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MEZZOTINT

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 353 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MEZZOTINT . During the 19th See also:

century two revolutions occurred in the See also:British See also:art of mezzotinto See also:engraving—" la maniere anglaise." The See also:original defect of the method was the incapacity of the mezzotint " See also:burr " on See also:copper to yield as many See also:fine impressions as other forms of engraving. To this defect was attributable the introduction, in 1823, of See also:steel instead of the soft copper previously used— a See also:change which, with the endeavour to avoid technical difficulties, led to the " mixed See also:style," or See also:combination of mezzotint with See also:etching, and a See also:general departure from the traditional See also:form of the art, " pure mezzotint " on copper. The See also:affinity of the method to See also:painting in See also:black and See also:white which differentiates it from other kinds of engraving, and was the distinguishing See also:charm of the mezzotints of the 17th and 18th centuries, was for a See also:time lost, but a revival of pure mezzotint on 352 copper, beginning in 188o—a return, in fact, to the mode in which the See also:classics of the art were engraved in the time of See also:Sir See also:Joshua Rey nolds—was made possible by the invention of steel-facing. By this See also:process engraved copper plates are electroplated with a film of steel, renewable when worn in course of See also:printing; and a mezzotint on copper, so protected, yields more fine impressions than if it had been engraved on steel, whilst the painter-like quality remains unimpaired. In " pure mezzotint " the See also:design is evolved from dark to See also:light entirely by scraping away more or less of the previously laid " ground," the original " burr " of which is See also:left untouched in the extreme darks, and no See also:acid, etching or See also:line-See also:work is used in it at all. The usual See also:short descriptions of the method are misleading, because they fail to explain that it is the " ground," and not the burr " of it only, which is scraped away in greater or smaller degree to produce the varying tones of the design. The See also:necessity of realizing that there are two constituents of the " ground," the " burr " and the indentations out of which the " burr " is raised, will be appreciated later. The " rocking-See also:tool," with which the " ground " is laid, somewhat resembles a See also:carpenter's See also:chisel, but the blade is 3 in. wide and only about 24 in. See also:long, whilst the cutting edge, instead of being straight, is curved in the segment of a circle. One See also:side of the blade is deeply engraved with lines from edge to handle, and the ridges which remain between these lines form See also:teeth at the cutting edge when the unengraved side of the tool is bevelled as an See also:ordinary chisel is sharpened. The tools contain from 35 to 120 teeth to each See also:inch of their width, those with the most teeth producing grounds of the finest texture. The operator rocks the curved edge of the tool from side to side on the See also:bare copper See also:plate, causing the tool to travel forward, whilst each tooth makes an indentation in the copper and throws up a corresponding particle of See also:metal, which is called the " burr." When the whole plate has been so rocked across in 45 to 6o different directions, so that no visible speck of the original See also:bright copper See also:surface remains unfretted by the teeth of the " rocking-tool," the " ground " is termed " full " and is ready for scraping the design.

The innumerable particles of copper forming the raised " burr " give to a " full ground " much the See also:

appearance of copper-coloured See also:plush, and a See also:print from it, taken before any scraping has been done on it, looks not unlike a piece of black See also:velvet. The See also:lights and semi-tones of the design are produced by subsequent scraping and burnishing. Assuming that a mezzotint is to be scraped from a See also:lady's portrait by Sir Joshua See also:Reynolds in which a piece of black drapery crosses a white See also:dress--the engraver begins to work on a previously laid " ground " which would print uniformly black before scraping commences. In the extreme darks of the black drapery the raised " burr " is left untouched by the " scraper "—a two-edged steel See also:instrument resembling an See also:ancient See also:Roman See also:sword-blade in See also:miniature, but having a longer point. Working from dark to light, the engraver produces the varying tones of the folds of the black drapery by scraping the raised " burr " down more or less, lowering it in fact so that it will not hold so much See also:ink as where it is left untouched in the extreme darks. In the highest lights of the black drapery all the raised " burr " will have been removed and the original surface of the plate reached, but as yet the engraver has not produced any See also:tone lighter than See also:middle tint (although he has completely modelled up the black drapery), because the indentations out of which the " burr " was raised still remain in the plate and hold ink in printing. In See also:order to produce the See also:infinite gradation of delicate tones in the white dress, or in a See also:sky, the scraping is continued, the indentations being thus made shallower in the passages scraped, and therefore less capable of holding ink, whilst they are obliterated almost entirely in the highest lights. When the mezzotint is finished the black drapery will stand higher than the surface of the plate modelled in a See also:relief composed of the raised " burr," whilst all the tones of the white dress, from middle tint to pure white, will be so many actual depressions in the plate, the highest lights being the deepest. The speck of light in the See also:eye, for instance, is a See also:pit in the plate, surrounded by a See also:tract of more or less raised " burr," which provides the intense black of the See also:pupil and the See also:half-tints of the See also:iris. The difference of surface levels is very appreciable where high-lights impinge on strong darks, but it exists in varying degree all over the plate, and the greatest technical difficulty in pure mezzotint is to obtain adequate " edge " and See also:definition, because the tendency is to remove too much " ground " from the edges of adjacent darks in the course of the See also:constant scrapings necessary to smooth and See also:polish the depressed lights. In printing a mezzotint a non-fluid. ink is thoroughly worked into every See also:part of the plate, and the superfluities wiped off again, leaving as much ink as possible in the darks, the raised " burr." If the bottom of the small lights is not quite smooth, the ink sticks in the roughness and they print dark instead of light, or the printer has to wipe so hard to get the ink out of the depressed lights that he removes too much from the raised darks. In either See also:case loss of definition and contrast of effect results.

