Editing Etching (section)

===Callot's innovations: échoppe, hard ground, stopping-out===
[[Jacques Callot]] (1592–1635) from [[Nancy, France|Nancy]] in [[Duchy of Lorraine|Lorraine]] (now part of France) made important technical advances in etching technique.
[[File:Gardener with a Basket on her Arm, from Hortulanae series MET MM10514.jpg|thumb|right|Etching by [[Jacques Bellange]], ''Gardener with basket'' {{circa|1612}}]]

Callot also appears to have been responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground, using [[lute]]-makers' varnish rather than a wax-based formula. This enabled lines to be more deeply bitten, prolonging the life of the plate in printing, and also greatly reducing the risk of "foul-biting", where acid gets through the ground to the plate where it is not intended to, producing spots or blotches on the image. Previously the risk of foul-biting had always been at the back of an etcher's mind, preventing too much time on a single plate that risked being ruined in the biting process. Now etchers could do the highly detailed work that was previously the monopoly of engravers, and Callot made full use of the new possibilities.

Callot also made more extensive and sophisticated use of multiple "stoppings-out" than previous etchers had done. This is the technique of letting the acid bite lightly over the whole plate, then stopping-out those parts of the work which the artist wishes to keep light in tone by covering them with ground before bathing the plate in acid again. He achieved unprecedented subtlety in effects of distance and light and shade by careful control of this process. Most of his prints were relatively small—up to about six inches or 15&nbsp;cm on their longest dimension, but packed with detail.

One of his followers, the Parisian [[Abraham Bosse]], spread Callot's innovations all over Europe with the first published manual of etching, which was translated into Italian, Dutch, German and English.

The 17th century was the great age of etching, with [[Rembrandt]], [[Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione]] and many other masters. In the 18th century, [[Giovanni Battista Piranesi|Piranesi]], [[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo|Tiepolo]] and [[Daniel Chodowiecki]] were the best of a smaller number of fine etchers. In the 19th and early 20th century, the [[Etching revival]] produced a host of lesser artists, but no really major figures. Etching is still widely practiced today.