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1. DefinitionPictorial propaganda is propaganda using visual tools, that is, purposeful dissemination of concepts and ideas with the aid of images. The pictorial conception employs stylistic devices that effect “persuasion” alongside exaggerated praise (Rhetoric) but also caricature and satire.Pictorial propaganda was widespread in the first centuries of the early modern period; the term itself, however, did not appear in scholarly literature until the last third of the 20th century. Since printed graphics made it possible to i…

1. Concept “Allegory”, derived in Early New High German from the Greek/Latin allēgoría (“speak otherwise”), is a pictorial or figurative representation referring to a concept or occurrence. The sense is transferred, and the means for the allegory’s essential decryption provided, with the help of some kind of similarity (Lat. similitudo), or the contrary in the case of an ironic representation (Lat. contrarium), linking the emblematic image (Lat. res significans) with the concept expressed in the allegory (Lat. res significata). An  exemplum, an instance from Greco-Roman myt…

1. Concept and functionThe term thesis print (or “thesis broadsheet”; German  Thesenblatt, French  thèse à image, thèse illustrée, Italian  foglio di tesi) has been used in research literature since the 1940s. Early modern terms include the Latin theses cupro incisi (pl.), emblema or “icon” [2. 11]. The thesis print was a poster-like single-leaf print (Woodcut, German single-leaf) using the copperplate, engraving, or mezzotint technique (Printed graphics). The print was usually on paper, or more rarely on silk. Thesis prints announced ce…

1. Definition From the 15th century on, sheets of paper or parchment could be used to express congratulations and greetings on public or private occasions. Such broadsheets differ from informal congratulatory letters and cards in their combination of image and text, which in printed specimens often took the form of a frequently employed formulary.Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke 2. Annual celebrations The cycle of holidays provided repeated occasion for greetings. The earliest examples in the early modern period include New Year’s greetings, which were already a…

1. DefinitionSince the 19th century, the term  graphic reproduction has denoted a functional domain of printed graphics that is always referential: graphic reproductions depict works of art from painting, sculpture (Sculpture [subtractive]), or crafts. But the reproduction is modified by various parameters: the stylistic and technical preferences of the printmaker as well as the techniques, formats, and media that differ from the reproduced original. A graphic reproduction is therefore rarely just a cop…

1. DefinitionThe category of printed graphics includes all techniques of printing images and the products of those techniques. Together with drawing, it belongs to the artistic field of graphic art (from the Greek  gráphein, “to write,” “to draw”). Printed graphics differ from drawing in the use of a printing plate, specific to the particular technique, making it possible to produce multiple copies from a single original. The historical significance of printed graphics derives from this quality of reproducibility.Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke2. Sources and history of researchPublica…

1. Literature Contrafaction in literature denotes a procedure in which constitutive elements of an original are used to formulate a new version that may run contrary to the spirit of the original. The term derives from the Late Latin contrafacere (“to make against”), and is related to “counterfeit” (i.e. “forge”) and the German Konterfei (“likeness”),  konterfeien (“to depict,” equivalent to Latin  delineare; Grimm, DWB 2, 635, 65), and Abconterfeter (“painter”) [9. 11–21]. In the stricter sense of a genre term, contrafaction is a neologism of 20th-century lite…