Portrait by Coenraad Lauwers, 1649, engraving EngravingĮngraving was developed in the Middle Ages, making it one of the oldest printmaking processes. Each produces prints with a distinct look and feel, and many prints are created through a combination of two or more of these processes. There are five traditional intaglio processes: engraving, etching, drypoint, aquatint and mezzotint.

At that point the plate is ready for editioning - the creation of multiple impressions, which the artist signs and numbers. Prints are usually worked through an evolution called states, with the artist printing a sample impression, then working the plate further until it is completed, when the final proof is taken. The contours of the plate leave an embossment on the paper called the platemark, and the residual ink on the surface is called plate tone. The look of the final print is affected by numerous factors, including the choice of ink, the method of wiping the ink from the plate and the choice of paper - in addition to the choice of printmaking process and the artist’s treatment of the image. The paper is removed to reveal the finished print, or impression. After the bed comes to rest at the other end of the press, the blankets are lifted off. The bed is then cranked between two steel rollers, pressing the blankets into the softened paper and forcing the paper down into the recessed areas of the metal plate, where it grabs the ink. Two felt blankets are placed on top of the paper. A dampened sheet of etching paper, larger than the plate itself, is laid on top. The plate is then placed onto the bed of an etching press, a rectangular steel slab. This removes the ink from the raised portions of the plate, leaving only the ink in the recessed areas to be printed. The plate is then wiped with a rag called a tarlatan. The ink is then squeegeed across the plate, forcing the ink into every recessed line and area. But once the plate itself is complete, all five processes share the following steps to produce the finished intaglio print.įirst, the artist applies ink to the entire surface of the finished plate, often using a roller. The method of creating the recessed areas differs with the technique, and in a moment we’ll learn how each one works. The plates are most often made of copper, but zinc, brass and other materials are also used. Originating in Italy, the word “intaglio,” with a silent “g,” refers to prints made from plates in which the areas that carry the ink are recessed below the surface of the plate. 1885, etchingįor starters, there are four traditional printmaking categories: relief (which includes such processes as woodcut and linocut), planography (lithography), serigraphy (silkscreen) and, finally, intaglio.īelow, artist Richard Pantell walks us through the last of these categories, intaglio, and its five principle processes. What’s the difference between a drypoint and an aquatint? Between a monotype and a monoprint? Between a lithograph and a linocut? The direct transfer of 'real world' photographic imagery on to an intaglio printing plate as an element in a composition in his work 'Attack on Marshall.Īquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines.Often, when viewing an exhibition of prints, we’ll look at the labels and discover the names of printing media we don’t fully understand. Intaglio plate, ink or inks are painted, wiped and/or dabbed into the recessed lines (such as with brushes/rubber gloves/rollers). With intaglio printing, a similar effect may be achieved for viewing the banknote from a. Printmaking technique that incorporates principles of relief printing and intaglio printing. Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family. Some intaglio cancels are described elsewhere though the makeshift provisional types. ProcessIn intaglio printing, the lines to be printed are cut into a metal (e.įrom intaglio printing (gravure), wherein a plate is engraved, etched, or stippled to score cavities to contain the printing ink and woodblock printing or. His father, as well as from the maker of intaglios, Pierre Husson (1675–1676), and the printer of intaglios, Chabrilland. They include intaglio printing, holograms, microprinting, fluorescent ink, latent images, watermarks. The technique can be used with all the intaglio printmaking techniques, of which the most important are engraving, etching. After the decline of the main relief technique of woodcut around 1550, the intaglio techniques dominated both artistic printmaking as well as most types of illustration and popular prints until the mid 19th century.

Intaglio meaning