Virgin and Child with Saints 1517

Domenico Campagnola created this print of the Virgin and Child with Saints using an etching process. It is essentially a graphic design, made by drawing into a wax ground on a metal plate, then immersing the plate in acid. The acid bites into the exposed metal, leaving behind an incised image. When the plate is inked and pressed onto paper, the design transfers. This indirect process allows for a wealth of descriptive detail, seen here in the rendering of the figures’ drapery, the delicate cross-hatching that models their forms, and the background foliage. Prints like this one were relatively inexpensive and easily portable. The etching process helped spread designs and ideas, functioning as a kind of proto-industrialization of the image. It made art more accessible, but also introduced new relationships of artistic labor and value. By considering how this print was produced and circulated, we can appreciate how the intersection of material, making, and context enriches our understanding of the image itself.