Seated woman with two children (Virgin with Christ and St John the Baptist?) 1540

Léon Davent made this print, Seated Woman with Two Children, around 1540, using etching on paper. This was a relatively new technology at the time, a means of image production that democratized image making by virtue of its relative low cost and ease, compared to say painting. Look closely, and you can see how the etched lines define the forms, from the drapery folds to the figures themselves. The matrix for this print would have been a metal plate, likely iron, coated with a waxy ground. Davent would then have used a fine needle to scratch away the ground, exposing the metal, before immersing the plate in acid. This process bites into the metal, creating the lines that hold ink. What's fascinating here is the relationship between the image and the means of its production. Etching allowed for the wider circulation of artistic ideas, playing a crucial role in the development of visual culture. So, while the image itself is of a religious subject, the very technology used to create it was bound up with the emerging culture of print, commerce, and exchange. The image as a commodity, if you will.