Chisel engraving. Metal engraving is a noble and excellent gift for all occasions
Surely, every person before the important birthday of his friend or loved one I was thinking about a gift. Indeed, it is very difficult to choose a thing that would amaze with its beauty and elegance. It’s too commonplace to purchase personalized mugs or portraits, paintings or unusual things... But there is a way out - metal engraving. Such a wonderful gift, made to order, with an image or inscription, can be called a real work of art that will not leave anyone indifferent! Such a gift will bring a sea of positive emotions and impressions, and will look beautiful in any interior.
A Brief History of Metal Engraving
The distinctive beauty and sophistication of metal engraving was appreciated several thousand years ago. Archaeologists in Eurasia have found many bronze items dating back to the first millennium (jewelry, daggers, dishes and axes), which were decorated by masters with engravings. As a rule, these were skillful ornaments of flora and fauna, mystical creatures and people. Throughout the entire period of the formation of the art of engraving, two artistic directions were born: line and armor carving. The first is produced by the technique of applying cutting in the form of contour lines or strokes on a smooth, even metal surface. The second type is armor engraving - a technique for applying reliefs with an in-depth background or with volumetric, convex processing of the elements that are depicted.
Metal engraving became popular in Europe already in the fifteenth century. Then the craftsmen processed the metal using a cutter and a gravel, which they used to apply drawings to a polished metal board. Through blows and mechanical action, the design, step by step, “transferred” to the material and became a real decoration.
Modern metal engraving
The development of technology allows modern masters carry out beautiful and quick application of the necessary elements on the metal. Metal engraving in the 21st century happens self made, laser and electromechanical. It depends on this appearance engravings. Modern technologies allow each stroke to be accurately and subtly applied to the required element and create real works of art, and the masters, passing on ancient secrets to each other, complement the work with the knowledge of their ancestors. Thus, in the end, a metal engraving becomes a real decoration and the best gift!
Advantages of metal engraving as a gift
Nowadays it is becoming popular to give beautiful and sophisticated gifts. Engraving is one of these. The fact is that since ancient times it has served as an excellent way to make a thing of its kind one of a kind in the world, unique, inimitable. When engraved, an ordinary, faded souvenir becomes bright, unsurpassed, and unique. If you cover the necessary gift precious metal, it will become a real valuable heirloom! Yes, such pleasure is not cheap, but it is really worth it. Even a simple inscription made on metal will speak of excellent taste and the desire to please the hero of the occasion with something special. Such a gift is for all occasions, it will become not just a memory, but will take first place among and will be passed on from generation to generation!
Engraving “in metal”. Metal-plastic embossing.
Although my work should rather be called metallography. But I’ll put it this way “metallographic and metal-plastic”. In everyday life it’s simple - coinage. Although, unfortunately, this type of ancient and sacred art was leveled in the central Black Earth Region in the last quarter of the twentieth century to the level of vulgarity, stupidity and primitiveness. Anyone who wasn't bored grabbed a nail hammer and declared that he was already a chaser. “TOREUTA” and “TOREUFICE” turned into “girls with candles” or “with flowers”. Traditions were blurred. But they survived.
The average person “ate” the coinage, burped heartily and moved on to “dessert” - Chinese consumer goods. Bon appetit! I consider myself a medievalist artist, so I mainly turn to medieval themes and forms and methods of depicting this era. Sometimes I deliberately use in my works elements and episodes of classic compositions (mainly of the Northern Renaissance) in order to give my compositions the “spirit of the times” and so that in no case does it slide into the “fantasy” cliché.
In the Middle Ages there was no worldview, but there was a worldview through religion and it was sealed in the line and graphics of that time. And I am obliged to preserve it as much as possible and transfer it through the centuries to our soil. I had to copy a lot (if copy is the right word here), translate engravings of old masters into metal, I lived in that era and began to trample on the “fabric” of their work.
P. Bruegel "The big eat the small", 62*65 cm, sheet copper 0.5 mm
I'm translating a medieval engraving into metal. Into the sacred metal. And she begins to live in a new way, keeping all your secrets. Secrets of time in half a millennium.
Engraving(from French word“GRAVER” - cut) is a type of graphic art where a design is first cut or etched on a board (wood, metal or other material), and then stamped from the board onto paper using printing ink. Engraving is called also a print from the board and the engraved board itself (printing form).
Engraving can be high or convex if the black (printing) strokes of the design are left untouched on the board, and the spaces between them are cut out. If the printing strokes are cut (or etched) deep, and the spaces are left untouched, the engraving is called deep or in-depth. In the first case, printing ink is applied to the surface of the board, in the second, it is hammered into the strokes and erased from the surface of the board.
To high engraving include wood and metal engraving: sharp engraving, etching, dry point and others.
Engraving belongs to as much to art as to printing and printing. From the two varieties of engraving, two main printing methods developed: letterpress or letterpress printing (including type) and intaglio or intaglio printing. Later they were joined by a third method - flat printing, which includes lithography. The printing strokes and the spaces between them lie here in one plane, on the surface of the lithographic stone, and printing is based on chemical principle. Letterpress printing is the oldest printing method and is still the most common today. The earliest type of letterpress printing was woodcut, or woodcut (the name comes from the Greek words “xulon” - wood and “grapho” - I write, draw).
