ns from nature
into a work which goes beyond nature and yet appears fresh and natural.

The metal plates he commonly used were of thin, cold-hammered copper, as
shown by extant examples.[16] The hammering had the effect of making the
metal harder than today's rolled copper sheets. This enabled more prints
to be taken from the plate than is possible for a present-day
printmaker. Today, we tend to consider drypoint a very fugitive medium,
because the burr perishes so quickly under the pressure of the printing
press. Rembrandt undoubtedly had fewer inhibitions about drypoint, for
he could expect his harder copper to hold up longer, perhaps for as many
as fifty excellent prints from the same plate. Hammered copper, unlike
the modern rolled variety, is also completely free of grain in the
metal. This enables a drypoint needle to move freely in any direction
without encountering the resistance of a grain. Here again, Rembrandt
had more incentive to use drypoint than a modern artist.

Rembrandt's etching ground has been the subject of considerable
discussion. A book published in 1660, nine years before the artist's
death, contains a recipe for "The Ground of Rinebrant of Rine."[17] This
ground, similar to that described by Bosse as a "soft" ground,[18]
consists of two parts wax, one part mastic, and one part asphaltum.
There are countless formulae for such grounds, but virtually all are
permutations of the same three ingredients, with only slight differences
in the proportions.[19] The ground given as Rembrandt's is a thoroughly
conventional one.

A knotty problem, however, is introduced by the last line of this 1660
description: "... lay your black ground very thin, and the white ground
upon it. This is the only way of Rinebrant...."[20] No elaboration is
given. This one line presents a number of problems, not all of which are
soluble. To take it at face value is to accept the contemporary evidence
that Rembrandt not only used a white ground but used it exclusively.
This assertion cannot be taken uncritically.

It will readily be seen that a white ground might be of considerable
assistance to an artist. His needle penetrates the white to the copper,
giving the familiar effect of a reddish ink line on white paper. A
normal ground, without treatment, is virtually transparent, making the
etcher's lines rather difficult to see.[21] The most usual procedure,
both in the 17th century and today, is to smoke the ground and
incorp