Silverpoint. Silverpoint is a traditional drawing technique and tool first used by medieval scribes on manuscripts. A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared with gesso or Chinese white ground. Silverpoint is one of several types of metalpoint used by scribes, craftsmen and artists since ancient times. Metalpoint styli were used for writing on soft surfaces, ruling and underdrawing on parchment, and drawing on prepared paper and panel supports. For drawing purposes, the essential metals used were lead, tin and silver. The softness of these metals made them effective drawing instruments. Goldsmiths also used metalpoint drawings to prepare their detailed, meticulous designs. Albrecht Dürer's father was one such craftsman who later taught his young son to draw in metalpoint, to such good effect that his 1484 Self-Portrait at the Age of 13 is still considered a masterpiece. In the late Gothic /early Renaissance era, silverpoint emerged as a fine line drawing technique. Not blunting as easily as lead or tin, and rendering precise detail, silverpoint was especially favored in Florentine and Flemish workshops. Silverpoint drawings of this era include model books and preparatory sheets for paintings. Artists who worked in silverpoint include Jan van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer and Raphael. Cennino Cennini's Il Libro dell'Arte provides a window on the practice of silver and leadpoint drawing, as well as preparing metalpoint grounds, in the late 14th century. Susan Dorothea White's book Draw Like da Vinci describes the silverpoint technique of Leonardo da Vinci. Medieval stylus Modern silverpoint stylus As noted by Francis Ames-Lewis, drawing styles changed at the end of the 16th century, resulting in a decline for metalpoint. The discovery of graphite deposits at Seathwaite in Borrowdale, Cumbria, England, in the early 1500s, and its increasing availability to artists in a pure, soft form hastened silverpoint's eclipse. Artists sought more gestural qualities, for which graphite, red and black chalk were better suited. Ink and wash drawings are also prevalent in the period. In addition, these other drawing techniques required less effort and were more forgiving than silver, which resists erasure and leaves a fainter line. Furthermore, the preparation of silverpoint supports, usually with hide glue with finely ground bone ash, was labor-intensive. Modern practitioners use zinc, pre-prepared acrylic-based grounds or titanium white tempera or marble dust as a ground. Natural chalks and charcoal have the advantage of producing immediate results on uncoated papers. Dutch artists Hendrick Goltzius and Rembrandt maintained the silverpoint tradition into the 17th century, as it declined in other parts of Europe. Rembrandt made several silverpoints on prepared vellum, the best-known being the portrait of his wife Saskia, 1633. Botanical artists and architects continued to use metalpoint because of its exact lines. However, artists who continued this tradition of fine line drawing, such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, turned to graphite, which gradually improved in quality and availability throughout Europe since the 17th century. Silverpoint was for practical purposes rendered obsolete by the 18th century. There has however been a contemporary art revival among European and American artists and academies because the medium imposes considerable discipline in draughtsmanship since drawings cannot be erased or altered. Artist's Wife, Edith Holman Hunt by William Holman Hunt, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Birmingham Museum of Art. Joseph Meder, Alphonse Legros, the Pre-Raphaelites and Joseph Stella helped revitalize the technique. Art historian Meder created interest in the traditional technique in Austria and Germany, while artist and teacher Legros did likewise in England. In the early 20th century, Stella was one of the few American artists working in this method on the East Coast of the United States. Stella explored the technique on zinc white gouache prepared grounds, often with crayon and other media. Stella's silverpoint oeuvre includes the 1921 portrait of Marcel Duchamp. On the West Coast Xavier Martínez, the Mexican-American artist who had studied in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the late 1890s during the resurgence of interest in silverpoint, taught this technique at the California College of the Arts from 1909 to the late 1930s. The last known exhibition of Martinez's silverpoints was in 1921 at the Print Room of San Francisco where critics praised his unusual and strongly futuristic action figures on an unconventional dark mottled ground as archaic in execution. terse, alert. with a bit too much flesh.