is a striking example of early seventeenth-century print culture. Combining an engraving with letterpress text on a single sheet of ivory laid paper, the work was designed for wide public distribution. Such broadsides often served as both news reports and visual entertainment, unusual events or seasonal spectacles for an increasingly literate audience. The subject—a barge gliding across frozen water—reflects the harsh winters of the Little Ice Age that gripped northern Europe at the time....