Head of a Woman
Medium
etching
Dimensions
mount: 48.6 × 33.3 cm (19 1/8 × 13 1/8 in.) sheet (trimmed within platemark): 23.2 × 17.3 cm (9 1/8 × 6 13/16 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1948.11.283
Art Historical Context
Behold the delicate *Head of a Woman*, an etching crafted by Johann Gottlieb Prestel between 1782 and 1785, reproducing a composition by the renowned 17th-century Italian Baroque Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri). Prestel, a skilled German engraver, specialized in translating the dramatic chiaroscuro and expressive faces of old masters into print, making Guercino's emotive portraiture accessible to 18th-century collectors and scholars. Etching, Prestel's chosen medium, involves coating a metal plate with acid-resistant ground, scratching lines into it, and immersing it in acid to etch th...