A bearded man wearing a cap looking down to the right, from "Heads in Oriental Headdress" 1643 - 1653

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, or Il Grechetto, made this print of a bearded man in an oriental headdress, using etching techniques. The materiality of the print, with its fine lines and delicate shading, gives the image a sense of intimacy. Think about the labor involved in creating an etching. The artist would have covered a metal plate with a waxy ground, scratched an image into it with a needle, and then bathed the plate in acid. The acid would bite into the exposed metal, creating the lines that would hold the ink. The way the image is constructed – out of many tiny, repeated marks – speaks to the social context of printmaking. Prints like this were relatively inexpensive to produce, and could be widely distributed. They served as a means of circulating images and ideas, and played an important role in the development of a visual culture available to a broad audience. So when we look at this image, we should consider not only the artistry, but also the labor and the social context that made it possible.