Francesco Bartolozzi (1727–1815) was an Italian living in London and one of the foremost practitioners of the stipple technique. He made the image on this plate using the process of stipple engraving to reproduce a red chalk drawing originally made by Leonardo da Vinci. In 1642 a German soldier Ludwig von Siegen (ca. 1609–ca. 1680) developed a spiked roulette wheel, which could be run over the metal plate to make the process of stippling easier and quicker and the method became prevalent during the following century. Stipple images were usually printed in colour, with red being the most common.
The stippling wheel could be used either directly on the plate to create a series of small pits in the metal or with the etching print process by being run through etching ground exposing the metal, which was then etched. When printed, the resultant image was composed of dots. It could be touched up with line work where needed. It is possible to tell an engraved stipple image from the etched versions by looking at the shape of the dots through a magnifier; more regular triangular shapes were created in the engraved method, while the etched dots were less well defined, since they were bitten by acid. The plate from which this print was taken was engraved.