The so-called Little Executioner

Mezzotint, also called ‘the black manner’, does not make use of the characteristic line used in copper engravings, etchings and woodcuts, working instead with light and dark and gentle transitions from velvety jet black to bright paper-white. Having been initially tested by Ludwig von Siegen, an artistic dilettante with a wide variety of interests, it was Prince Rupert of the Rhine who further developed the tone block worked with a drawknife as a new medium and took it to England. There was a keen demand there for such works in the 18th century. The so-called Little Executioner shows a detail of the large mezzotint the artist created after a painting by José Ribera showing the full figure of the Great Executioner. (Sonja Brink)