Boetvaardige Petrus 1659 - 1740

This image, *Boetvaardige Petrus*, was made by Jan van der Bruggen around the turn of the 18th century. It’s an etching – a print made by drawing into a wax ground on a metal plate, then bathing the plate in acid to bite the lines. Etching was ideally suited to the emerging culture of printmaking in Europe at this time. Because the artist only had to scratch into wax rather than engrave the metal directly, a freer, more spontaneous line was possible. You can see that here in the composition, with the dynamic pose of the rooster and the craggy landscape behind the figure. Yet the image also shows how printmaking, though more accessible than painting, still required skill and labor. The gradations of tone, achieved by varying the density of lines, would have demanded real expertise. So, while this print may have been relatively inexpensive to produce, and disseminate, it nonetheless represents a considerable investment of the artist’s time. And like so many works of art, it's a record of that effort, captured in ink on paper.