ial creed.

It is perhaps still not superfluous to emphasise the fact that the
etchings of Rembrandt (as of nearly all the painter-engravers or etchers)
are original works distinct in methods and aims from the paintings or
works in any other medium. In Rembrandt's work of rather more than three
hundred etchings there are scarcely half a dozen subjects that correspond
with his pictures. In general the original engraver or etcher conceives
and carries out his design in specific relation to its medium; its
expression in another would demand an entirely different treatment.

Rembrandt worked on copper in pure etching and dry-point. In pure etching
the plate is first covered with a thin layer or ground of wax composition;
the etcher draws through this ground (which offers scarcely any
resistance) with an etching needle, opening up the surface of the copper
where he wishes his lines to appear. The plate is then put in a bath of
acid which bites the furrows in the unprotected parts of the plate, i.e.
wherever the needle has been drawn through the ground. Dry-point, though
generally regarded as a branch of etching, as it is so constantly used on
the same plate as bitten work, is in reality more akin to line-engraving.
No acid is used, and the lines are scratched on the surface of the copper
by a strong steel point. The artist does not push this point before the
hand like the graver, but uses it in the same way as a pencil. The curl
of metal thrown up at the side of the line is not scraped away as in
line-engraving, where the aim is clearness of designs, but left to hold
the ink, enwrapping the line, as printed from the furrows, in a rich
cloudy tone. This curl of metal, or "burr" (a term also applied to the
velvety tone which it causes), is extremely delicate, and a comparatively
few impressions suffice to level it with the surface of the copper, and
leave the effect a mere ghost of the artist's intention. So that rich
impressions from dry-points are infinitely rarer than good ones from the
pure etchings, which often yield hundreds of prints without greatly
deteriorating in quality. But the more delicate the etching and the
closer the mesh of line, the sooner will deterioration of quality set in,
so that a glance at the character of an etching, granting that the plate
was not destroyed after a very limited issue, will almost immediately
reveal one important point, i.e. the comparative rarity of good
impressions. It i