Print Room: Image Maps of Printmaking Techniques

Printmaking has a long tradition of reproducing works of art in other media such as drawing and painting. By the end of the 16th century many engravers, such as Jan Sadeler, had built on Dürer's innovations in order to find the best formulas for reproducing paintings. By Raphael Morghen's time reproductive engraving had become a highly specialized industry, utilizing myriad systems of web-like lines, dots, and lozenge shapes. This highly codified form of engraving is similar to that used to engrave paper money. At close range many forms appear to be clothed in an elegant fabric of lines, as if they were in a body stocking (you can see this clearly in the Virgin's neck, for example). The fabric on the Virgin's shoulder and the light grey background in the corners are also good examples of the subtleties of reproductive engraving.