38 



Processes and Schools of Engraving. 



where he wishes to obtain his lighter portions, and if he desires a high 

 light he will polish the surface of the plate with a mezzotint burnisher 

 (fig. 12), so that no ink at all can be retained. 



The scraping is so important a feature in the process that a mezzotint 

 is often described as scraped rather than engraved. And one of the 

 German terms for the process is Scliahkimst (i.e. the scraping-art). 



As the true quality of mezzotint, like that of dry-point, depends 

 largely on the delicate hitrr, it follows that as few rich impressions can 

 be obtained from a mezzotint as from a dry-point. 



Some of the earlier mezzotinters seem to have grounded their plate 

 by means of a toothed wheel, which was called the engine, a large form 

 of the roulette genus (see below, fig. 13), and to have worked in the 

 positive, not the negative manner (i.e. obtaining their grain on the 

 plate only where they wished their blacks, not completely grounding 

 the plate and scraping away the whites). The sweeping curves seen on 

 Prince Kupert's Great Executioner may have been obtained by attaching 

 the engine to the end of a pole and moving it in curves on a pivot. 



History. 



The art was discovered by Ludwig von Siegen (Utrecht, Cassel, 

 Amsterdam, Eatisbon, Mayence, etc. ; 1609-after 1676), an amateur who 

 for some time was in the service of the Landgravine Amelia Elizabeth 

 of Hesse, whose portrait is the earliest dated mezzotint (1642). He was 

 followed by a far more distinguished amateur. Prince Rupert (1619-82), 

 who dated his plates between 1657-59. His large plate of the Great 

 Executioner (after a picture by Eibera, at Munich) is one of the most 

 striking of all mezzotints, executed in a most vigorous manner, with 

 sweeping curves in its grain. In spite of the seeming complexity of 

 mezzotint, amateurs are often extremely successful in the process, 

 avoiding the smaller and more perfect grain which tempts the professional 

 to dulness. 



Among the earliest exponents of the art were T. C. von Fiirstenburg, 

 an amateur and ecclesiastic (Mayence; 1615-75), Jan Thomas (Ypres, 

 Antwerp, Italy, Germany, Vienna; 1617-73), Wallerant Vaillant 

 (Lille, Middelburg, Antwerp, Paris, Amsterdam; 1623-77), Bernard 

 Vaillant (Lille, Eotterdam ; 1625-74), Gerard Valck (Amsterdam, 

 England; 1626-1720), Abraham Blooteling (Amsterdam, England; 

 1640-90), Jan van Somer (Amsterdam; 1641-1724 ?), Paul van Somer 

 (Amsterdam, Paris, London; about 1649-94), Louis Bernard (Paris; 

 worked about 1680-1700), Jan Verkolje (Delft, Amsterdam ; 1650-93), 

 Nicolaas Verkolje (Delft, Amsterdam; 1673-1746), and Cornelis 

 Dusart (Haarlem; 1660-1704). 



It will be seen that several of these foreign artists worked in England, 

 and by the end of the XVIIth centm-y mezzotint had become so popular 

 in England that it was soon generally known as la Maniere Anglaise, 

 and justified its title by a record which gives by far the greatest honours 

 in the art, apart from its discovery, to English masters. 



From the first it was largely used for the reproduction of painting, 

 for which its tonal quality was so perfectly adapted. In the earlier 

 period of English mezzotint (the period of Lely, Kneller, and then 

 followers in the early XVIIIth century), the most interesting masters are : 



William Sherwin. Worked about 1669-1714. 



Francis Place. York, London. 1647-1728. 