This inherent difficulty of scraping to a See also:

sharp edge caused the use of the " mixed " methods.in which the details were sharpened by outlining them with stipple or line etching. Mezzotint is the best form of engraving for completeness of See also:representation, but etching is better adapted for sketching from nature or for the expression of any fleeting See also:idea. The two arts have distinct uses and limitations. The art See also:function pf true etching as practised by See also:Rembrandt lies in See also:economy of expressive line to suggest the artist's meaning, and that of mezzotint in completion of tonality to explain it. See also:Artistic See also:suggestion, which is not inherent in the solid tones of mezzotint, has to be imparted to the work entirely by the See also:free See also:play of the " scraper " on the " ground," much as the painter attains it on See also:canvas with the See also:brush. The first reputed mezzotint was produced at See also:Amsterdam in 1643 by See also:Ludwig von See also:Siegen, an officer in the service of the See also:Land-See also:grave of See also:Hesse, and an See also:amateur artist; but the work See also:History. was a See also:direct See also:drawing on copper with an instrument of See also:comparative precision resembling the See also:roulette rather than a mezzo-tint, ground laid with the rocking-tool and scraped from dark to light in the See also:present manner of the art. Siegen's innovation was led up to by the previous stipple work of Giulio Campagnola and See also:Janus Lutma; the roulette appears to have been used before his time; and though he shared in the See also:evolution of the rocking-tool, he was not the See also:sole inventor of it. The earliest See also:works referable to the method at the print See also:room of the British Museum afford See also:evidence; though inconclusive, that See also:Prince See also:Rupert, to whom Siegen showed his mode of work in 1654, and possibly also their See also:common friend, Th. Caspar von Fiirstenberger, and Rupert's assistant, Vallerant Vaillant, were more or less concerned in the See also:gradual development of mezzotint engraving. The rocking-tool was apparently improved by See also:Abraham Blooteling, a Dutch painter and engraver of •fine portrait mezzotints, who worked in See also:Holland and in See also:England about the See also:year 1680. Rupert brought the new art over to England at the Restoration, and the portrait of See also:Charles II., dated 1669, by See also:William See also:Sherwin, the first See also:English mezzotinter, bears the engraver's See also:acknowledgment of his indebtedness to Rupert for the secrets of the method. Mezzo-tint continued to be practised for a while on the See also:Continent, but the successors of Sherwin in England so excelled in it that it See also:early acquired abroad the See also:title of " la maniere Anglaise," and has since become an exclusively British art.

Though used for transcribing the subject-pictures of the See also:

great See also:Italian masters, and of Rembrandt, Vandyck and See also:Rubens, almost every See also:kind of subject being later engraved in it, the See also:staple See also:production in mezzotint has always been the portrait. Until the middle of the 18th century the tools continued somewhat archaic, causing in the prints an appearance of warp and woof, like that of See also:ill-See also:woven material, which detracted from reality of representation. The coarseness and unequal See also:depth of the " grounds " offered so much resistance to freedom of See also:execution with the " scraper " that, though the early engravers were quite as See also:good artists as their successors, painter-like See also:touch was not conspicuous in the work until M'Ardell and the interpreters of Sir Joshua Reynolds had improved the tools and technique. Except for the See also:collector, therefore, the See also:chief attraction in the prints of F. See also:Place and See also:Luttrell, Beckett and See also:Williams, and later those of See also:John See also:Simon, John See also:Smith and John See also:Faber, jun., who were the See also:principal exponents of mezzotint in the last years of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries, lies in their long See also:series of portraits after Vandyck, See also:Lely, See also:Kneller and the Dutch painters then practising in England, representing such interesting personages as Charles II. and Nell Gwynn, See also:Addison and See also:Pope, See also:Congreve and See also:Wycherley, See also:Locke and the great See also:duke of See also:Marlborough. The classics of mezzotint engraving are to be found amongst the best plates after Sir Joshua Reynolds by See also:James M'Ardell, J. R. Smith and See also:Valentine See also:Green, the Watsons, See also:Dickinson, See also:Fisher, See also:Dixon and some others, who worked during the last half of the 18th century. The brushwork of Reynolds was more in See also:harmony with the mezzotint method than the slighter painting technique of See also:Gainsborough and See also:Romney, who were much less frequently en-graved, perhaps because it is the highest technical difficulty in mezzotint to render the sharp edges of a See also:sketch. For this See also:reason a typical Gainsborough was never successfully engraved in the method. Though professional publishers and printers existed at this time and earlier, the word " excudit " on an old print, implying " published," not " engraved," the authors of the " Sir Joshua " mezzotints in most cases printed, published and sold their own works, and pure mezzotint, unmixed with etching, was almost exclusively the method they employed. Mezzotints were occasion-ally printed in See also:colours, notably those engraved later after See also:George See also:Morland, the See also:primary See also:object being to conceal the worn-out See also:condition of the plates.

