GLOSSARY
* For more information on each of the prints illustrated below, click on the image.
Drypoint (intaglio technique)
The technique of drypoint involves the inscribing of a line onto a plate with a sharp tool. In the Renaissance this most often involved a drypoint needle scratching the surface of a copperplate to make a shallow incision that could be inked. The resulting mark would be accompanied by the pushed out metal on either side of the incised line, known as a burr, which was often removed before printing. The remaining incision produced delicate marks on a printed page, similar to that of a pencil stroke. Printmakers used drypoint to add final touches to engravings and etchings. The downside of this technique was that lines would wear out quickly due to their shallowness.
Dürer produced three prints entirely in drypoint. Mantegna and the Master of 1515 were known to leave the burr on the metal plate, which resulted in soft, fuzzy lines.
Engraving (intaglio technique)
Renaissance engraving involves the process of incising lines onto a copperplate using a tool called a burin. The plate is then inked, and put thorough a printing press to create an image on a sheet of paper.
The process is demanding, and requires a high level of skill and training. For this reason, Renaissance painters who wanted to disseminate their designs through the medium of print often worked with skilled engravers. Marcantonio's prints after Raphael's designs represents one of the best known of such collaborations .
Etching (intaglio technique)
To create an etching, the plate is heated and covered with wax. Once the wax has cooled the printmaker can incise lines into the wax to create an image. The plate is then immersed in a bath of acid, which eats into the exposed metal parts - the incised lines - of the plate only. The remaining wax is then removed, and the plate's surface is ready to be inked. This technique permitted painters and draftsmen in particular to create prints with greater ease than with the technique of engraving. This was because etching into wax required less specialist training and strength than engraving directly onto a metal plate
The earliest known etching is by the Swiss artist Urs Graf, dated to 1513. In Italy, the painter, Parmigianino took up etching sometime in the mid 1520s. Although the technique was not as popular as engraving in the first half of the sixteenth century in Italy, his works influenced successive generations of local printmakers.
Niello (Renaissance)
The word "niello" refers to a metal sulphide usually combined with silver, copper or lead. This combination produces a black substance which is then made into a powder or a paste. The technique of niello metalwork involves the melting of the niello substance into the grooves of an engraved metal plate. Any excess niello is then removed, and the plate is polished. The engraved lines are rended almost black by the niello, while the unengraved parts of the plate remain the much lighter colour of the metal support.
Niello metalwork decoration has been recorded as far back as the sixteenth century BCE in Ancient Egypt, if not earlier. It was used throughout Europe, often on jewellery, small devotional or decorative objects, and arms and armour, during the Middle Ages.
Renaissance niello refers to the object itself, made from the niello metalwork technique. It was commonly applied by Italian goldsmiths on jewellery. This type of decoration reached its zenith in fifteenth-century Florence and Bologna. Renaissance niellists used a burin to engrave their metal plate, the tool which would later be adopted by copperplate engravers. The best known Renaissance niellist is the florentine goldsmith, draftsman and engraver, Maso Finiguerra, whom Vasari (incorrectly) considered the inventor of engraving.
Printing
Printing is defined as the transfer of ink from a prepared printing surface to a piece of paper or other material. The printing surface is often a block of wood, a metal plate, or a stone. The ink is carried either on the raised parts of the printing surface (known as relief printing), in its grooves (known as intaglio printing), or on the surface itself, the last of these being invented only in 1796 (known as planographic printing).
Printing (intaglio)
Intaglio is the Italian term for incising or engraving. An intaglio print denotes a process in which the ink used for printing is held in grooves of a metal plate. A piece of paper is placed on the plate and enough pressure must be exerted to transfer the ink onto the paper. The deeper the groove of the plate, the darker the printed line will turn out on the paper. Etching and engraving are types of intaglio printmaking.
Printing (relief)
Relief printing is the oldest known printing method, having emerged by 868 in China. In early modern Italy the relief printing surface was invariably a block made of wood. In contrast to intaglio printing, the areas which are not intended to be inked are cut away. The remaining, raised sections are then inked. At its most basic the ink can be transferred by laying a piece of paper onto the block while the ink is still wet enough, and rubbing it with a hard surface. Woodcut is the best known type of relief printing. For a video demonstrating the process, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLIFCUSECNI&feature=youtu.be
Woodcut (relief technique)
A woodcut involves the cutting away of all the intended light areas of a design into a plank of wood. The surface is then inked, with the ink remaining on the raised (uncut) parts of the wood. The block can be put through a press to transfer the ink onto a piece of paper. Unlike intaglio printmaking, a press is not necessarily needed. The ink can also be transferred by stamping the block directly onto the paper, or by placing the paper on the piece of inked wood and rubbing it.