"I rely only on myself." Variation of the engraving by A. Durer "Rinocerus", 60*45 cm
For a long time existed only longitudinal engraving, which is cut on boards sawn along the grain of the tree. It is also called “trimmed” if the strokes of the design are trimmed only with a knife. Longitudinal engraving dates back more than eleven centuries of its existence. Much later, another type of wood engraving appeared - end engraving. It is performed on boards sawn across the grain.
Material properties, tools, engraving techniques and artistic media the two types of wood engravings are different. Engraving and lithography are divided into original (author's) and reproduction. In the first case, the engraver carves his own drawing on the board, in the second he reproduces an image made by another artist in a different material (for example, painting, drawing)
"Knight of the Green Chapel" Variation of the engraving by N. Koshkin 76*52 cm, sheet copper 0.8 mm
Original engraving often also called “creative”, as if emphasizing its artistic superiority over reproduction. But such a contrast is not always justified, especially when it comes to past eras in the development of engraving. Haven't appeared yet modern methods reproduction, engraving was the only means of reproducing the image. She mainly served related areas of art - drawing, painting. But this did not prevent engraving artists, not artisans, from creatively approaching their task, adapting other people’s originals, and creating works that have an independent artistic value. E. Delacroix excellently spoke about this important historical role of engraving: “Engraving is in reality nothing more than a translation, that is, the art of transferring an idea expressed in one art to another, just as a translator does this with a book that is written.” foreign language and which he translates into his own. The originality of the engraver's language - this is precisely where his genius is manifested - consists not only in imitating, with the help of the means of his art, the effects of painting, which is, as it were, a foreign language: he has, so to speak, his own language, which puts a special imprint on his work and allows him to reveal his own feeling.”
In wood engraving the material has much higher value than in other types of engraving. If in etching they draw on metal, only replacing a pencil with a needle, and in lithography the techniques of drawing on stone are the same as on paper, then here the image is created in a completely different way - its strokes are not drawn, but actually cut out.
A. P. Zhurov, E. M. Tretyakova “Wood engraving.”
"Transmutation. Illustration of the great Imagination", 60 x 57 cm, copper sheet 0.8 mm
The engraving... represents, like a drawing, a sheet of paper with an image written on it, but this image appears in a completely different way. Due to the complexity and stage-by-stage nature of its creation (development of an engraving sketch in a drawing, creation of a printing plate, printing process), the artist is deprived of the freedom in engraving that he has in drawing.
Engraving- this is a conditional world, built from its own special material. Unlike drawing, in engraving it is precisely an independent world that arises, because here visual arts merged with the depicted objects and in relation to them are unconditional as their matter, their flesh. In this sense, the engraving comes close to the painting, but if in the painting a world appears that is equal to the real one in its visual components, then in the engraving it is conditional due to the properties of its materials.
"Mechanism of action", 82 x 59 cm, copper sheet 0.8 mm
... in engraving- unlike a drawing - separate elements artistic convention turn out to be features of primary convention, which makes the appeal to artistic convention in engraving more organic than in drawing. The use of one or another manner of depiction is dictated, first of all, of course, by the specific task being solved by the artist: sketches and preliminary sketches are performed in a free manner, sketches and final sketches are often created in a completed manner. In independent drawings, the nature of the execution reflects the artist’s approach to mastering the world. A free manner speaks of the desire to maintain a sense of spontaneity, to express the acuteness of impressions and experiences born of direct perception. It reflects the artist’s personal involvement in what is happening; it seems to realize the “effect of presence.” On the contrary, the completed manner testifies to the artist’s desire to cast his impressions, ideas, experiences into a completed, final form, to impart significance to them, to the world, to “separate” it from himself, to eliminate his presence.” Therefore, the completed manner is most often used when creating compositional drawings. Working in this manner, the artist sometimes imitates the external form of a painting, engraving and even embossing, bringing the drawing closer to them in terms of the nature of the design and composition. And then works arise that can be called hand-drawn paintings.
Engraving with chisel- one of the main types of in-depth engraving on metal.
The technology for creating incisive engraving is as follows: in a metal plate (copper, brass, zinc, iron) by mechanical or by chemical means The drawing deepens in the form of combinations of lines and dots.
Then paint is driven into the recesses with tampons,
The board is covered with damp paper and rolled between the rollers of the printing press.
Chisel engraving appeared in the first quarter of the 15th century. The first dated burin engraving dates back to 1446. It was long believed that the inventor of this technique was the Florentine goldsmith Maso Finiguerra, whose first engraving dates back to 1458; but this theory was disproved. Today, the oldest engraving on copper is considered to be “The Flagellation of Christ,” made by an unknown German master in 1446. When performing a chisel engraving, the master takes an evenly forged and carefully polished metal board, onto which he applies a drawing using a jewelry punch,
Which is then passed through with a more thorough tool - a cutter or a graver.
