Relic, Etching
Updated: Jan 28, 2025
For as long as I remember, I have been fascinated by religious relics and reliquaries, and I have built up a collection of photographs from various museums and religious buildings on travels to Italy and Portugal. In the photographs below, I have documented the original photograph of a particular relic in Palermo, and some of my Photoshop edits. In the final black and white edit, I have cropped what I call the 'window' of the reliquary; that is, the glass-fronted section of the object which displays the holy relic-object. In this case, it is the central fragment of bone labelled as belonging to Saint Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo, Sicily.
Relics (Palermo Cathedral, Sicily), original photograph, 2023
Relic window, digital photograph, 2024
I wanted to create an aquatint of this photograph which has the quality of emerging from the darkness, rather like a mezzotint. I began by polishing a small plate of zinc to a high shine, which I hoped would result in the sharp white glints in the photograph. Then I applied a layer of rosin; smoked the plate and then began to paint the white highlights in Rhinds varnish with a very thin paintbrush.
I continued a process of stopping out tiny areas and etching in the acid a total of 4 times. I left the plate in the bath for the maximum amount of time during the last etch, with the aim of making the background as dark as possible. I was concerned that I had over-etched, which might result in a lightening of the plate. However, when I inked and printed I was pleased with the result.
After the first etch. Rhinds varnish is stopping out the 'white' highlights of the image
I used the smallest ball burnisher to pick out details. I wanted to bring out just enough to show the detail of the object, but keep it indistinct and still emerging from the dark background. I liked the idea of much of the object being made up of glints or light rather than tone.
Relic window, aquatint before burnishing, 14 x 21cm, 2024 Aquatint after burnishing
First stage of Aquatint Aquatint after burnishing
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