Drie herders in een storm 1666 - 1703

Johannes Gottlieb Glauber made this etching, *Three Shepherds in a Storm*, sometime between 1656 and 1703. Look closely and you’ll see how the artist used the simple technology of metal plate etching to create a vivid scene. With an etching needle, he would have scratched an image into a wax-coated metal plate. The plate was then submerged in acid, which bit into the exposed lines. After the plate was cleaned and inked, it could be run through a printing press, leaving the image on the paper. The result is this delicate landscape, where line becomes shadow, and where the etching process mirrors the fleeting drama of the scene: shepherds struggling against the elements. The seemingly infinite gradations of tone show how an artist can use a relatively simple mode of production to capture a complex, and even sublime, world of experience. It reminds us that the distinction between high art and craft is artificial. Both depend on skilled making.