Funeral of Francesco de' Medici 1634

Stefano della Bella created this print, Funeral of Francesco de' Medici, using etching, a printmaking technique dating back to the early 16th century. The artist would have covered a metal plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground, then scratched an image into it with a fine needle. Immersing the plate in acid would then bite into the exposed lines, leaving an impression to hold ink. Della Bella mastered this demanding technique and used it to capture the elaborate staging of Florentine court life. Look closely at the architectural setting he depicts. The space is draped with textiles and populated with ceremonial figures. To produce an image like this took labor, not only the artist's, but also the paper maker, the printer, and the distributors who got the image into circulation. It's easy to think of prints as simple reproductions, but they were in fact a sophisticated early modern technology, a way to translate spectacle into a repeatable form. By exploring this print, we can consider the economic dimensions that went into the making of art.