The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist, Saint Elizabeth, a Kneeling Prelate, and Three Attendant Angels 1595 - 1632

This print, The Virgin and Child with the Infant Baptist, was created in the 17th century by Francesco Pinna, using etching and engraving. These are both printmaking techniques – different ways of using acid to bite lines into a metal plate, which is then inked and pressed onto paper. Look closely, and you’ll see that Pinna used hatching and cross-hatching – closely spaced parallel lines – to build up tone. Where the lines are denser, the image reads as darker. The process is highly skilled, demanding immense patience and precision. You can imagine Pinna bent over the plate, carefully controlling the pressure and angle of his tools. The lines have a graphic quality, a sharp, linear texture. Pinna was part of a world of workshops, where printmakers would learn from each other and collaborate on projects. It was a system of apprenticeship and collective labor. This print is not just an image, but the result of skilled work and a particular social context, and reminds us that art is always made, not just conceived.