Curriculum Materials: Amazing Animals in
Art
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Maria Sibylla Merian Essays: Questions: |
Technique
This print was made by a combination of
ENGRAVING and
ETCHING, which are
both types of
INTAGLIO
printmaking. Intaglio refers to the process whereby
the paper receives the ink from the incised
LINES of the printing
plate rather than from the surface of the plate (as in
relief printing).
Engraving is a method of cutting or incising a design into a
surface (usually metal) with a sharp tool. The term also
refers to the print made by inking such an incised surface.
Though sometimes all intaglio prints are referred to as
engravings, the word more specifically applies to those made
with a tool called a
GRAVER or
BURIN, which is a small
metal rod with a sharpened point. This tool is pushed across
the plate, cutting a V-shaped line in the metal
surface.2
Etching is a process in which the lines in a metal plate are
bitten (etched=eaten) by acid. The polished surface of the
plate is first covered with a thin layer of GROUND, which is
composed of waxes, gums, and resins. The etcher draws
through the ground with a metal point (the "etching
needle"), which exposes the metal. The plate is then
immersed in a bath of acid, which bites into the plate along
the exposed lines. Since the etching ground offers almost no
resistance to the needle, the artist has much the same
freedom as in drawing. 3
Although Merian was trained as an engraver (she was perhaps
the first female engraver of copperplates), she did not
undertake this task for the Surinam project as she had for
her other works. The 60 plates were engraved by three Dutch
artists working from the watercolor studies she had made.
The prints made from these plates were then hand-colored
with watercolor by either Merian or another artist.
Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium was published
in a folio volume in 1705. It was printed in Amsterdam in
both Latin and Dutch. Other editions were published after
Merian's death.
Moths, Caterpillar, and Foliage was engraved by Joseph
Mulder, whose signature appears on the print. He probably
used etching to copy Merian's image, which he then
reinforced with the engraving process. It is likely that
Merian herself hand-colored the print, using transparent
watercolor that allowed the engraved lines to remain
visible.
2 Paul Goldman, Looking at Prints, Drawings and Watercolours: A Guide to Technical Terms (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988), 26.
3 Goldman, 26.
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