Giuseppe Vasi (1710-1782) - Teatro di Marcello

Beautiful etching of Vasi tema Teatro Marcello Roma. Excellent, clean and original etching from 1824, antique with a gilded wooden frame.
Dimensions of the frame: 24 cm width, 29 cm length, height 2 cm
with certificate of authenticity
A perfect work without damage or other issues.
Brief technical note: etching is the king of indirect intaglio techniques for old prints. It is based on the idea that the plate is etched by the corrosion of an acid rather than by the tip of a tool manipulated directly by the hand.

In etching there is a first phase of preparation of the support. Copper, once polished and cleaned, was coated with a greasy varnish, whose purpose was to protect the plate from the next attack of the acid.

Once the base was darkened with varnish and coated with lampblack to allow easier recognition of the marks by the engraver, the drawing began by removing the varnish with an etching needle, bringing to light the underlying copper.

Etching needles are simple tools with a wooden handle at the end of which is a metal point somewhat like a toothpick, while other types of needles end with a wider point. The former were chosen for finer cuts, while the latter were used for wider ones.

Having completed this phase, the sides and back were protected with a layer of wax, and the plate was subjected to acid baths so that it could corrode the copper where the protective base had been removed.

The mordent in etching
There were two main types of mordants most commonly used: nitric acid, the oldest that gives the name to the technique of etching, and the Dutch bath based on hydrochloric acid, while ferric chloride solution was rarely used.
P.S. there are other etchings by different artists available but with intentionally identical frames