Ars Nigra. Mezzotint engraving in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Somogy| N° d'inventaire | 22968 |
| Format | 22 x 28 |
| Détails | 139 p., paperback with flaps. |
| Publication | Paris, 2002 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782850565960 |
The technique of mezzotint engraving is said to have originated around 1640 from the bucolic but unusual conjunction of a soldier and the morning dew. The story goes that, while inspecting the guard posts at dawn, the German prince Ruprecht von der Pfalz found one of the sentries scraping the barrel of his rifle, which had been oxidized by the dew. Observing the rust-speckled, half-polished metal, he thought he saw figures. This was all it took for his fertile imagination, stimulated by his amateur love of drawing, to suggest a new engraving method completely different from those practiced until then. It has since become known that the invention was the work of another figure, equally German, but more modestly a lieutenant-colonel, Ludwig von Siegen.
The technique of mezzotint engraving is said to have originated around 1640 from the bucolic but unusual conjunction of a soldier and the morning dew. The story goes that, while inspecting the guard posts at dawn, the German prince Ruprecht von der Pfalz found one of the sentries scraping the barrel of his rifle, which had been oxidized by the dew. Observing the rust-speckled, half-polished metal, he thought he saw figures. This was all it took for his fertile imagination, stimulated by his amateur love of drawing, to suggest a new engraving method completely different from those practiced until then. It has since become known that the invention was the work of another figure, equally German, but more modestly a lieutenant-colonel, Ludwig von Siegen.