Letter Z
1630
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
22.8 × 18.2 cm (9 × 7 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
127669
Art Historical Context
"Letter Z" is a delicate engraving on paper by Peter Aubry created in 1630 and now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints Drawings department. Measuring just 22.8 × 18.2 cm, this intimate work exemplifies the precision of 17th-century printmaking, where a single letter becomes a canvas for artistic ingenuity. Engraving, Aubry's chosen medium, involved incising designs into a copper plate with a burin tool, then inking and pressing it onto paper to produce crisp, reproducible images. In the Baroque era, such techniques were vital for disseminating decorative motifs, alphabets, and orn...