Editing Etching (section)

====Early etching====
{{Main|Old master print}}
Etching by [[goldsmith]]s and other metal-workers in order to decorate metal items such as guns, armour, cups and plates has been known in Europe since the [[Middle Ages]] at least, and may go back to antiquity. The elaborate decoration of armour, in Germany at least, was an art probably imported from Italy around the end of the 15th century—little earlier than the birth of etching as a printmaking technique. Printmakers from the German-speaking lands and Central Europe perfected the art and transmitted their skills over the Alps and across Europe. [[File:Wenzel Hollar nach Jan Meyssens.jpg|thumb|Self-portrait etched by Wenceslaus Hollar]]

[[File:BM engraved printing plates.jpg|thumb|Selection of early etched printing plates from the [[British Museum]]]]

The process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by [[Daniel Hopfer]] ({{circa|1470}}–1536) of Augsburg, Germany. Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates (many of which still exist). Apart from his prints, there are two proven examples of his work on armour: a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid and a sword in the [[Germanisches Nationalmuseum]] of Nuremberg. An Augsburg horse armour in the [[German Historical Museum]], [[Berlin]], dating to between 1512 and 1515, is decorated with motifs from Hopfer's etchings and [[woodcut]]s, but this is no evidence that Hopfer himself worked on it, as his decorative prints were largely produced as patterns for other craftsmen in various media. The oldest dated etching is by [[Albrecht Dürer]] in 1515, although he returned to engraving after six etchings instead of developing the craft.<ref>Cohen, Brian D. [http://artinprint.org/article/freedom-and-resistance-in-the-act-of-engraving-or-why-durer-gave-up-on-etching/ "Freedom and Resistance in the Act of Engraving (or, Why Dürer Gave up on Etching),"] ''Art in Print'' Vol. 7 No. 3 (September–October 2017), 17.</ref>

The switch to copper plates was probably made in Italy,<ref>the Italian term is {{lang|it|acquaforte}}, still occasionally used as a synonym for "etching" in English</ref> and thereafter etching soon came to challenge [[engraving]] as the most popular medium for artists in [[printmaking]]. Its great advantage was that, unlike engraving where the difficult technique for using the [[Burin (engraving)|burin]] requires special skill in metalworking, the basic technique for creating the image on the plate in etching is relatively easy to learn for an artist trained in drawing.  On the other hand, the handling of the ground and acid need skill and experience, and are not without health and safety risks, as well as the risk of a ruined plate.