One of the longer-lived techniques used to illustrate books, mezzotint was first used in Amsterdam in the 2nd quarter of the 17th century. It is a drypoint method of intaglio engraving that became the first tonal method used to make prints and illustrate books. As Elizabeth Barker observes:
A mezzotint emerges from darkness into light. First, the artist (or an assistant) roughens (or "grounds") the copperplate using a "rocker," a broad, semi-circular, serrated-edged, chisel-like implement specific to mezzotint. Moved rhythmically and repeatedly across the plate, the rocker eventually yields a pronounced overall texture (or "burr") that will catch the ink. (If printed at this stage, the plate yields a solid field of rich, velvety black.) Next, using a "scraper," a triangular blade fixed in a knife handle, and a "burnisher," a blunt implement with a hard smooth rounded end (both standard engraving tools), the artist smoothes selected passages of the burr, reducing or removing its ink-catching capacity, and thereby rendering the lighter-toned passages of the design. Finally, the artist (or a specialist printer) inks the surface of the plate and transfers the design to a sheet of dampened paper by running it through an intaglio press (beneath layers of protective felts). The process requires great care, since the burr of a mezzotint plate makes it more fragile than those used in other printmaking techniques. Because a mezzotint plate's roughened surface deteriorates rapidly from repeated printing, each plate will render only a small number of truly first-rate impressions. The plate can be reworked (yielding successive "states" of the print), but such reworking historically has not always been expert, and connoisseurs have come to favor early proofs, pulled when the original burr is fresh. (For a modern video demonstration of the technique, click here.)
Because mezzotint produced a wide range of tonal values without hatching, cross-hatching or stippling (see our post of 17 December 2009), the technique became especially popular in Great Britain, which quickly surpassed Amsterdam as the center of production. (The first known mezzotint, printed in Amsterdam by Ludwig von Siegen in 1642, is depicted below. He shares with Ruprecht Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, Herzog von Bayern, the distinction of co-discovering the technique:)
Mezzotint was especially favored for printed reproductions of oil paintings, as well as for printing portraits. Frontispiece portraits in books of the 17th-18th centuries depict one well-known use of the process...
...although its use to reproduce stand-alone prints of paintings is where the technique can be seen to best effect:
For a technique that is little used today (it fell out of favor after the introduction of stippling in the 1760s), a surprising number of modern books have been published about mezzotint:
The best known modern practitioner of the technique, Japanese artist Yozo Hamaguchi, was introduced to mezzotint by poet E.E. Cummings:
To aficionados, a revival of the technique is overdue....
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