Diogenes 1662 - 1736

Gabriel Ehinger made this print of Diogenes, sometime in the late 17th or early 18th century, using an etching technique. Look closely and you will notice that the image is built from a multitude of tiny lines, each one bitten into the surface of a metal plate by acid. The printmaker protected certain areas of the plate with a waxy 'ground', then exposed the plate to acid. Where the metal was exposed, it was etched away, resulting in a fine recessed line that would hold ink. The plate was then wiped clean, leaving ink only in the etched lines. Pressing paper against the plate transferred the image. Considered as a feat of labor, this method is intensive, and one might ask, to what end? In this case, Ehinger has chosen to depict a philosopher who rejected earthly goods. Note the figure's simple clothing, and the barrel he uses as a home. Diogenes believed that virtue was the only good, and that wealth and power were distractions from a moral life. The print, itself an elaborate product of skilled labor, thus ironically celebrates freedom from material concerns. Prints like this helped to spread philosophical ideas, and remind us that even the humblest materials can communicate profound ideas.