The glossary of terms has been created to support the understanding of terms used within the Pre-Raphaelite resource. Please contact us if you would like us to add or amend a term.
Print technique. The term embraces a complex range of techniques and tools for making multiple prints of an image. During the Victorian period the reproductive engraving was particularly popular, centred on the production of a smaller black and white version of a painting. The wide appeal of Holman Hunt’s painting of The Light of the World, for example, ensured that a successive number of editions of this engraving was produced and published.
The traditional engraving process involves a design being cut into a metal, usually copper, plate. The process is distinguished by regular clear lines cut with a hand-held engraving tool known as a graver or burin. Ink is rolled on the plate, and into the cut lines of the surface. Finally the inked plate is covered with a sheet of registered paper and rolled through a press. The printing process allows the paper to be pressed into the cut/ engraved parts of the plate and the design to be transferred to the paper.
Etching
Print technique which allows for finer effects of line and tone, and greater freedom and spontaneity of mark-making than engraving. The process involves using a sharp metal point known as an ‘etching needle’ to incise the design onto the printing plate and then with acid to bite the lines into the plate, that will finally be inked up and printed. John Everett Millais was the most prolific of the Pre-Raphaelites to use this method.