After this, paint is rubbed into the board, the excess is removed, and the sheet is printed.
This method allows you to work only with combinations of pure lines. Metal engraving is a complex technique; it requires precision, internal discipline, significant physical effort and many hours of work. So, his famous engraving "Knight, Death and the Devil" A. Dürer engraved a relatively small format (24.7 × 18.9 cm) for more than three months, not counting the time spent on preliminary preparation of sketches.
To test the effect of a design, artists often make so-called test prints before the work is completed. Proof prints by outstanding masters are highly valued primarily for their rarity, but perhaps no less for their freshness, for the opportunity to gain insight into the artist's work process. In the process of working on an engraving, the artist often changes the drawing and composition, destroys some lines and replaces them with others, distributes light and shadows differently, etc., and records these successive changes in a number of prints. Such prints (there are up to ten or even more of them), which seem to state the evolution of the engraving, are called “states”. There are also prints “before the signature” (of the artist) and “before the address” (of the publisher). The difference in price between the first and last prints can be very large. In addition, during the work, some artists make light sketches in the margins (something like a “test of the pen”, recording a suddenly flashed vision of fantasy). These “remarks” recorded in the test prints are then destroyed.
Printing form of incisive engraving. Portrait of Walt Whitman. 1860
The most remarkable master of the 15th century is the German engraver Martin Schongauer, who worked in Colmar and Breisach. His work, combining late Gothic and early Renaissance, had a significant influence on German masters, including Albrecht Dürer. Among the masters of the first half XVI century, it is worth noting a unique Dutchman - Luke of Leiden. From Italian masters XV century the most significant are Andrea Mantegna and Antonio del Pollaiuolo. In Italy in the 16th century a trend arose that predetermined important milestone in the development of European engraving - it was the reproduction of works of painting.
The emergence of reproduction engraving is associated with the name of Marcantonio Raimondi, who, working until the end of the first third of the 16th century, created several hundred reproductions of works by Dürer, Raphael, Giulio Romano and others using a chisel. In the 17th century, reproduction engraving was extremely common in many countries - in Flanders, where many paintings were reproduced, especially by Rubens. And in France at this time, Claude Mellan, Gerard Edelinck, Robert Nanteuil and others contributed to the flourishing of the art of reproduction classical engraved portraits.
The technology for making forms of engraving on metal intaglio printing is diverse. But this variety of techniques can be divided into two groups based on the principle of engraving. The first group includes all printing forms obtained mechanically - this is incisive engraving, drypoint, mezzotint, or black manner, dotted engraving (made with punches or tape measures). The second includes printing forms obtained by chemical processing of metal (etching). These are all types of etching: needle etching, soft varnish or strip varnish, aquatint, lavis, dotted engraving (obtained by etching), as a variety of it, pencil style, reserve and various technique contemporary artists which are often called mixed media. In modern intaglio engraving, various non-traditional materials are also used, such as cardboard, tracing paper, plastics and others.
Chisel engraving. The process of engraving a chisel engraving is that with a burin (cutter), which is most often a tetrahedral steel rod with an obliquely sharpened end, having a diamond-shaped cross-section, inserted into a special mushroom-shaped handle, the strokes of the design are cut out on a smoothly polished metal surface. For this, a copper plate 2-3 mm thick is usually used. In addition to copper, brass or steel can be used for this purpose.
The engraver creates an image using combinations of parallel and intersecting lines and dots cut into the thickness of the metal. When printing, they are filled with paint. To do this, the entire board is filled with a swab of paint and then washed with starched gauze. The paint remains only in the recesses. Pressed against the printing plate by the rollers of the metallographic press, the moistened paper accepts the ink from these recesses.
A copper printing plate engraved with a cutter produces about 1000 full impressions, depending on the quality of the copper and the depth of the strokes. To increase circulation, the engraved copper plate can be left galvanoplastic. The steel engraving can withstand several tens of thousands of copies. Sometimes, to increase the circulation, electroplated copies were made from the original printing plate, and printing was done from several identical printing plates.
Dry needle. This engraving technique uses a special needle to apply an image to a copper or zinc plate. Burrs called bards form around the scratched lines. These barbs trap the ink as it is applied to the plate, creating a special effect on the print. Due to the fact that the lines when engraving with a needle are often shallow, and the barbs are wrinkled when the ink is erased and the pressure during printing, the circulation of such engravings is small - only 20-25 prints.
Mezzotint (black style). Unlike other mechanical engraving techniques, which create images through combinations of strokes and dots, mezzotint produces tonal transitions from deep black to white. To do this, the copper plate is first covered entirely with frequent small depressions and burrs. This is done with a special tool called a rocking chair. The rocking chair is a steel plate with a rounded bottom side, on which small teeth are applied. This plate is fixed in the handle, and the entire tool looks like a wide short chisel with an arched blade. By pressing the teeth on the surface of the metal and shaking the tool from side to side, they pass into different directions over the entire surface of the plate until the future printing form is covered with frequent and uniform notches. If you fill such a board with paint, then when printed it will give an even, velvety black tone. Further processing of the board consists of using a smoothing iron (a steel rod with a rounded spoon-shaped end) to smooth out the grain of the board in the light areas of the pattern. Completely ironed areas without roughness will not retain the ink and will appear in the print when printed. white tone, where the grain of the board is slightly smoothed, there will be gray tone, and places not touched by the ironing iron will give a black tone. This creates a tone image.
