line engraving

line engraving Term applied to a method of making prints (and the print so made) in which the design is cut directly into the surface of a metal (usually copper) plate. In normal parlance the word ‘engraving’ usually refers to line engraving, but the word is also used as a generic term, covering a variety of printmaking processes (see print). The line engraver cuts the design into a smooth metal plate with a tool called a burin. Characteristically, line engravings have a quality of metallic hardness and austere precision, compared with the easy, spontaneous drawing of the etcher or lithographer. The essential nature of the medium is linear, though shading and tone may be suggested by parallel strokes, cross-hatching, or textures compounded of various dots and flicks. Line engraving seems to have originated towards the middle of the 15th century in the workshops of goldsmiths, arising independently in Italy (see Niello) and Germany, though perhaps slightly earlier in the latter country. Martin Schongauer, who died in 1491, was the first major artist to work mainly as an engraver, and the medium had its finest flowering in the early 16th century in the work of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden. Active at the same time was Marcantonio Raimondi, who was the great pioneer in the use of engraving as a means of reproducing the works of other artists. This soon became the primary function of line engraving, and it was the principal method of reproductive printing until the 19th century, when it was challenged by wood engraving in the popular market and then superseded by photomechanical processes. In the 20th century, however, line engraving was revived as a means of original expression, the most important impetus coming from S. W. Hayter.