ENGRAVING. – Properly speaking, it is the art of incising figures, ornaments, etc., upon any surface. It may therefore be an end in itself, as in glyptics, inlaying, niello-work, and in this sense it is very ancient (one need only think of the rock engravings of cave-dwellers); but it may also serve to obtain a matrix from which copies of the incised images may be taken. Even in ancient times matrices were engraved for printing on leather or cloth, as well as punches for coinage. Today, however, when one speaks of engraving, one generally refers to the process that allows engraved signs on a matrix to be reproduced on paper by printing. This process has been exploited mechanically in relatively recent times (see PHOTOMECHANICAL ARTS). Here, instead, we shall deal with the various kinds of engraving produced directly by the artist’s hand.
There are two fundamental techniques: engraving on wood and engraving on metal; to these may be added lithography (see LITHOGRAPHY), invented at the end of the 18th century. Engraving on wood is called woodcut, and its characteristic is that the design, which is raised on the matrix, prints on the paper as an incised sign, unlike engraving on metal (generally on copper, and therefore also called copperplate engraving), which, being intaglio, will yield printed copies with a raised sign, since the paper is strongly compressed into the hollows of the plate under the press (see ETCHING). For engraving a composition on metal, moreover, different processes may be used. If acids are not used to incise the plate, one has engraving with burin, drypoint, mezzotint or “black manner”; if acids are used, one has etching, aquatint, stipple engraving, and soft-ground etching.
Engraving with burin is that obtained by incising the plate with the tool called a burin (see BURIN). The grooves of the engraving are filled with ink, while care is taken to clean the rest of the plate. When the plate is covered with a sheet of special damp paper, and this in turn with a felt blanket, it is passed through the copperplate press, made of two cylinders like a common rolling mill: once the operation is complete, the ink collected in the incised lines is printed onto the paper, while the paper remains white in the areas untouched by the engraving. To this type of engraving may also be related drypoint (see DRYPOINT), obtained by working the metal with a needle instead of a burin. In the mezzotint or “black manner,” instead, the entire plate is prepared in advance by roughening it so that, if printed, it would yield a uniformly black surface; the work of engraving will therefore consist in removing the roughening with special scrapers where highlights are to appear. Indeed, plates engraved with this process were used especially in the past for reproductions of paintings with dark backgrounds, for which they are eminently suited, even though they have the drawback of not allowing very large print runs.
From etching (see ETCHING) derive aquatint (see AQUATINT) and soft-ground etching, so called because the normal etching ground is made softer by the addition of tallow, which, after biting, yields a characteristic sign like that of a crayon. All these processes may also be used together in engraving a single plate, and one thus has, for example, plates etched or engraved with burin and reworked with drypoint or stipple. The latter process is that of the so-called stipple engraving, in which the designs are executed with dots rather than lines. Engraving may also be in colour, and in this case four matrices are generally used, one for black and one for each of the primary colours.
(Photo Library, National Gallery)
ENGRAVING – St. Jerome in Contemplation before the Crucifixion, anonymous Florentine of the 15th century (burin) – Florence, Uffizi Gallery.
Engraving of essential goods for the purpose of profit is condemned by morality. It violates not only the law of charity, which obliges each person to love others as oneself, but also the law of social justice, which obliges each person to contribute to the common good to the extent of their ability. A less severe judgment seems to be required for engraving of luxury goods or for engraving for “personal or family cover.” In these cases, indeed, there is no harm to others and no manifestation of selfishness such as is observed in the first case.