Boards engraved using the mezzotint method produce only 60-80 full impressions when printed. With further replication, the roughness of the printing form is quickly smoothed out and the image becomes gray, its contrast decreases.
Dotted engraving. This method of engraving consists in the fact that the image is created by a system of dots-indentations applied to a copper plate with punches. This tool is a steel rod with a conical point on one side. The opposite end is blunt and is struck with an engraving hammer. The punch cuts into the surface of the metal and leaves an indentation that produces a black dot when printed. From a combination of such points, sometimes densely located in dark places, sometimes rarely in light ones, an image is obtained.
In addition to punches, tape measures are used in dotted engraving, i.e. various shapes wheels with teeth mounted on the handle. Using these wheels, a whole strip of indented dots is applied. The circulation of dotted engraving is the same as that of incisive engraving, i.e. about 1000 copies.
Etching. Etching techniques are fundamentally different from previous ones. Their essence is that on a metal plate, the surface areas that should become printing elements deepen under the influence of the etching liquid. Gaps are protected from etching with a special acid-resistant varnish. For etching, solutions of various acids and salts are used. Copper, brass, zinc or steel (iron) plates are used in etching.
Needle etching. The technology of this basic type of etching is that a design is scratched on a copper or zinc plate coated with acid-resistant varnish with an etching needle, and thus metal is exposed in the places where the needle passed. After this, the plate is immersed in an etching liquid, usually consisting of a mixture of solutions of nitrogen and hydrochloric acid. When etching in areas not protected by varnish, the metal is corroded by acid and the pattern deepens. The stronger the etching solution and the longer the etching duration, the deeper the lines of the design become. Etching can be done in stages in different areas of the image, obtaining different depths and widths of etching. In the print this will give greater or lesser line thickness. This is achieved by successively covering with varnish those places that should be lighter and sufficiently etched, and then further etching the areas of the image that should be darker. When etching is completed, the board is washed with water, the acid-resistant varnish is removed with gasoline or turpentine, and the board is ready for printing.
From a deep-etched copper board you can get the same circulation as from a chisel engraving, i.e. about 1000 copies. If the etching has thin, shallow lines, then its circulation is only 300-500 full-fledged prints. You can get fewer impressions from zinc boards than from copper boards.
Aquatint. This type of etching makes it possible, like mezzotint, to convey a tonal image. Only the graining of the board here is achieved not mechanically, but by etching. To do this, the surface of the metal plate is covered with a thin layer of very fine rosin or asphalt powder. The board dusted in this way is heated, the powder particles melt and stick to the metal. If such a plate is etched, then the smallest spaces between the rosin dust particles will deepen, and we will get a uniformly grained surface. When printed, this form will give an even tone, the intensity of which will depend on the depth of etching.
To obtain an image, on a board covered, as described above, with tiny hardened droplets of rosin, the areas that should be white are covered with liquid acid-proof varnish. Then the board is etched and again covered with varnish in places that should have a light tone, and again the areas of the board not covered with varnish are etched. By such successive etchings several tones are obtained. With each etching, darker and darker areas of the image are formed. The rosin and varnish are then removed with gasoline and the board is printed in the usual manner.
The circulation of the aquatint printing plate is small - approximately 250-300 copies.
Lavis. This engraving technique, like aquatint, provides a reproduction of the tonal relationships of the image. It is based on the fact that metal, having a heterogeneous, granular structure, when etched, gives a slightly rough surface that retains paint. The whole process consists of applying an etching liquid (usually a 20-30% solution of nitric acid) directly to the surface of the metal plate with a glass fiber brush. The tone of the brush stroke depends on the duration of etching.
Another type of lavis is similar in technique to aquatint. In this case, the same successive cuttings and etchings are performed as in aquatint, but without dusting the board with rosin.
In the print, lavis engraving produces brush strokes that are gentle in tone and light fills.
In modern engraving, lavis is a technique that combines the techniques of aquatint and lavis. An etching liquid is applied to a board covered with rosin dust with a brush, as is done in Lavis.
Lavis can be used as a complement to other etching techniques. There are many varieties of this technique, which are sometimes kept secret by their authors, but their essence is the same - the direct impact of the etching solution on the surface of the future printing form and the use of a brush stroke to create the image. The circulation of Lavis is very small, only 20-30 copies.
