![](/template/termwiki/images/likesmall.jpg)
Home > Terms > Kazakh (KK) > меццо-тинто
меццо-тинто
A form of engraving where the metal printing plate is indented by rocking a toothed metal tool across the surface. Each pit holds ink, and if printed at this stage the image would be solid black. The printmaker works from dark to light by gradually rubbing down or burnishing the rough surface to various degrees of smoothness to reduce the ink-holding capacity of areas of the plate. The technique was developed in the seventeenth century, and became particularly popular in eighteenth-century England for reproducing portrait paintings. It is renowned for the soft gradations of tone and richness and velvet quality of its blacks.
- Part of Speech: noun
- Synonym(s):
- Blossary:
- Industry/Domain: Art history
- Category: General art history
- Company: Tate
- Product:
- Acronym-Abbreviation:
Other Languages:
Member comments
Terms in the News
Featured Terms
Ақымақтар күні
Celebrated on the 1st of April each year, April Fools' Day is a time when people, and increasingly businesses, play all kinds of good humored or funny ...
Contributor
Featured blossaries
Browers Terms By Category
- Journalism(537)
- Newspaper(79)
- Investigative journalism(44)
News service(660) Terms
- General boating(783)
- Sailboat(137)
- Yacht(26)
Boat(946) Terms
- Human evolution(1831)
- Evolution(562)
- General archaeology(328)
- Archaeology tools(11)
- Artifacts(8)
- Dig sites(4)
Archaeology(2749) Terms
- Misc restaurant(209)
- Culinary(115)
- Fine dining(63)
- Diners(23)
- Coffehouses(19)
- Cafeterias(12)
Restaurants(470) Terms
- Prevention & protection(6450)
- Fire fighting(286)