Schaap met drinkend lam 1660

Marcus de Bye created this print of a sheep with a suckling lamb using etching techniques. The image is made up of lines bitten into a metal plate with acid, then inked and printed, a process capable of capturing fine detail. The varied textures are rendered by hatching and cross-hatching, with the contrast between light and shadow creating volume and depth. De Bye likely used different tools to create the marks, varying the pressure and angle to achieve the desired effect. Etching was a commercial printmaking method, and this image speaks to a growing market for pastoral scenes in the Dutch Golden Age. The artist transforms sheep, vital to the Dutch economy for their wool and meat, into idyllic emblems of rural life. The image is small and reproducible, making art accessible to a wider audience, a sign of the changing relationship between labor, consumption, and artistic production. Considering the materials and the making process gives us a richer understanding of the image’s artistic and social significance.