Soft varnish, or tear varnish. The surface of the metal plate is coated with a special acid-resistant varnish using a swab or roller, which contains lamb or lard, which gives it softness and stickiness. The board primed in this way is covered with a sheet of paper, preferably with a large texture and not too thick. Draw on paper with a pencil. When you press the pencil, the varnish sticks to the back of the paper. When the drawing is completed, carefully remove the paper and along with it the adhered varnish, thereby exposing the metal in those places where there were pencil strokes. After this, the board is etched. The result is an engraving that conveys the texture of the design on paper.
The circulation of this technique is about 300-500 copies, depending on the texture of the paper and the thickness of the strokes.
Pencil style and dotted line. This technique consists of processing a metal board coated with acid-resistant varnish using tools that puncture the varnish. To do this, use tape measures, bundles of needles, wire brushes and a matuar (a tool with a ball with teeth at the end). All these tools are used to create an image. various groups points. Etching can be done by revealing bright areas in stages. After etching, at the site of varnish punctures, tiny depressions will appear on the metal surface, which in the print will give various combinations of dots that make up the image. If you imitate a pencil mark on a torchon or any other texture of paper in this way, you will have the complete illusion of a pencil or charcoal drawing. Therefore, this type of engraving is called pencil style.
The circulation of boards engraved in this way is small, 250-300 copies.
Reserve. This engraving method involves drawing on the metal surface with a pen or brush using special ink containing sugar and glue dissolved in water. When the drawing is finished, it is covered with an even layer of acid-resistant varnish. Then the board is lowered into the water. Water dissolves the sugar and glue in the ink, and the varnish above the design swells. Careful movements of the cotton swab remove the swollen varnish and thereby expose the metal. In the case of a pen drawing, the board is etched, as in a regular needle etching. When working with a brush, the surface of the exposed metal is dusted with rosin powder and then etched, like aquatint. This technique is characterized by the fact that it directly conveys the artist's work on the board.
There are a number of other techniques for this technique, but fundamentally they boil down to the same thing - the ability to reproduce a direct drawing in a print.
Intaglio engraving on metal appeared in Europe at about the same time as wood engraving, i.e. at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, and is obviously also connected with the advent of paper in Europe. This technique originated in jewelry and weapons workshops. Since ancient times, metal products have been decorated with ornaments or some kind of images, engraved either with a chisel or by etching. From such engravings, impressions were often made onto paper or parchment for the internal use of the masters, as samples for subsequent work and simply out of the desire to preserve successful work for themselves. In museum practice, such prints are called niello.
Metal engraving, in the proper sense of the word, began its development with chisel engraving. The etching appeared later. The first engravings had the same functions as early woodcuts, i.e. for reproducing images of saints or playing cards.
If the woodcut is from the end of the 15th century. served mainly book publishers and was firmly connected with the book, then engraving from the time of its appearance became independent, like an easel engraving.
Early chisel engraving is characterized by a predominance of contour with modeling by thin, straight, small strokes.
In contrast to the anonymity of early woodcuts, engravings are more individual, and if we do not know the early masters by name, their individual handwriting makes it possible to identify individual authors, such as the “Master of Playing Cards”, “Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet” and a number of others.
Engraving Northern Europe in the 15th century was still heavily influenced by the Gothic. The most significant masters of that time can be considered German engravers: masters “E.S.” (worked until 1467) and especially Martin Schongauer (c. 1450-1491), who began to use ordered shading instead of the chaos of lines that preceded it.
In Italy at this time the art of engraving was affected by the influence of ancient culture. Of particular importance for the development of engraving (and not only Italian) were Antonio Palaiuolo (1429-1498) and Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506).
The art of engraving of the 16th century. closely associated with the name of Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). All achievements in this area depended to one degree or another on the genius of Durer. What was new in Dürer’s technique was mainly that the form in his engravings was conveyed by smooth, smoothly curving, ordered strokes, each of which has its own significance and beauty.
In addition to the artists who apprenticed in Dürer's workshop, it is safe to say that the masters of his time in all European countries experienced his influence. In Germany itself, many wonderful masters appeared who worked in the technique of engraving: first of all, A. Altdorfer, G. Aldegrever, G. Z. Beham and his brother B. Beham, G. Penz. These artists are often called Kleinmasters for the predominance of small format in their prints.
At the beginning of the 16th century. etching appeared for the first time. The first, around 1504, to use this method of engraving was obviously the Augsburg master Daniel Heufer (slave 1493-1536). The first dated etching of 1513 belongs to the Swiss artist Urs Graf (circa 1485-1528). Five etchings were also made by Dürer in the period from 1515 to 1518. All etchings of this time were made on iron. In the 16th century this technique did not interest the artists, and things did not go further than a few experiments.
In Italy, it should be noted that Dürer's contemporary Marcantonio Raimondi (circa 1480 - after 1527). This master at the beginning of his work was greatly influenced by Dürer, but technically he developed a purely Italian style of engraving with a small silver stroke. Raimondi worked a lot with compositions by Raphael and other masters High Renaissance. Since then, perhaps, the main purpose of Italian engraving has been the reproduction of paintings and drawings by Italian painters. Soon after Raimondi, the reproduction favure in Italy acquired an artisanal, commercial character, satisfying the demand for reproductions of paintings by great Italian artists.
