Popular print

The Mice Burying the Cat, a 1760s Russian lubok hand-coloured woodcut. It probably originally dates from the reign of Peter the Great, but this impression probably dates from c. 1766. Possibly a satire on Peter's reforms, or just a representation of carnivalesque inversion, "turning the world upside down".

Popular prints is a term for printed images of generally low artistic quality which were sold cheaply in Europe and later the New World from the 15th to 18th centuries, often with text as well as images. They were some of the earliest examples of mass media. After about 1800, the types and quantity of images greatly increased, but other terms are usually used to categorise them.


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