Gezicht op de San Silvestro al Quirinale 1631 - 1661

Israel Silvestre made this print of the San Silvestro al Quirinale. Silvestre's "Gezicht op de San Silvestro al Quirinale" is a great demonstration of the etching process. To create it, he would have coated a copper plate with wax, then scratched the image into the wax with a fine needle. The plate was then immersed in acid, which bit into the exposed copper. After removing the wax and inking the plate, the image could be transferred to paper. Think of the artist bent over the plate, carefully working on the design in a mirror image, line by line. Each tiny mark required precision and skill. Silvestre clearly mastered the technique, using it to capture the light and shadow of the Roman architecture. The etching process was relatively new in the 17th century, and its rise coincided with the development of a market for prints, allowing images to be widely circulated for the first time. This print gives us a glimpse not just of the building, but also of a whole new world of visual communication.