The need of artists to convey their ideas themselves was satisfied by the possibilities of etching, and therefore in the mid-16th century. This technique is rapidly developing in Italy.
One of the first artists at this time to use etching was Francesco Mazzola (Parmigianino, 1503-1540). His free, seemingly fluent drawings with an etching needle attracted the attention of many other artists. Let's name here F. Primaticcio, P. Farinatti, J. Palma the Younger.
The successes of etching introduced a life-giving current into the reproduction of handicraft chisel favure. But the real revolution in this area was made by the Carracci brothers, especially Agostino Carracci (1557-1602), who again raised the Italian reproduction favure to a height worthy of Marcantonio Raimondi.
In the Netherlands in the first third of the 16th century. the largest master worked Northern Renaissance Luke of Leiden (1489 or 1494-1533). Not avoiding the influence of Dürer at the beginning of his creative career, he introduced into the northern favure the achievements characteristic of Raimondi’s approach.
Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617) was truly virtuoso in his chisel favures. In his works, the remnants of the Gothic influence have already been completely overcome and the forms of antiquity dominate. Goltzius paints with energetic lines, with strong thickenings, laid out according to the form. Goltzius left numerous students and followers, such as J. Müller, J. Matam, J. Sanredam, J. de Gein.
If in the 16th century. Germany and partly Italy can be considered the center of the art of engraving, from which the life-giving influence of ancient culture spread, then in the 17th century. this center certainly moved to the Netherlands, or more precisely, to Flanders and Holland, which had been divided by this time. In these countries, the development of engraving followed different paths. In Flanders, mainly reproduction engravings developed.
Great Flemish artist Rubens himself was not directly involved in engraving. Although, perhaps, he owned several engravings, which were rather experiments to familiarize himself with the material. However, few artists can be named who had such great importance for the development of engraving.
Rubens created a workshop of the best chisel engravers of that time to reproduce his works and the works of his students: Van Dyck, Snyders, Jordaens. Rubens not only gave subjects for engravings, but also directed creative process creating engravings.
Among the engravers of his workshop, we should name, first of all, L. Worstermann (1595-1667), P. Pontius (1603-1658), the brothers Boethius Bolsvert (1580-1633) and Schelte Adams Bolsvert (1586-1659), P. de Jode the Younger ( 1606-1674).
In the field of etching, the best that was created in 17th-century Flanders were several portraits made by Van Dyck for his “iconography,” a collection of portraits of his contemporaries. He gave most of them to other masters to finish engraving with a chisel. Only a small number of prints made before publication have survived, but four sheets were published without changes.
In Holland 17th century. main role played the author's etching. And here, exceptional importance belongs to the etchings of Rembrandt (1606-1669). He developed his own technique and a special approach to engraving, achieving amazingly rich tonal transitions from deep shadows to bright light. Rembrandt used drypoint in his work along with etching, and in last period creativity, dry point in his engravings became predominant.
In addition to Rembrandt, in Holland many painters work in etching. As in painting, they specialize in certain genres. Thus, landscape etchings are made by J. Ruisdael (1628/29-1682), G. Svaneveld (1620-1655), A. Waterloo (about 1610-1690), A. van Everdingen (1621-1675), genre etchings by A. van Ostade (1610-1685), K. Bega (1620-1664), animalistic - N. Berchem (1620-1683), C. Dujardin (1622-1678), A. van de Velde (1635-1672), P. Potter (1625-1654) and many others.
In France in the 17th century. the largest master of etching, Jean-Jacques Callot (1592/93-1635), worked. Callot is famous for his somewhat photesque favures of small format, although he also had many large favures. He was obviously the first to use step-by-step etching in etching, revealing lighter areas. Sometimes Callot used a chisel along with etching, achieving a unique effect by combining a free line of etching with energetic straight strokes with a chisel.
The incisal portrait favure is of particular importance in France.
A great virtuoso in this area was Klodt Mellan (1598-1688). He achieved amazing results by modeling tonal transitions only with line thickness. He, obviously, for the sake of a kind of panache, performed the favure of “The Clothes of Saint Veronica.” The head of Christ in this favure is depicted as one continuous spiral line, starting at the tip of the nose and running across the entire image at an equal distance, and only by changing the thickness of the line is the relief of the face created.
The portraits of Robert Nanteuil (1623-1678) and Gerard Edelink (1640-1707) made with a chisel are very famous.
It must be said that in the 17th century. In all European countries, metal engraving is being introduced into books and is replacing illustrations that were previously made with woodcuts.
In the 17th century The mezzotint technique was invented by a German by nationality, Ludwig Siegen (1609 -1680?), who lived in Amsterdam. His first dated engraving in this technique is dated 1643. The Dutch engraver Abraham Blotelling (1634-1687) improved this technique by using rocking board graining.
Mezzotint received special recognition in England. Here the leading master in this
area was John Smith (1652-1742). But mezzotint reached its peak in England in the 18th century.
