Indulgences—the remission of temporal punishment due to a sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven by the Catholic Church—in the form of donations were common during the late medieval and early renaissance period. A form of popular print, they were normally produced as a woodcut. Meckenem, however, is the first artist to create a bootleg indulgence (this one was not authorized by the Church) as an engraving, a medium used for prints typically reserved for discerning clients.

It is also one of the earliest examples of plate tone in an intaglio print. During the wiping process, the artist leaves a thin residue of ink on the plate that prints as an overall soft gray tone.