MEZZOTINTO, a particular manner of representing figures on copper, so as to form prints in imitation of painting in Indian ink. See Engraving.

The invention of this art has usually been attributed to Prince Rupert. But Baron Heinikin, a judicious and accurate writer upon the subject of engraving, asserts, with great appearance of truth, that it was a Lieutenant-colonel de Siegan, an officer in the service of the landgrave of Flesse, w ho first engraved in this manner; and that the print which he produced was a portrait of the Princess Amelia Elizabeth of Hesse, engraved in the year 1643. Prince Rupert learned the secret from this gentleman, and brought it into England when he came over the second time with Charles II. Prince Rupert’s print of an executioner holding a sword in one hand and a head in the other, a half length, from Spagnoletto, is dated 1658. This art has never been cultivated with success in any country but England.

The prince laid his grounds upon the plate with a channelled roller; but, about the same time, one Sherwin laid his grounds with a half-round file, which was pressed down with a heavy piece of lead. Both these grounding tools have for many years been laid aside; and a hand tool, resembling a shoemaker’s cutting-board knife, with a fine cre-nelling on the edge, was introduced by one Edial, a smith by trade, who afterwards became a mezzotinto engraver.

Mezzotinto is very different from the common way of engraving. To perform it, the surface of the plate is raked, hatched, or punched all over with a knife, or instrument made for the purpose, first one way, and then the other, until the surface of the plate is entirely furrow ed with lines or furrows, close and as it were contiguous to each other; so that, if an impression were then taken from it, it would be one uniform blot or smut. This being done, the design is drawn or marked on the same face; after which, the artists proceed with burnishers, scrapers, and other tools, to expunge and take out the dents or furrows in all parts where the lights of the piece are designed to be; and that more or less as the lights are to be stronger or fainter, leaving those parts black which are to represent the shadows or deepenings of the draught.

As it is much easier to scrape or burnish away parts of a dark ground corresponding with the outline of any design sketched upon it, than to form shades upon a light ground by an infinite number of hatches, strokes, and points, which must all terminate with exactness on the outline, as well as differ in their force and manner, the method of scraping, as it is called, in mezzotinto, becomes much more easy and expeditious than any other method of engraving. The instruments employed in this kind of engraving are, cradles, scrapers, and burnishers.

In this engraving, the plate must be prepared and polished in the same manner as for other engravings, and afterwards divided equally by lines parallel to each other, and traced out with very soft chalk. The distance of these lines should be about one third of the length of the face of the cradle which is to be used, and these lines should be marked with capital letters, or strokes of the chalk. The cradle is then to be placed exactly between the first two lines, and passed forwards in the same direction, being kept as steady as possible, and pressed upon with a mode [7:15:3]rate force. The same operation must be repeated with respect to all other lines, till the instrument has thus passed 'over the whole surface of the plate. From the extremities of the other two sides, other lines must then be drawn, which, intersecting the first at right angles, will with them form squares; and the same operation must be repeated with the cradle as in the case of the first. New lines must then be drawn diagonally, and the cradle passed between them as before; and when the first diagonal operation is performed, the lines must be crossed at right angles, like the former, and the cradles passed between them in the same manner. The plates having undergone the action of the cradle according to the disposition of the first order of lines, a second set must be formed, having the same distances from each other as the first. But they must be so placed as to divide those already made into spaces one third less than their whole extent; that is, every one after the first on each side will take in one third of that before it. These lines of the second order must be marked with small letters, or lesser strokes, to distinguish them from the first; and the same treatment of the plate must be pursued with respect to them as was practised for the others. When this second operation is finished, a third order of lines must be made. By these means, the original spaces will be exactly divided into equal thirds; and the cradle must be again employed between those lines, as before. When the whole of this operation is finished, it is called one turn; but in order to produce a very dark and uniform ground, the plate must undergo the repetition of all these several operations for above twenty times, beginning to pass the cradle again between the first lines, and proceeding in the same manner through all the rest. When the plate is prepared with a proper ground, the sketch must be chalked on it, by rubbing the paper on the back with chalk; and it is also proper to overtrace it afterwards with black lead or Indian ink. The scraping is then performed by paring or cutting away the grain of the ground in various degrees, so that none of it is left in the original state, except in the touches of the strongest shade. The general manner of proceeding is the same as drawing with white upon black paper. The masses of light are first commenced; then those parts which go off into light in their upper part, but are brown below. The reflections are next entered upon, after which the plate is blackened with a printer’s blacking ball made of felt, in order to discover the effect, and then the work is proceeded with, observing always to begin every part in the places where the strongest lights are to be.

