Intaglio is one of the great families of printmaking. The name comes from the Italian intagliare, to cut in, and that is exactly what happens: the image is cut or etched down into a metal plate, and the ink that prints is held in those sunken lines, below the surface of the plate. In this it is the exact opposite of relief printing, where the ink sits on the raised surface. Intaglio can produce extraordinarily fine lines and rich, velvety tones, and for centuries it was the main way of making detailed prints and illustrations.
Intaglio vs relief printing
The easiest way to understand intaglio is to compare it with relief printing. In a relief print such as a woodcut or a linocut, the artist cuts away the blank areas and inks what is left standing, so the ink sits on top. Intaglio does the reverse: the artist cuts the lines into the plate, inks the whole plate, then wipes the flat surface clean so that ink remains only in the grooves. Under the great pressure of a rolling press, the damp paper is squeezed into those grooves to lift the ink out. You can often recognise an intaglio print by its plate mark, the embossed border pressed into the paper by the edge of the plate, and by ink lines that stand very slightly proud of the sheet.
How an intaglio print is made
- Work the image into a metal plate, usually copper or zinc, either by cutting it directly or by etching it with acid.
- Dab stiff ink across the whole plate, pushing it down into every incised line.
- Wipe the flat surface clean with a stiff gauze called tarlatan, finishing by hand, so ink stays only in the recesses.
- Lay a sheet of dampened paper over the plate and cover it with felt blankets.
- Run the plate and paper together through a rolling press under very high pressure, which forces the paper into the ink-filled lines and transfers the image.
The intaglio techniques
Intaglio is really a group of related techniques, which artists often combine on a single plate:
- Engraving - lines are cut directly into the metal with a sharp tool called a burin, giving clean, precise marks.
- Etching - the plate is coated with an acid-resistant ground, the design is drawn through it with a needle, and acid bites the exposed lines into the metal.
- Drypoint - the line is scratched straight into the plate with a sharp point, throwing up a rough burr that prints with a soft, velvety edge.
- Aquatint - a fine rosin dust is melted onto the plate and bitten with acid to create broad areas of tone, from pale grey to deep black.
- Mezzotint - the whole plate is first roughened with a toothed rocker, then smoothed back selectively, so the image is worked from dark to light.
A short history
Intaglio grew out of the workshops of goldsmiths and armourers, who had long engraved decoration into metal. The earliest surviving intaglio prints are German playing cards made with drypoint in the late 1430s. Early masters such as Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer brought engraving to a high art, and etching and drypoint were invented in fifteenth-century Germany, probably by the Housebook Master and Daniel Hopfer.
After the woodcut declined around 1550, intaglio dominated both fine-art printmaking and book illustration until the middle of the nineteenth century. Its great masters include Rembrandt, celebrated for his expressive etchings, and Francisco Goya, who used aquatint for his dramatic print series. In the nineteenth century the Czech printer Karel Klíč developed photogravure, which could reproduce photographic tones from an etched copper plate. You can read more about the printmakers who shaped these methods.
Intaglio and relief printing
Intaglio is beautiful but demanding: it needs a metal plate, specialist tools, often acid, and above all a heavy rolling press, so it is usually practised in a dedicated studio. At Ritualis Press we focus on its friendlier cousin, relief printing, which needs far less equipment and no acid. If you are drawn to printmaking, the linocut and the woodcut are the easiest places to begin. Our step-by-step guide for beginners will get you started, and the glossary explains any term you meet along the way.