Young Saint John the Baptist kneeling before the infant Christ who caresses his face, the Virgin and Joseph in the background at right 1595 - 1645

Guido Reni made this print, Young Saint John the Baptist kneeling before the infant Christ, sometime in the early 17th century using etching. Look closely, and you can see it is made up of thousands of tiny, precise lines. Etching involves coating a metal plate with a waxy ground, then drawing through the ground with a needle to expose the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid, which bites into the exposed lines. The longer the plate stays in the acid, the deeper the lines. The ink adheres to the etched lines, and the smooth surface of the plate is wiped clean to create the image. This process allowed Reni to produce multiple copies of his artwork. Prints like this were relatively inexpensive, and played a key role in disseminating artistic ideas. Consider, too, the labor involved in creating these prints, and how different it is from the more singular act of painting.