Miracle of the Five Loaves

Jacques de Gheyn's 1595 engraving after Abraham Bloemaert's "Miracle of the Five Loaves" writhes with the sinuous Mannerist line and flashes with the period's array of lighting effects. The long-lived and highly influential Bloemaert is numbered among the most imaginative artists of the period, and de Gheyn transformed his ideas by rendering them in engraving of unparalleled brilliance and refinement. Engraving required time-consuming, focused discipline that was outside the scope of Bloemaert's own activity. The composition plays a game of hide-and-seek by reducing the scale of the protagonist and pushing him into the background. Another visual game is the use of engraving to produce a printed rival to esteemed crafts in other media: de Gheyn and Bloemaert here compete with the silver repousse trays produced by famous metalsmiths such as Adam van Vianen, who like Bloemaert worked in Utrecht.