Unlike fifteenth-century German and Netherlandish woodcuts, there remain few Italian woodcuts from the same period. It is unclear whether this is due to a lack of production or a low survival rate. Venice was one of the few centres on the peninsula, in the Cinquecento, to establish a strong tradition in woodcut printing.
Burin
The tool used by engravers to incise lines into a metal plate. The tip of the burin is usually wedge shaped to better cut into the plate. The angle with which the engraver holds the tool can vary the thickness of the incised line.
Copperplate
While an engraving can be incised on different metals, Renaissance engravings were almost always carried out on copper. Out of the most common metals of the time gold and silver were too expensive to use, iron too hard, and lead and tin too soft. Copper was tough enough to not wear out too quickly, while sufficiently soft to engrave. On very rare occasions tin and brass were used instead of copper.
Although cheaper than gold and silver, copper was nonetheless expensive. A very large print would have required a very large copperplate. In some instances images could pulled from separate copperplates, with the final image then pasted together once printed on paper. The size (and quality) of an engraving can therefore give some indication of the its production cost and sale price.
A well-engraved Cinquecento copper plate would have produced around 2000 impressions, with the first few hundred resulting in the sharpest images.
Ink for printmaking
Ink used for early modern printing was a mixture of a binder (a processed oil or varnish) and a pigment. The latter would have been a type of charcoal or bone black (I'm still not entirely sure what bone black is). A printer's ink recipe dated to c.1570 suggests the use of charred rinds of edible long pumpkins as an appropriate pigment.
Ingredients for ink used in relief printmaking differed from that of intaglio printmaking. In Dürer's time this would most often have been a combination of a finely ground lampblack - made of carbon - and oil.
Paper
In the sixteenth century paper was made predominantly from flax cloth. The cloth would have been beaten to a pulp, mixed with water, and then pressed out, and dried. The process was carried out in paper mills, and the size of paper was determined by a paper mould.
Paper was introduced into Europe in the middle of the eleventh century. Production of paper in Italy increased substantially in the middle of the thirteenth century. Until c. 1500, Italy was the main exporter of paper across Europe. Fabriano was the first great centre of papermaking in Italy, and continues to be known for its paper production today.
By the start of the sixteenth century, paper in Italy was relatively cheap, in part because of improvements in the papermaking process during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in part because of the large number of sheets being produced. This meant that paper was an easy accessible and affordable product.
Printing Press
A roller press was used for intaglio printing. This involved a plate and a sheet of paper placed between a round surface that could be rolled - like a rolling pin - and a flat surface. As the plate and sheet were pushed through the press, enough force would have been exerted to transfer the ink from the copperplate onto the paper.
A very different press was used for relief printing, which required a flat surface, known as a platen, to exert pressure onto a woodblock for the transfer of ink. It is likely that the technology used for printing a woodblock image was the same as, or very similar to, that of the press used for printing books. Unlike for copperplate printing, it was not necessary to use a press to print from a woodblock.
Very little is known about the presses used during the first decades of printmaking. It is likely that these machines varied from printmaker to printmaker.
Woodblock
A woodblock was used to create images for printed books and for single sheet images. To create a woodblock design, the wood would have to be cut parallel to the grain. A variety of tools were used for cutting the wood. Designers would have employed trained woodcutters to translate their drawings onto the woodblock. Since woodcuts were far more widespread in Germany and the Netherlands than in Italy, notably in the first thirty years of the Cinquecento, it was there where specialist cutters of woodblock were concentrated. Most such cutters remain anonymous.
The above list is not exhaustive. The entries are limited to those printmaking techniques which you will most often encounter during this course. If you wish to investigate some of the entries in greater depth, I have included a general bibliography on the subject below. I also encourage you to explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s entries on etching, engraving, and woodcut which can be accessed by clicking here.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gascoigne, Bamber. How to Identify Prints: A complete guide to manual and mechanical processes from woodcut to inkjet. London: Thames and Hudson, 2004. (Provides a broad overview of different printmaking techniques. Very handy for quick and clear explanations with useful accompanying illustrations).
Griffiths, Antony. Prints and Printmaking: An introduction to the history and techniques. London: British Museum Press, 2010. (If you would like to pick only one book on printmaking techniques from this list, Antony Griffiths’s work is, to my knowledge, the best introductory guide to the subject. Griffiths also prioritises Renaissance prints among his examples, and places them within their historical context).
Stijnman, Ad. Engraving and Etching 1400-2000: A History of the Development of Manual Intaglio Printmaking Processes. London: Archetype Books, 2012. (A detailed examination of the history of engraving and etching with large sections dedicated to the technical processes of printmaking, the education of printmakers, and the evolution of the print industry from the fifteenth century on. While this is an enormous book, it is incredibly useful for anyone wanting to learn about the subject in greater depth. Each section is subtitled clearly, to allow you to focus only on the parts relevant to your research).