Gezicht op Chambre des comptes en Sainte-Chapelle te Parijs 1631 - 1661

Israel Silvestre made this print of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris sometime in the mid-17th century, using etching and a delicate application of watercolor. The etching process is crucial here. Silvestre would have coated a metal plate with wax, then scratched his design into it with a needle. The plate was then immersed in acid, which bit into the exposed metal lines. The wax would then be removed, ink applied to the plate, and then printed onto paper. The resulting lines are characteristically crisp. You can see how Silvestre used a dense matrix of hatching to describe the architecture and sky. This allowed him to capture the grandeur of the buildings, but also something of the everyday life happening around them. Of course, prints like this were made for a reason. They fed a growing market for images, allowing people to possess a piece of a place, or a memory of it. Silvestre's skill lay in combining technical mastery with a keen eye for the details of urban life. That’s a potent combination, still appreciated today.