Repose in Egypt, Mary holding and looking at the infant Christ while St. Joseph sleeps 1632 - 1642

Simone Cantarini made this print, Repose in Egypt, in the 17th century using etching on paper. It’s a world away from painting in terms of technique. The etched line gives this image its particular character. To make a print like this, you would cover a copper plate with a waxy ground, then scratch into that ground with a needle. The plate is then submerged in acid, which bites away at the exposed metal, creating recessed lines. Ink is forced into these lines, the surface wiped clean, and the image transferred to paper in a printing press. The resulting image has a graphic quality, a kind of directness and immediacy, that you don't see in paintings from the same period. And because prints can be made in multiples, it is inherently democratic. This makes Cantarini’s work accessible to a wider audience, and ties it more directly to the world of commerce. So, in considering this image, we are also reflecting on the mechanics of its production, and its place in a broader social context.