In the 18th century intaglio engraving on metal received its highest development in France. Here, along with the continuing development of engraving, a very distinctive style of etching emerged by artists who were more or less influenced by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), who himself made several etchings. Particularly notable among them is François Boucher (1703-1770), who made about 180 engravings of his own and based on Watteau’s drawings.
An exceptional place in the history of engraving is occupied by the French book illustration. It was usually performed by combining etching with a chisel. Draftsmen mostly were formerly engravers themselves and therefore had a good feel for the engraving material. Thanks to this, a unique community of illustrators and engravers was created.
Need for more modern technology for reproducing tone led to the invention of lavis and aquatint in France. They were apparently first used in 1765 by Jean-Baptiste Leprince (1733-1781), who made many engravings on Russian themes.
At the same time, such techniques as soft varnish (invented back in the 17th century by the German Dietrich Meyer, 1572-1658), the pencil style, which was successfully used by Gilles Dematro (1722-1776), and the dotted line, developed in England by Francesco Bartolozzi, began to be widely used (1727-1815).
All these techniques, together with aquatint and mezzotint, were used in the art that became popular in the second half of the 18th century. color engraving. Color engravings reproduced paintings, pastels and color drawings, mainly by artists from Watteau's circle. Many artists made drawings with multicolor engraving in mind. To print color engravings, several printing plates were made for each color separately. Then the image was printed sequentially onto one sheet of paper with the exact alignment of all the details of the picture. Color printing was used and from one form on which paints were applied different colors. These two printing methods were often combined. Touching up prints by hand was also practiced.
The inventor of multi-board color printing was Jean-Christophe Leblond (1667-1741). He based his method on Newton's law of color mixing and printed his engravings from three boards for the three primary colors - red, yellow and blue. By mixing these three colors when printing on a print, all other colors were obtained. Leblond used the mezzotint technique for his engravings.
Aquatint was first used in color engraving by Jean-François Janinet (1752-1814). For this purpose, Gilles Dematro began to use the pencil style to reproduce drawings with colored pencil.
In Italy 18th century. It is necessary to note the artists Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) and Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768) who worked in etching. Despite the difference in plots, they are related general approach in modeling the tone with small, uneven, but almost without intersections lines.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) devoted his work exclusively to architectural subjects. He engraves with parallel strokes following the form, vigorously thickening in the shadows. Piranesi also used a chisel in his etchings.
Francisco Goya (1746-1828) worked in Spain, creating his famous series of etchings, mostly using aquatint.
Need in the 19th century. in large quantities brought to life steel engraving. It was used exclusively for reproductive purposes. The author's engraving, mainly etching with all its varieties, has become, on the contrary, of limited circulation. Artists and publishers sought to increase the rarity of the sheets, which were most often intended for collectors.
In Russia, copper engraving appeared in the second half of the 17th century. The beginning of this art is associated with the name of Simon Ushakov (1626-1686). Two etchings signed by him are known. The most skilled engraver with a 17th century chisel. there was Afanasy Trukhmensky, who made many engravings based on Ushakov’s drawings. In 1693, the famous primer of Karion Istomin, engraved by Leonty Bunin (slave 1692-1714), was published.
It must be admitted that metal engraving in Russia until the beginning of the 19th century. was provincial in relation to the European one, although there were talented masters who were of great importance for the development of national engraving. The best of them were Alexey Zubov (1682/83-1751), Mikhail Makhaev (1716-1770), Ivan Sokolov (1717-1757), Evgraf Chemesov (1737-1765), Gavriil Skorodumov (1755-1792).
The largest master of engraving in Russia in the 19th century. was Nikolai Utkin (1780-1863). He became famous mainly for his portrait sheets.
The Czech brothers Ivan (1777-1848) and Kozma (1776-1813) are famous for their landscapes.
Fyodor Tolstoy (1783-1873) created 63 engravings in sketch style for Bogdanovich’s poem “Darling”.
The last significant master of engraving was Ivan Pozhalostin (1837-1909). He is known mainly for his portraits of Russian writers and other figures of national culture.
Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) proved himself to be a remarkable etcher.
The growing interest in etching among artists led to the formation of the “Society of Aquafortists” in St. Petersburg in 1871, which played big role in the development of Russian etching. Its organizer and inspirer was Andrei Somov (1830-1908). Many Peredvizhniki artists joined the Society, but Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898) worked especially hard and fruitfully. He made more than a hundred etchings.
In the 90s 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. art center the art of engraving became a workshop Vasily Mate(1856-1917). He created about 300 etchings, mostly portraits. Mate did a lot for the development and promotion of the art of engraving. Many artists used his advice, consultations and direct help, including I. Repin, V. Serov, B. Kustodiev, K. Somov, E. Lanceray, L. Bakst and others. Several dozen students studied with him, among whom it is necessary to name V. Falileev, M. Rundaltsev, P. Shillingovsky. IN Soviet era the art of etching continued to remain high level. In addition to the artists of the Mate school, such artists as E. Kruglikova, I. Nivinsky, M. Dobrov, A. Skvortsov, N. Pavlov made their contribution. This art form remains popular to this day.
