With the emergence of printmaking in the fifteenth century, the handling and distribution of images changed: producing editions was cheaper and faster and therefore reached a wider and thus new audience. This audience demanded different themes, which led to the development of an innovative visual language. Today, however, these images are not always immediately comprehensible to us. The exhibition STORYTELLING offered the chance to rediscover the stories behind the objects, taking up popular secular themes from Northern European printmaking around 1500.

The emergence of printmaking is a milestone in the development of art. Previously, every work of art was a unique object. But with the new printing techniques, the same images could be printed several times. The exhibition STORYTELLING vividly conveyed how great the effects of this development were. Printmaking can rightly be described as a turning point in the dissemination and creation of images—thus forming a transition between different eras in art. This changed not only the dissemination of images per se, but also the telling of stories. This sharing is something that was at the heart of the exhibition THREADS as well, which focused on three mythological stories.

For us it was a great pleasure that the exhibition was so well received by the public. We had hoped that visitors would take their time with these special objects—and to our great delight, that’s exactly what happened.