Cirkelvormige parterre in de vorm van een labyrint c. 1587 - 1640

This print, whose maker is unknown, shows a circular maze, and was made using the technique of etching. Look closely, and you can see how this process would have worked: the design was first drawn with a sharp needle through a waxy ground applied to a copper plate. Then, the plate was submerged in acid, which bit into the exposed lines. The longer the plate sat in the acid, the deeper the lines became. The plate was then inked, and the surface wiped clean, leaving ink only in the etched recesses. Finally, the plate was pressed against a sheet of paper, transferring the image. As you can imagine, this required considerable skill. The etcher needed mastery of drawing, chemistry, and the printing press itself. The result, an image of formal garden, presents an aesthetic that is itself about controlling nature through labor, and expressing social hierarchy. Prints such as this circulated widely, allowing those who could not visit such elaborate gardens to experience them vicariously. So while etching is an indirect process, requiring several steps, it allowed for the relatively easy reproduction of images, and their dissemination to a broad audience, thereby democratizing access to this kind of rarefied imagery.