Strasbourg 1663 - 1665

This print of Strasbourg was made in 1642 by Wenceslaus Hollar, using the technique of etching. Hollar was one of the great masters of this process, in which a metal plate is coated with wax, the image is scratched into the wax, and then acid is applied, biting into the exposed metal. This painstaking method is ideally suited to capturing fine detail, as you can see in the architecture and landscape. The evenness of the line is striking, and you get a clear sense of Hollar’s skill by examining the systematic way in which he built up areas of tone, by layering thin strokes. Prints such as this played an important role in early modern Europe, circulating images widely. Hollar himself was deeply embedded in this system of production, and in a sense, his meticulousness as a craftsman was part and parcel of the print’s function. We should look closely, then, not just at what this image represents, but how it was so carefully made.