Title Plate with Blackwork Design

Art Historical Context

Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, where we encounter the delicate *Title Plate with Blackwork* (1616), a collaborative engraving by Mathais Beitler and Gentzsch. Measuring just over 2 by 1 ¾ inches, this tiny masterpiece exemplifies the intricate world of 17th-century printmaking. Created through engraving—a precise intaglio technique where lines are incised into a metal plate—and enriched with blackwork, a dense, shadowy style of fine cross-hatching, it showcases the artists' mastery of texture and depth on a miniature scale. The design bursts with R...