Intaglio vs Mezzotint

凹版印刷 / メゾチント

Both sit in Intaglio Printing, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Intaglio

Intaglio — デューラー『メレンコリアI』1514 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainIntaglio — ゴルツィウス『ファルネーゼのヘラクレス』1592頃 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainIntaglio — 『メレンコリアI』メトロポリタン美術館所蔵版 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

Ink is left in lines and hollows cut below the surface of a metal plate, and heavy pressure drives damp paper into them, picking up precise lines and the trace of the plate's edge. How the plate is lowered gives each technique its name, so a plate bitten with acid is an etching and a plate roughened then burnished is a mezzotint.

Mezzotint

Mezzotint — ジョン・マーティンのメゾチント — Wikimedia Commons / CC0Mezzotint — S・W・レノルズのメゾチント — Wikimedia Commons / CC0Mezzotint — ジョシュア・レノルズ肖像のメゾチント — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The whole plate is roughened to hold a deep black, then burnished back to raise the lights, so that the image emerges from soft velvet darkness instead of from lines.

IntaglioMezzotint
Era15th century–1640s–
FamilyIntaglio PrintingIntaglio Printing
KindTechniqueTechnique
CuesSunken lines / Plate marks / Damp paper / High-pressure pressVelvet blacks / From dark to light / Soft gradation / Burnished light
Best used forPrecise line work meant to resist copying, as on certificates and securities · Small editions and cards where the relief in the paper is part of the objectPortraits and still lifes where the subject emerges out of deep darkness · Frontispieces and covers built around night and a single light source
TypeDesign letters at a weight that can be cut, avoiding sizes that fill inKeep lettering out of the shadows and small on the burnished side
CompositionTreat the plate mark as the frame and leave wide margins beyond itDecide where light falls first and give darkness most of the plate
MaterialCopper or zinc, damp heavy paper, and enough press pressure to embossRock the whole plate, burnish back the lights, watch black fade across the edition
CautionDistinguish how engraving, biting, burr and roughened ground change line quality and tone. Treating margin and pressure casually gives a flat print where the paper never rises around the lines.Opening too many lights starves the deep black the method depends on, so treat this as raising light out of a roughened plate rather than as a black gradient effect.

Put these two together

Intaglio Printing

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