Etching

The name of this piece is The Hundred Guilder Print.  This work is by artist Rembrandt Van Rijn.  The medium being used is Etching. Etching is a process done by covering a metal plate with wax, and drawing on the wax all the way down to the plate. After, you place it in an acid bath.  This leaves marks from the lines that were drawn.  The wax can be removed and you ink and print it.  The artist often focused on landscape, narrative, and biblical stories.  He used iconography.  Rembrandt Van Rijn ended up having to sell his printing press in 1660, and that was the end of etching for the artist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt#Etchings