DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0333
ENGRAVING. 319
seem to have forever debarred them: persons of moderate fortune have by engraving the
means of being possessed of all the spirit, and all the poetry that are contained in those miracles
of art, which seem to have been reserved for the temples of Italy or the cabinets of princes.
When we reflect moreover that the engraver, besides the beauties of poetic composition, and
the artful ordinance of design, is to express merely by the means of light and shade all the
various tints of colours and chiar oscuro, to give a relief to each figure, and truth to each
object; that he is now to paint a sky at one time serene and bright, at another loaded with dark
clouds; now the pure tranquil stream, and then the foaming raging sea; that he is here to
express the character of the man, strongly marked in his countenance, and there the minutest
ornament of his dress; in a word, that he is to represent all, even the most difficult objects in
nature; we cannot sufficiently admire the vast improvements in this art, and the high finishing
observed in some of its most beautiful productions.
This art, notwithstanding its present improved state, had its origin at no earlier a period than
about the middle of the fifteenth century. The ancients practised engraving on precious stones
and crystals with very good success; specimens of their ingenuity in this way are yet extant,
and are equal to any productions of modern times : but the art of engraving on copper and wood
was not known till long after the invention of painting in oil.
The different kinds of engraving on copper are the following :—
1. In strokes with the graver alone, unassisted by aqua fortis. In this instance the design is
traced with a sharp tool called the dry point upon the plate, and the strokes are cut in the
copper by the graver. This is generally called engraving with the tool and dry point only.
2. Engraving in strokes with a point, the copper-plate being covered with a ground, and the
strokes afterwards corroded with aqua-fortis : this is called etching.
3. In strokes first etched with aqua-fortis, and then finished with the graver : by which the
two former methods are united. This mode is the most universally practised, and has also the
best effect.
4. In dots without strokes, which are performed with the point upon the wax or ground, and
then bitten in with aqua-fortis as in etching; but they are afterwards harmonized and softened
with the graver, by making several small additional dots between them. Sometimes this mode
of engraving is effected with the graver only, unassisted by the point, which is very often the
case in the flesh and the finer parts of portraits.
5. In dots which are first etched as the foregoing, but afterwards harmonized with the dry
point, performed by a little hammer instead of the graver. This operation is called opus mallei
or the work of the hammer. It was practised by Lutma and others, but is now nearly exploded.
6. In mezzotinto, which is performed by covering the plate with a strong dark ground, or
deep shade by means of a toothed tool, and corroding the dots with aqua-fortis. The parts
which are to be light are then rendered more or less smooth by the scraper, according to the
degrees of light they are to represent.
7. In aquatinta a newly-invented method of engraving, which has suddenly attained a
degree of perfection seldom the lot of recent discoveries : the outline is first etched and the plate
afterwards corroded, but in a different manner from either etching or mezzotinto, as will be
explained hereafter.
The first account we meet with of engraving on copper is from some German annals about
the
seem to have forever debarred them: persons of moderate fortune have by engraving the
means of being possessed of all the spirit, and all the poetry that are contained in those miracles
of art, which seem to have been reserved for the temples of Italy or the cabinets of princes.
When we reflect moreover that the engraver, besides the beauties of poetic composition, and
the artful ordinance of design, is to express merely by the means of light and shade all the
various tints of colours and chiar oscuro, to give a relief to each figure, and truth to each
object; that he is now to paint a sky at one time serene and bright, at another loaded with dark
clouds; now the pure tranquil stream, and then the foaming raging sea; that he is here to
express the character of the man, strongly marked in his countenance, and there the minutest
ornament of his dress; in a word, that he is to represent all, even the most difficult objects in
nature; we cannot sufficiently admire the vast improvements in this art, and the high finishing
observed in some of its most beautiful productions.
This art, notwithstanding its present improved state, had its origin at no earlier a period than
about the middle of the fifteenth century. The ancients practised engraving on precious stones
and crystals with very good success; specimens of their ingenuity in this way are yet extant,
and are equal to any productions of modern times : but the art of engraving on copper and wood
was not known till long after the invention of painting in oil.
The different kinds of engraving on copper are the following :—
1. In strokes with the graver alone, unassisted by aqua fortis. In this instance the design is
traced with a sharp tool called the dry point upon the plate, and the strokes are cut in the
copper by the graver. This is generally called engraving with the tool and dry point only.
2. Engraving in strokes with a point, the copper-plate being covered with a ground, and the
strokes afterwards corroded with aqua-fortis : this is called etching.
3. In strokes first etched with aqua-fortis, and then finished with the graver : by which the
two former methods are united. This mode is the most universally practised, and has also the
best effect.
4. In dots without strokes, which are performed with the point upon the wax or ground, and
then bitten in with aqua-fortis as in etching; but they are afterwards harmonized and softened
with the graver, by making several small additional dots between them. Sometimes this mode
of engraving is effected with the graver only, unassisted by the point, which is very often the
case in the flesh and the finer parts of portraits.
5. In dots which are first etched as the foregoing, but afterwards harmonized with the dry
point, performed by a little hammer instead of the graver. This operation is called opus mallei
or the work of the hammer. It was practised by Lutma and others, but is now nearly exploded.
6. In mezzotinto, which is performed by covering the plate with a strong dark ground, or
deep shade by means of a toothed tool, and corroding the dots with aqua-fortis. The parts
which are to be light are then rendered more or less smooth by the scraper, according to the
degrees of light they are to represent.
7. In aquatinta a newly-invented method of engraving, which has suddenly attained a
degree of perfection seldom the lot of recent discoveries : the outline is first etched and the plate
afterwards corroded, but in a different manner from either etching or mezzotinto, as will be
explained hereafter.
The first account we meet with of engraving on copper is from some German annals about
the