Print Culture and the Modern World

Picture Reading
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Fig.1

(Making the book before the age of print,

Akhlaq-i-Nasiri, in the year of 1595).
• This picture is a royal workshop in the 16th
century, many years before the printing was
began in India.
• One being dictated the text, many written and
illustrated the text. As we saw in the picture
• The art of writing and illustrating by hand
was important before the age of print.

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Fig. 2a
(It is a page from the book of Diamond Sutra)
The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868 is “Diamond
Sutra”.

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Fig. 2b (Tripitaka Koreana)
This is belonging to mid-13th century, Tripitaka Koreana were a
korean collection of Buddhist scriptures. They were designed on
about 80,000 woodblocks. They were inscribed on the UNESCO
(United nations educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) memory of the world register in 2007.
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Fig. 3 (An ukiyo print by kitagawa Utamaro).
Kitagawa Utamaro, he was an artist, born in Edo in 1753, was
widely known for his collections to form of an art called ukiyo
(picture of the floating world). These prints travelled to the US
and Europe and great artists like Manet, Monet and Van Gogh.
Tsutaya Juzaburo identified subjects and commissioned artists
who drew the theme in outline. Then a skilled woodblock carver
pasted the drawing on a wood block and shaped a printing block
to reproduce the painter’s lines. In the process, the original
drawing would be destroyed and only prints would survive.

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Fig. 4a
(A morning scene, ukiyo print by
Shunman Kubo, late 18th century)
In this painting, a man looks out side of the
window at the snowfall, while women
prepare tea and the others perform their
domestic duties.

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Fig. 4b (Jikji)
The Jikji is a book of a Korea is the world’s oldest
existing books printed with movable metal type. It
consists of the essential features of zen Buddhism.
About 150 monks of India, China, and Korea were
mentioned in this book. It was printed in late 14th
century. While the second volume of the book is
available in national library of France. This work
marked an important technical change in the print
culture. This book is inscribed on UNESCO memory of
world register in 2001.
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Fig. 5

(A portrait of Johann Gutengerg, it was painted on 1584)

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Fig. 6(Gutenberg printing press).

Notice the long handle attached to the screw. This

handle was used to turn the screw and press down the
platen over the printing block that was placed on top of a
sheet of damp paper. Gutenberg developed metal types
for each of the 26 characters of the Roman alphabet and
devised a way of moving them around so as to compose
different words of the text. This came to be known as the
moveable type printing machine, and it remained the
basic print technology over the next 300 years. Books
could now be produced much faster than was possible
when each print block was prepared by carving a piece
of wood by hand. The Gutenberg press could print 250
sheets on one side per hour.

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Fig. 7(Pages of Gutenberg’s Bible, the first printed book in Europe) .

Gutenberg printed about 180 copies, of which no more than 50 have survived.

Look at these pages of Gutenberg’s Bible carefully. They were not just products of new technology. The text was printed in the
new Gutenberg press with metal type, but the borders were carefully designed, painted and illuminated by hand by artists. No
two copies were the same. Every page of each copy was different. Even when two copies look similar, a careful comparison will
reveal differences. Elites everywhere preferred this lack of uniformity: what they possessed then could be claimed as unique, for
no one else owned a copy that was exactly the same.
In the text you will notice the use of colour within the letters in various places. This had two functions: it added colour to the
page, and highlighted all the holy words to emphasise their significance. But the colour on every page of the text was added by
hand. Gutenberg printed the text in black, leaving spaces where the colour could be filled in later.
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Fig. 8( The printing workshop, 16th century)
This picture depicts what a printer’s shop
looked like in the sixteenth century. All the
activities are going on under one roof. In
the foreground on the right, compositors
are at work, while on the left galleys are
being prepared and ink is being applied
on the metal types; in the background,
the printers are turning the screws of the
press, and near them proofreaders are at
work. Right in front is the final product -
the double-page printed sheets, stacked
in neat piles, waiting to be bound.

