Engraving

Engraving is the art or process of cutting images into a hard, flat surface such as metal, wood, stone, or glass. The traditional process of engraving uses a sharp tool called a burin to cut designs into a surface. Researchers believe engraving was adapted from the art of metalworking, particularly goldsmithing. Engraving dates back to the early fifteenth century, when noted engravers such as Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer first mastered the process. By the seventeenth century, the art of engraving lost its favor to easier cutting techniques such as etching. Engraving eventually became used primarily for commercial purposes, such as the replication of book and magazine illustrations or as a means of producing image duplicates, though these too would eventually be replaced by more modern methods, including etching and photography. The process of engraving is still used in modern life, and techniques have since evolved to incorporate technologies such as lasers and photography. Although engraving lost its artistic prominence in contemporary life, the process remains in use in various commercial industries, such as jewelry design and letterpress printing.

Background

The practice of engraving dates back about 500,000 years. In 2014, archaeologists discovered chiseled shells in Indonesia that were between 430,000 and 530,000 years old. The shells had geometric patterns resembling zigzags cut into their interior. Scientists also discovered a sharpened tool nearby that they believed was used to create the engravings. Examples of ancient engravings had previously been found in various regions of the world, but engraving as an art form was not established until hundreds of thousands of years after these objects became fossilized.

Prior to its inclusion in the art world, engraving was primarily used in jewelry making. Engraved jewelry was common in antiquity, with designs often found on gold pieces and gems. Engraving was not developed as an art form until the early fifteenth century. The process was pioneered by artists such as Germany's Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer, the Netherlands' Lucas van Leyden, and Italy's Andrea Mantegna. Schongauer and Dürer's fathers were goldsmiths, which scholars believe influenced the artists' penchant for engravings. The earliest known engravings were created in 1430s Germany, but the technique did not flourish until later that century when engravers became more ambitious. By the 1470s, engravings began to rival large-scale paintings. Schongauer is considered the first true master of engraving and is credited with raising the technique to a significant art form. Schongauer's works provided much more detail than usual engravings, with the artist using a variety of strokes and shading methods to give greater depth to an image. Mantegna further advanced image depth by developing a technique that gave his engravings a three-dimensional appearance.

Engraving techniques continued to improve over the next several decades. By the sixteenth century, Dürer's engravings had reached a level of unparalleled detail among engravers. Many art critics consider Dürer the greatest engraver in history, though some also credit van Leyden with helping to refine the methods for detail. Techniques developed by emerging Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimondi also began to influence the art form around this time. Raimondi's use of unbroken, equidistant parallel lines gave his figures a sculpted appearance. Flemish engraver Cornelis Cort further perfected this method by developing a type of line that grew thicker and thinner along its length, giving an image depth and shading without needing to cut more lines. Cort's engravings were praised for their coloring effects. His tapering line technique was later taken to new heights by Dutch engraver Hendrick Goltzius, who pioneered the method known as "dot and lozenge," which laid crossing lines to create diamond-like shapes in engravings, giving the image's color better tonal shading.

Goltzius is considered the last of the great masters of engraving. Engraving would take on a more commercial purpose in subsequent centuries. Seventeenth-century engravers primarily reproduced the artwork of other artists. Demand for reproductive prints greatly increased in the eighteenth century. By this time, engraving was also being used to print illustrations in books and other print materials and in mapmaking. Musicians utilized engraving to print music on metal plates, which could then be used to reproduce music sheets. The tedious technique of engraving was inevitably replaced by more modern, easier methods of image reproduction, such as etching and photography.

Engraving Today

Although a few artists of the twentieth century revived the age-old technique of engraving by hand for non-reproductive printmaking, the art form never again experienced the reputation it once held. Modern usage of engraving extended primarily to industries such as jewelry making and printing. By the latter half of the twentieth century, mass-production machinery could produce precise engravings in bulk, eliminating the need for hand-cutting techniques. With the advent of new technology, such as high-speed printing presses, engraving became a major component of the printing industry.

New engraving processes also started to emerge in the contemporary world. Photoengraving—a photochemical process for producing items such as letterpress printing plates—uses light-sensitive material to form a patterned varnish on a surface, shielding the parts of the surface that an engraver does not want cut. Photoengraving utilizes chemicals such as acid to burn away bits of a surface, creating an engraving. Many modern engravings are created with the use of lasers, high-powered beams of light that produce excessive heat. Lasers are capable of burning designs into a surface. Laser engraving is a very versatile method of engraving surfaces and is commonly used in the electronics industry due to its high precision. An additional modern method of engraving, computer numerical control (CNC) engraving, uses a computerized method that makes it applicable to the mass production of items. Engraving continues to be used in manufacturing through items such as serial numbers or industrial signage. Individuals use engraving to personalize and customize items such as jewelry, watches, smartphones, and promotional items. Engraving is used on medical devices and electronics, as well as in art and ensign. Modern engraving has become an automated process focused on mass production, incorporating technology such as design through software and three-dimensional printing techniques.

Bibliography

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