Heilige Familie met Johannes de Doper en kat (Madonna del Gatto) before 1624

This print of the Holy Family, with John the Baptist and a cat, was made by an anonymous artist, and rendered using etching. The image shows a common biblical scene, but made less refined thanks to the material process and inclusion of a cat. The artist used etching to recreate a painting by Parmigianino. They would have covered a metal plate with a waxy ground, scratched their design into it with a needle, and then bathed the plate in acid. The acid bites into the exposed metal, creating lines that hold ink. It is a mechanical, repeatable process, ideally suited to mass production, and it's clear that the artist was trying to cater to a broad audience. The very qualities that might have disqualified the medium from consideration as "high art" are what make it so interesting. Etching allowed for the wide dissemination of images and ideas, making art accessible to a broader public. It invites us to consider how art is distributed, consumed, and valued within a society.