Engraving

Engraving is a printmaking technique in which an artist incises lines directly into a metal plate, traditionally copper, using a sharp steel tool called a burin, which cuts a clean groove by removing a thin curl of metal rather than by acid or pressure. Once the design is complete, ink is worked into the incised lines, the plate's surface is wiped clean, and the plate is run through a press under high pressure with dampened paper, forcing the paper into the grooves to pick up the ink and produce a print with characteristically crisp, precise lines. The technique originated among European goldsmiths, who engraved metalwork before adapting the tool to printmaking in the fifteenth century, and it was brought to a technical and artistic peak by Albrecht Durer, whose engravings demonstrated the fine tonal control the burin could achieve through cross-hatching and varying line depth.