Unlike woodcut printing, in which the “printing” design is raised, the design on a metal board consists of recessed strokes, either cut with a chisel or etched with acids. Therefore, this kind of engraving is called “in-depth”.
There are several types of metal engraving.
1. CARVING ENGRAVING
The earliest type of metal engraving, invented in the mid-15th century, was the so-called chisel engraving. The design in it was scratched or cut out with deep lines on a copper board using special cutters - gravers. Sharp protrusions that formed along the edges of the cut grooves were cleaned off with a smoothing iron. After this, the board was ready for printing. The paint was applied to the entire board in such a way that it would fit tightly into the grooves, into the deep strokes of the design. Then the board was wiped dry, and the paint remained only in its recessed parts. By pressing wet paper under strong pressure against such a board, which absorbed the paint, an impression was made on it.
The absence of fiber, which made it difficult to work on a wooden engraving, made it possible to make strokes in any direction and of any thickness in a metal engraving. The grid of strokes itself could be as dense as desired. Therefore, despite the labor-intensive nature of this technique, it opened up immeasurably greater possibilities in conveying volumes, light and shade, and perspective compared to wood-edged engraving. And this was one of those conquests that the fine art of the so-called Renaissance strove for.
The greatest master of reproduction engraving on copper was the Italian Marcantonio Raimondi. In his engravings he reproduced paintings by great Italian artists - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, as well as other painters.
However, very soon engraving ceased to be just a means of reproducing painting and acquired the character of an independent art form.
The first great artist who devoted most of his work to the art of engraving was Albrecht Durer (1471-- 1528).
He lived in an era when a widespread movement began in Germany masses, which required art to intervene more actively in public life.
The invention and development of printing contributed to the implementation of this task. Artists now have the opportunity to access more wide circles people.
In his works, Dürer, while preserving traditional religious and allegorical plots, figuratively embodies the phenomena of the reality around him. So, for example, in the engraving “Rest on the Flight to Egypt”, using the Gospel legend, Durer depicts a contemporary German village. Mary and Joseph look like simple peasants, resting among the typical German well-known to the artist rural landscape with houses under a high” pointed roof, with a fence made of poles. The whole scene is filled with great lyrical warmth, which is greatly facilitated by the subtle transmission of light, softly enveloping all objects. This engraving is made on wood. But Dürer here significantly enriches the technique of cut engraving. Not limited to just one contour lines, he complements them here and there with subtle shading, creating the illusion of chiaroscuro. Thanks to this, places left clean are perceived not just as a white sheet surface, but as a transparent and light air environment.
Dürer in his art relies on the unreal properties of nature. He studies anatomy and tries to derive mathematically accurate, perfect proportions human body; studies perspective, which helps to depict space and volume with scientific accuracy. Although he was a painter, he worked especially hard as an engraver. He owns the most perfect of woodcut engravings, but his best creations belong to the field of metal engraving. Such are his unrivaled performances of “Saint Jerome” (Appendix 6), “Knight, Death and the Devil” and “Melancholy”.
In the engraving "Saint Jerome" Durer again uses biblical image. But instead of the saint traditionally depicted in the desert, Durer's Hieronymus is a wise and calm old man who sits in a room full of many living details characteristic of a 16th-century German house. However, instead of reading scripture The old man is engaged... in engraving. This work is a wonderful example of the use of all the possibilities of engraving. Here, not only are all objects accurately outlined and executed in volume, but also the warm sunlight (precisely solar!) light flowing through the windows into the room is conveyed with great conviction.
In the engravings “Knight, Death and the Devil” and “Melancholy” the artist speaks a completely different language. During the turbulent period of the beginning of the Reformation, the knightly uprisings and the approach of the Peasants' War of 1525, Dürer seemed to express his thoughts about the fate of Germany in a complex allegorical, sometimes encrypted form.
Chisel engraving is technically very labor-intensive. It requires a lot of work on the board, but it gives especially great accuracy and clarity in conveying the space and volume of objects. Therefore, it is no coincidence that engraving reached its greatest flourishing precisely during the Renaissance, when art was faced with the task of cognition and reflection. real world, when in painting the desire for clear and precise forms, completeness and definiteness of composition and drawing dominated.
Later, starting from XVII century, engraving is increasingly turning into just a means of painting reproduction.
In the 18th century, it was especially successful as an illustration in scientific and art books and albums. In Russia, engraving appeared at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries under Peter I as a technique for creating geographical maps, drawings in scientific books, large sheets with images of battles on land and sea, festivals and portraits. Its recognized masters at that time were the brothers Alexey and Ivan Zubov.
Later, in the 18th century, Russian art nominated remarkable engravers-portraits E. Chemesov and G. Skorodumov. They sought to emphasize the features of a living person, to introduce psychologism, liveliness and simplicity of the image into the portrait. Therefore, their work broke out of the narrow framework of official portraits. This is especially true for the engravings and etchings of E. Chemesov, which are also distinguished by their rare skill and variety of strokes. “Self-portrait” (Appendix 7) is one of best works Chemesova.
