Stipple engraving
Grabado punteado
- Date
- c. 1507 (consolidado como técnica en el century XVIII) · confidence low
- Place
- Venice, Italy
- Credited to
- Giulio Campagnola
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An intaglio printmaking technique that builds tone from dots of varying size and density rather than lines; Venetian Giulio Campagnola pioneered dot-based shading in the early 16th century, though the technique became distinct in the 18th century.
The chronology is disputed: Campagnola experimented with stippling in the early 16th century, but the technique became established as its own genre in the 18th century.
What it led to
- adoption by 18th-century English engravers to reproduce chalk drawings
- common complement to line engraving and etching
- forerunner of dot screens in modern printing
- influence on later portrait and genre-scene reproduction