Gezicht op Grenoble 1631 - 1691

This is Israel Silvestre’s 'View of Grenoble,' made with etching, sometime in the 17th century. Silvestre was one of the great printmakers of his era, and that expertise is on full display here. Look closely, and you can see how he used line—thin, thick, long, short—to describe everything from the buildings to the hills and sky. Etching allows for a lot of detail, but it also takes a lot of work. He would have had to cover a copper plate with wax, then scratch his design into it, and finally dunk the whole thing in acid to bite the lines. Then the plate would be inked and printed. Silvestre was one of many artists making images for a growing market. Prints were relatively cheap, and they satisfied people's hunger for visual information and beauty. The image presents a specific point of view tied to social and economic activities. So, next time you see a print, consider all the labor that went into it, and its value as a medium between art and commerce.