Liggende Pan met een druiventros after 1664

Jan de Bisschop created this etching of a reclining Pan with grapes sometime in the mid-17th century. Etching is an intaglio printmaking process using acid to cut into a metal plate, which is then inked and printed. In de Bisschop’s time, this was still quite a new technology, having been developed in the previous century. Look closely at the way de Bisschop has used line to model the god’s form. He’s really showing off the capacity of etching to describe light and shadow. The overall effect is one of immediacy – as though we are getting a glimpse of Pan in a private moment. Yet this apparent ease would have required skill and painstaking effort, working against the resistance of the metal. It's important to remember how much labor, even craft, went into the making of prints like this. They were not mere reproductions, but carefully made objects in their own right. Recognizing the hand in this artwork helps us appreciate the technique, ingenuity, and intention that went into its production.