Juda geeft Tamar zijn zegelring 1782

Adam von Bartsch made this etching, ‘Juda gives Tamar his seal ring,’ sometime before his death in 1821. Etching is an intaglio printmaking technique. The artist covers a metal plate with a waxy, acid-resistant ground. They then scratch their image into the ground with a pointed tool, exposing the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid, which bites into the exposed lines, creating grooves. To make a print, the plate is inked, and then wiped clean, leaving ink only in the etched grooves. Damp paper is laid on the plate, and both are run through a press under high pressure, transferring the ink to the paper. Bartsch’s image, made with an iron-rich solution, leaves a delicate trace of the scene. The story, taken from the Old Testament, has an almost forensic quality here, brought out by the precision and clarity that the etching process allows. Bartsch, in his role as curator at the Albertina in Vienna, would certainly have seen many old master prints made by similar means. His own work carries on that tradition of detailed observation and skill.