Een luipaard vechtend met een everzwijn

Antonio Tempesta made this small print, depicting a leopard battling a boar, around the turn of the 17th century. It’s an etching, meaning that Tempesta coated a copper plate with wax, drew the image with a sharp needle to expose the metal, and then bathed the plate in acid. This bit down the lines, allowing for multiple impressions to be printed. Think of it as a very early form of mechanical reproduction. The image has a lively, almost frantic quality, achieved with many short, quick strokes. Note how the animal bodies are defined by these lines, densely packed in shadow and more sparsely spaced to suggest highlights. The medium lends itself to drama, and that’s exactly what Tempesta delivers. Prints like this were made to be sold and collected, fueling a booming market for images. This print, like so many others, testifies to the rising power of artistic production – and its distribution through early global capitalism.