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Fig. 9(J. V. Schley, L’Imprimerie, 1739).

This is one of the many images produced in early modern

Europe, celebrating the coming of print. You can see the
printing press descending from heaven, carried by a
goddess. On two sides of the goddess, blessing the
machine, are Minerva (the goddess of wisdom) and Mercury
(the messenger god, also symbolising reason). The women
in the foreground are holding plaques with the portraits of six
pioneer printers of different countries. In the middle ground
on the left (figure encircled) is the portrait of Gutenberg.

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Fig. 10(The macabre dance).

This sixteenth-century print shows how the fear of

printing was dramatised in visual representations of the
time. In this highly interesting woodcut the coming of
print is associated with the end of the world. The
interior of the printer’s workshop here is the site of a
dance of death. Skeletal figures control the printer and
his workers, define and dictate what is to be done and
what is to be produced.
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Fig. 11(The nobility and the common people before the French revolution, a cartoon of the late
18th century).

The cartoon shows how the ordinary people -

peasants, artisans and workers - had a hard time
while the nobility enjoyed life and oppressed
them. Circulation of cartoons like this one had an
impact on the thinking of people before the
revolution

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Fig. 12(Frontispiece of penny Magazine).

Penny Magazine was published between 1832 and

1835 in England by the Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge. It was aimed primarily at the
working class

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Fig. 13(Advertisements at a railway station in English, a lithography by Alfred Concanen,

1874).
Printed advertisements and notices were plastered on street walls, railway
platforms and public buildings.

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Fig. 14(Pages from the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva, 18th century).

This is a palm-leaf handwritten manuscript in accordion format.

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Fig. 15(Pages from the Diwan of Hafiz, 1824).

Hafiz was a fourteenth-century poet whose

collected works are known as Diwan. Notice
the beautiful calligraphy and the elaborate
illustration and design. Manuscripts like this
continued to be produced for the rich even
after the coming of the letterpress.

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Fig. 16(Pages from the Rigveda).

Handwritten manuscripts continued to be produced in India till much
after the coming of print. This manuscript was produced in the
eighteenth century in the Malayalam script.

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Fig.17(Raja rithudhwaj rescuing princess madalsa from the captivit

of demons, print by Ravi varma).
Raja Ravi Varma produced innumerable mythological paintings that were printed at the
Ravi Varma Press.

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Fig. 18(The cover page of Indian Charivari)

The Indian Charivari was one of the many journals of caricature

and satire published in the late nineteenth century.
Notice that the imperial British figure is positioned right at the
centre. He is authoritative and imperial; telling the natives what
is to be done. The natives sit on either side of him, servile and
submissive. The Indians are being shown a copy of Punch, the
British journal of cartoons and satire. You can almost hear the
British master say - ‘This is the model, produce Indian versions
of it.’

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Fig.19(Ghor Kali “The end of the World”, coloured woodcut, late 19th century)

The artist’s vision of the destruction of proper family

relations. Here the husband is totally dominated by his
wife who is perched on his shoulder. He is cruel towards
his mother, dragging her like an animal, by the noose.

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Fig. 20(An Indian couple, black and white

woodcut)

The image shows the artist’s fear that the

cultural impact of the West has turned the
family upside down. Notice that the man is
playing the veena while the woman is
smoking a hookah. The move towards women’s education in the late
nineteenth century created anxiety about the breakdown of traditional family
roles.

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Fig. 21(A European couple sitting on the chairs, 19th century woodcut)

The picture suggests traditional family

roles. The Sahib holds a liquor bottle in
his hand while the Memsahib plays the
violin.

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Fig. 22(Lakshminath Bezbaruah 1868-1938)

He was a doyen of modern Assamese literature. Burhi Aair Sadhu

(Grandma’s Tales) is among his notable works. He penned the popular
song of Assam, ‘O Mor Apunar Desh’ (O’ my beloved land).