The departure from pure mezzotint and temporary decay of the art began when, towards the end of the 18th century, See also:

Richard See also:Earlom, otherwise a fine artist in the traditional method, notably in See also:translations of Vandyck and See also:Wright of See also:Derby, began to outline the details of his plates with stipple etching in order to avoid the labour and difficulty of scraping them to a sharp edge, using the " ground " alone. Earlom, however, did not destroy the See also:mystery of the See also:rich velvety darks by etching into them. A demand then arose for larger See also:editions than the soft copper plates would yield, and the engravers attempted to meet it by combining mezzotint with See also:positive line-etching throughout the work, thus shortening the labour of scraping the details, and fortifying the darks with lines sunk below the surface of the plate. The harmony of line and tone in some of the prints in this style by S. W. Reynolds and Charles See also:Turner, after Sir Joshua, See also:Hoppner and their contemporaries, was more convincing than the later " mixed style " of See also:Samuel See also:Cousins, because there was a certain artistic significance in the etched line itself apart from the mezzotint tone, but every touch of line in a mezzotint does something to destroy the painter-like quality, and a decadence was in progress. The same mixed method on copper was used by J. W. M. Turner in his See also:Liber Studiorum series of landscape plates, his object being to See also:rival the See also:pen-and-See also:wash drawings of See also:Claude's Liber Veritatis. Turner, however, was not so practised in etching or mezzotint as the engravers before mentioned, and the etched See also:foundation of the Liber plates was too strong for the mezzotint tone, destroying the breadth of the light, the richness of the darks, and the artistic " keeping of the whole effect. It is the See also:grand design of Turner reflected in the plates, rather than any quality of mezzotint or etching in them, which appeals to the artist and the connoisseur.

Perhaps the greatest success in harmonizing line and tone in one plate was achieved by See also:

David See also:Lucas in his " English Landscape " series of mezzotint after John See also:Constable, in which he sharpened his details with the roulette, or with a slight line put in with the point of the scraper as scraping proceeded, retaining the pure " burr " in his darks. Lucas, like Samuel Cousins and his contemporaries, was handicapped by being compelled to work on the steel plates introduced in 1823, and this was the cause of the chief defect of his plates, the excessive opposition of black and white. The warm general tone which assisted the picturesqueness of the 18th century mezzotints was lost by the use of steel, because the ink did not cling to it as it does to the more porous copper. Steel being harder than copper, the rocking-tool penetrated less deeply, raising less " burr," and the consequent loss of force in the darks necessitated the scraping up of the lights to a higher See also:key to force contrast of effect, which was also enhanced by the use of very white See also:paper and a coarse black ink. It was soon found that the unfortified " burr," even on steel, would not yield the constantly increasing See also:numbers of impressions demanded. The labour of scraping sharp lights was greatly enhanced, and though some pure mezzotints were engraved on steel, painter-like touch was practically unattainable on it, and the general effect was See also:cold and uninteresting. The early work of Samuel Cousins after See also:Lawrence in the comparatively pure method, and the final development of the " mixed style " on steel in his later plates after Reynolds, See also:Millais and Land-seer, are referred to in the See also:article on Samuel Cousins. For nearly See also:forty years pure mezzotint ceased to be practised altogether, and the revival of it, which began in 188o, was led up to by the invention of steel-facing. The competition of photo-gravure, which steel-facing made a commercial possibility, for a time checked the new See also:movement, but a photogravure, despite a See also:mere surface resemblance to a mezzotint, is a photograph manipulated to imitate an engraving, entirely devoid of artistic individuality. In 1898 for the first time a Society of Mezzotint Engravers was formed to See also:foster the art.

End of Article: MEZZOTINT

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