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etching_(artwork)
📅 Updated:2026-05-16
🕒 Created:2026-05-05
🆔 ID:101745
Description
An intaglio printmaking process using metal plates treated with a waxy ground and exposed to an acid bath, which "etches" the artist's design into the plate as scratched out of the ground using a pointed needle. From the Renaissance until the invention of both lithography and photography, etching was one of the most widely-used forms of mass reproducing imagery in the West.
Aquatint is a variant of etching that allows for the addition of tonal depth without linework.
Etching should not be confused with engraving, where an artist manually incises the desired design into a plate; although the methods are often combined.
