Stipple engraving

Giulio Campagnola, The Astrologer, c. 1509, with areas such as the dark foreground, the man's bald head, and the tree trunks created by a burin stippling technique.
An example of the mastery of coloured stipple engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815) "Cupid Binding Aglaia to a Laurel", detail, after Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807)

Stipple engraving is a technique used to create tone in an intaglio print by distributing a pattern of dots of various sizes and densities across the image. The pattern is created on the printing plate either in engraving by gouging out the dots with a burin, or through an etching process.[1] Stippling was used as an adjunct to conventional line engraving and etching for over two centuries, before being developed as a distinct technique in the mid-18th century.[2]

The technique allows for subtle tonal variations and is especially suitable for reproducing chalk drawings.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference pankow was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference salaman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Verhoogt, Robert (2007). Art in Reproduction: Nineteenth-Century Prints after Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Jozef Israels and Ary Scheffer. Amsterdam University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-90-5356-913-9.