Engraving
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What is engraving in art?
Engraving in art is a printmaking technique using metal plates incised with a burin cutting tool to create designs. Originating in Germany and Italy in the 15th century, it was first practiced by goldsmiths. The process, also known as copperplate or line engraving, creates tone and shading through parallel lines or crosshatching.
While Italian artists like Antonio Pollaiuolo embraced engraving, it was often used to reproduce paintings. In Northern Europe, masters like Albrecht Dürer created original works using this technique. Engraving involves cutting or incising lines with a tool, typically by hand pressure, to remove material.
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How is an engraving made?
Engraving is a printmaking technique that involves incising a design onto a metal plate, traditionally copper, using a tool called a burin. This process, also known as copperplate or line engraving, creates prints with linear marks, with tone and shading achieved through parallel lines or crosshatching.
The engraver cuts or incises lines into the metal surface by hand, detaching material in the process. The printing and nonprinting areas are distinguished by their height. The plate is then inked, and the surface wiped clean, leaving ink only in the incised lines. Finally, paper is pressed against the plate to transfer the ink and create the print.
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What materials are commonly used for engraving?
Engraving, a printmaking technique, involves incising a design onto a surface, typically a metal plate, using a cutting tool called a burin. Copperplates are commonly used in modern examples, leading to the process being referred to as copperplate engraving. The technique, also known as line engraving, reproduces linear marks, with tone and shading achieved through parallel lines or crosshatching.
Various metals and plastics can be employed, with process colorplates often made of copper in the United States and the United Kingdom, while zinc is used elsewhere. Wood engraving utilizes the transverse section of a hardwood block. Additionally, precious materials like diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires are also used in gem engraving.
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How does engraving differ from other printmaking techniques?
Engraving is a printmaking technique using a burin to incise a design into a metal plate, usually copper. This differs from other printmaking techniques:
- Relief: The nonprinting part is cut away, leaving the design in relief. Wood and linoleum are common materials, lending itself to bold designs expressed in areas rather than lines.
- Intaglio: Ink-carrying image elements are incised into the plate surface.
- Surface: Divided into planographic (lithography) and stencil methods, often combined with other techniques.
Engraving reproduces only linear marks, but tone and shading can be suggested by making parallel lines or crosshatching.
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What are some famous works or artists known for engraving?
Engraving is an old art form where prints are made from metal plates incised with a burin, often called copperplate or line engraving. It began in Germany and Northern Italy around the mid-15th century.
Some well-known figures and works in engraving:
- Martin Schongauer His "Temptation of St. Anthony" (c. 1470) stands out for its use of the medium to create form and texture.
- Andrea Mantegna An important engraver who adopted engraving enthusiastically.
- Albrecht Dürer A master in engraving, Dürer completed his Passion series in copperplate engravings between 1507 and 1513 and created the greatest of his copperplate engravings during 1513 and 1514.
- William Blake Best known engravings after his own designs were those for Robert Blair’s poem The Grave (1808).
- Gustave Doré A French printmaker and book illustrator.
- Jean Duvet A major figure in 16th-century French engraving, known for The Apocalypse.
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How has engraving influenced art and communication throughout history?
Engraving, an ancient art form, has significantly shaped art and communication throughout history. Originating around the 15th century, the technique involves incising designs on metal plates, typically copper, using a tool called a burin.
Engraving's influence extends from reproducing paintings to original works by masters like Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden. Beyond art, engraving has been used for duplicating images and text, with early examples found in Sumerian cylinder seals. The technique's capacity for multiplication laid the groundwork for the printing press, impacting communication and the dissemination of knowledge.
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Engraving, technique of making prints from metal plates into which a design has been incised with a cutting tool called a burin. Modern examples are almost invariably made from copperplates, and, hence, the process is also called copperplate engraving. Another term for the process, line engraving, derives from the fact that this technique reproduces only linear marks. Tone and shading, however, can be suggested by making parallel lines or crosshatching.
Engraving originated independently in the Rhine valley in Germany and in northern Italy about the middle of the 15th century. It seems to have been first developed by German goldsmiths now known only by their initials or pseudonyms, the most prominent being the Master E.S. and the Master of the Playing Cards. Martin Schongauer is the first engraver known to have been not only a goldsmith but also a painter. His “Temptation of St. Anthony” (c. 1470) is unprecedented in its sophisticated use of the medium to achieve a sense of form and surface texture.
In Italy, engraving grew out of both the goldsmith’s art and niello work, a type of decorative metalwork. One of its earliest practitioners was the Florentine goldsmith and niellist Maso Finiguerra (1426–64). Major Italian painters adopted engraving much more enthusiastically than did their German counterparts. Before the 15th century had passed, important engravings had been made by two great Italian painters: Andrea Mantegna and Antonio Pollaiuolo. Although its quick association with painting in Italy resulted in such prodigious prints as Pollaiuolo’s “Battle of the Nudes” (c. 1465), this also prevented the independent development of engraving, which soon was used primarily to reproduce paintings. By the 16th century, the reproductive role of engraving had become so firmly established that Italy’s greatest master of engraving technique, Marcantonio Raimondi, is mainly known for his copies of Raphael’s paintings.
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In northern Europe, however, engraving followed its own course, and two of its greatest 16th-century masters, Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden, produced some of their finest original work in this technique.
During the rest of the 16th century, engravers such as Hendrik Goltzius (1558–1617) continued to develop increasingly brilliant techniques. Simultaneously, however, engraving became more and more restricted to reproducing paintings. This trend, which continued throughout the 17th century, was facilitated by the popularization of techniques capable of producing gradations of tone. The dotting of the plate with short jabs of the burin, common from the late 15th century, evolved in the late 17th and 18th centuries into the techniques of stipple engraving and crayon manner (also called chalk-manner, or pastel-manner, engraving). These techniques scored the plate with numberless dots and nicks made with a burin or special tools called rockers and roulettes. With mezzotint, a related technique invented in the 17th century by Ludwig von Siegen, they almost completely replaced line engraving in the 18th century. It was revived to an extent in the 20th century by the French artist Jacques Villon and the English artists Eric Gill and Stanley William Hayter. The latter demonstrated that line engraving is a suitable medium for much modern art, including abstraction. The American printmakers Mauricio Lasansky and Gabor Peterdi also produced engravings.