Copperplate engraving
Grabado calcográfico a buril
- Date
- c. 1430-1450 · confidence medium
- Place
- Upper Rhine (Strasbourg/Basel), Germany
- Credited to
- Master of the Playing Cards; perfected by Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A technique of incising lines into a copper plate with a burin to print images of great precision and fineness. It allowed drawings, maps and scientific diagrams to be reproduced with accuracy.
It derives from goldsmiths' decorative techniques; a gradual evolution in workshops of the Upper Rhine and Italy (Florence, Maso Finiguerra).
What it led to
- Reproducible scientific illustration (Vesalius's anatomy, botany, astronomy)
- Precise printed cartography
- A market for reproduced art and the international fame of artists such as Dürer
Built on
Made possible
- Etchingc. 1515
- Mercator projection1569
- Mezzotint1642
- Lithography1796-1798
- Mercator map
- Printed anatomical illustration