The Duellists

This is an original artwork freely inspired by the XVI century woodcuts. The graphic style tends to imitate the master woodcutters (Dürer, Egenolff, Wolgemut) of the late XVth century, early XVIth , both in terms of tools, techniques, and the posture and symbolism itself.

The scene represents two swordplayers wearing XVIth century costume, and fighting using longswords, as seen on renaissance treatises and codices from that period of time. This print itself was heavily inspired by the works of Tobias Stimmer, and the fechtbuch he produced for Joachim Meÿer from Strassburg. The scene represents a particuliar sword move (disarming the opponent) which consists in seizing the weapon near the crossguard to disarm him.

This linocut was deeply inspired by renaissance art, because being a a history nerd is a good way to be inspired by cool stuff

The techniques

The sketch was directly drawn on the lino block, then inked with a quill on the block. Once dried out, the block was carved with gouges: the linocut process itself.

To print out something, the carved block was inked with a brayer and printing ink and the sheet of paper was pressed using a printing linocut press.