The art of scraping mezzotintos has been applied to that of printing with a variety of colours, in order to produce the resemblance of paintings. The inventor of the method of doing this was Le Blon, a native of Frankfort, and pupil of Carlo Marata, between the years 1720 and 1730. It was established by the inventor upon this principle, that there are three primitive colours, of which all the rest may be composed by mixing them in various proportions; that any two of these colours being mixed together, preserve their original power, and only produce a third colour such as their compound must necessarily give, but if transparent colours be mixed, and three primitive kinds compounded together, they destroy each other, and produce black, or a tendency to it, in proportion to the equality or inequality of the mixture; and that if the three primitive colours be laid, either separately or upon each other, by three plates, engraved correspondent!y on these principles to the colouring of the design, the whole variety of tints necessary may be produced. The requisites, therefore, to the execution of any design in this method of printing are the following: 1. To settle a plan of the colouring to be imitated, showing where the presence of each of the three simple colours is necessary, either in its pure state or combined with some other, to produce the effect required, and to reduce this plan to a painted sketch of each, in which not only the proper outlines, but the degree of strength, shall be expressed; 2. to engrave three plates according to this plan, which may print each of the colours exactly in the places where, and the proportion in which, they are wanted; 3. to find three transparent substances proper for printing with these three primitive colours. The manner in which Μ. le Bion prepared the plates may be briefly stated. The three plates of copper were first well fitted to each other with respect to size and figure, and grounded in the same manner as those designed for mezzotinto prints; and the exact place and boundary of each of the three primitive colours, conformably to the design, were sketched out upon three papers answering in dimensions to the plate. These sketches were then chalked upon the plates; and all the parts of each plate which were not to convey the colour to which it was appropriated to the print were entirely scraped away, as in forming the light of mezzotinto prints. The parts which were to convey the colours were then worked upon; and where the lightest or most diluted tints of the colour were to be, the grain in the ground was proportionally taken off; but where the full colour was required, it was left entire. In this, regard was had not only to the effects of the colour in its simple state, but also to its combined operation, either in producing orange-colour, green, or purple, by its admixture with one alone; and further, to its forming brown, gray, and shades of different degrees, by its co-operation with both the others. But though the greater part of the engraving was performed in the mezzotinto manner, yet the graver was employed occasionally for strengthening the shades, and for correcting the outline where it required great accuracy and steadiness. It was found necessary sometimes to have two separate plates for printing the same colour, in order to produce a stronger effect; but the second plate, which was used to print upon the first, was intended only to glaze and soften the colours in particular parts which might require it. As to the black and brown tints, which could not be so conveniently produced in a due degree by the mixture of the colours, umber and black were likewise used.

With respect to the order in which the plates are to be applied, it may be proper to observe, that the colour which is least apparent in the picture should be laid on first; that which is between the most and least apparent next; and that which predominates last of all; except where there may be occasion for two plates for the same colour, as was before mentioned, or where there is any required for adding browns and shades.

Μ. le Blon applied this art to portraits, and showed, by the specimens he produced, the possibility of its being brought, by further improvements, to afford imitations of painting which might have some value. It is, nevertheless, much better adapted to the simpler subjects, where there are fewer intermixtures of colours, and where the accuracy of the reflections and demi-tints are not so essentially necessary to the truth of the design, from the greater latitude of form and disposition of the colour, as in plants, anatomical figures, and some subjects of architecture. But perhaps plates engraved, or rather finished, with the tool, particularly with respect to the outline, would be better accommodated in some of these cases than those prepared only by scraping. , .

Μ. Cochin remarks, at the end of an account he has given of Μ. le Blon’s manner, that although this ingenious artist confined his method principally to the use of three colours, yet, should this invention be again taken up and cultivated, there would be more probability of success in using a greater variety; and that several different kinds might be printed by one plate, provided they were laid on in their respectively proper places by printing-balls, which should [7:15:4] be used for that colour only. His hint might, however, be very greatly improved by the further assistance of pencils, accommodated to the plates, for laying on the colours in the proper parts.