Search through the Luggage of Joseph's Brother 1540 - 1560

This print, “Search through the Luggage of Joseph’s Brother,” made by an anonymous artist, probably sometime in the 1600s, is an etching on laid paper. Think about the process involved here. The artist would have covered a metal plate with wax, then used a fine needle to scratch the image into the wax, exposing the metal beneath. The plate was then immersed in acid, which bit into the exposed lines. This process created grooves in the metal which hold ink, which would be transferred to paper. The relatively fine lines and detail in this print suggest that the artist was highly skilled. Also, this method allowed for multiple copies to be made, and this one is in the collection of The Met. This speaks to the rise of printmaking as a means of disseminating images, making art more accessible to a wider audience. It moves art away from the unique commodity and into the realm of something that can be widely distributed, much like our social media feeds today!