Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A method of engraving a copper or steel plate by scraping and burnishing areas to produce effects of light and shadow.
- n. A print made from a plate engraved by mezzotint.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A method of engraving on copper or steel of which the essential feature is the burnishing and scraping away, to a variable extent, of a uniformly roughened surface consisting of minute incisions, accompanied by a bur, produced by an instrument called a cradle or rocker. This surface is left nearly undisturbed in the deepest shadows of the subject, but is partially removed in the middle tints, and completely in the highest lights. Thus treated, the plate, when inked, prints impressions graded in light and shade according to the requirements of the design, from a rich velvety and perfectly uniform black up through every variation of tone to brilliant white, or showing, when desirable, the sharpest contrasts between the extremes. This style of engraving, invented by Van Siegen, a Dutchman, in 1643, though erroneously ascribed to his pupil Prince Rupert, has been pursued with most success in England. The defect of the process is that it does not admit of clear and sharp delineation of forms; hence in modern practice the outline of the design is strongly etched with acid before the cradle is used, and texture is often given to the finished plate bv lines produced by dry-point etching.
- To engrave in mezzotint; represent in or as if in mezzotint.
Wiktionary
- n. a form of intaglio etching in which a metal plate is roughened evenly and then smoothed to bring out an image
- n. an etching or print made using this method
- v. to make such etchings
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A manner of engraving on copper or steel by drawing upon a surface previously roughened, and then removing the roughness in places by scraping, burnishing, etc., so as to produce the requisite light and shade. Also, an engraving so produced.
- v. To engrave in mezzotint.
WordNet 3.0
- n. print produced by an engraving that has been scraped to represent light or shade
Etymologies
- Alteration of Italian mezzatinta, halftone : mezza, feminine of mezzo, half (from Latin medius; see medium) + tinta, tint, from feminine past participle of tingere, to tint (from Latin, to dye). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The painting was engraved by James Heath, who bought the original painting, and was also engraved in mezzotint in 1804 by William Dickinson.”
Anecdotes and Observations, Reflections and Critical Remarks
“This is the foundation of what is called mezzotint engraving, which”
“Young, John (1755 – 1825): mezzotint engraver and etcher.”
“He painted Bloomfield in miniature in 1804; a mezzotint of the portrait was engraved by John Young and published on 1 January 1805.”
“Well, I'm no great fan of the web? it certainly doesn't do for graphic art what the mezzotint did? but if it does have a role to play, then the satiric one would appear to be ideal, demanding as it does an instantaneous response, coupled to a near-universal accessibility.”
The Guardian: Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, at Tate Britain
“She is portrayed here in a Kininger mezzotint after Guerin, 1804.”
“I looked at the little mezzotint on the wall of Christ.”
baron wormser | portrait of the artist « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground
“In America, Copley had created at least 273 oil portraits, fifty-eight pastels, thirty-seven miniatures, four history paintings, and one mezzotint between 1753 and 1774.”
“The pose and certain aspects of the costume - especially the pear-shaped pearl, bow, and lace at the bodice - are reminiscent of Alexander Van Haecken's mezzotint after Joseph Van Haecken, Catherine Clive.”
“Peter Pelham was a London-trained mezzotint engraver and a portrait painter, and he introduced John Copley to portraiture through his European engravings.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mezzotint’.
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
malm, marc, marl, maya, mazy, meet, mel, mew, mewling, mho, miasma, micaceous and 898 more...
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steel
a reflection on :
Indo-European root stāk- to stand, place
stay, steel, style, temper, celesta, elinvar, vanadium steel, koftgari, mild steel, stale, falchion, eutectoid steel and 46 more...
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Serendipity's Words
defenestration, mercurial, syzygy, wicked, iniquitous, metastable, demimonde, entropic, ephemeral, irreligious, frisbee, manifold and 474 more...
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Rare Books
Words used in the rare book trade (of which I was once a part). For more about how such books are put together, see hernesheir's excellent The Bindery.
foxing, gilt, headband, bumped, endpaper, leaf, colophon, vellum, laid paper, boards, device, engraving and 168 more...
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AbraxasZugzwang's Words
atavism, abraxas, sisyphean, frust, fetus-in-fetu, arhythmically, queef, epidemiology, abecedarian, troglodyte, chiaroscuro, philology and 631 more...
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Art Terms
mannerism, nonrepresentational, pointillism, serigraph, alla prima, trompe l'oeil, assemblage, arabesque, polychromatic, naive art, lumina, impasto and 104 more...
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callipygian's Words
visceral, ephemeral, juxtaposition, dichotomy, polyandry, inconceivable, allegorical, archetype, mandorla, atrophy, fie, gedankenexperiment and 114 more...
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Printmaking Terms
inky sod, spreads like a disease
manicule, perfecting, lithography, relief, etching, serigraph, pantone, pms, edition, gum arabic, chine-collé, intaglio and 78 more...
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Zz....
Fuzzy! Fizzy! And lots of pizzazz!
puzzle, pizza, piazza, nuzzle, nozzle, swizzle, frizz, drizzle, dazzle, pizazz, sizzle, mizzenmast and 70 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mezzotint.
reesetee A distinctive form of engraving, richly black and textured, in which the plate has been worked from dark to light. Used mainly for portraits. Feb 24, 2008