WOOD CUT

Woodcut is called the artistic discipline that consists of engraving on wood. The term is also used to refer to letterpress printing that is carried out with sheets of wood that have been engraved.

The technique consists of carving an image or a text on a wooden board, usually pear or cherry. To perform this task, a burin or gouge is used. Once the carving is done, ink is placed to impregnate the surface and then the wood is pressed against a piece of cloth or paper, among other supports, to print the engraving.

Historians claim that woodcut originated in China. Over the years, the emergence of other , faster and more efficient machining methods for printing caused woodcut to lose popularity. Currently, the woodcut is no longer used in the industrial field, although it maintains its followers among artisans and artists.

For a long time, however, woodcut was the most widely used technique for illustrating books. It was also widely used for the creation of religious-type prints and for making playing cards.

The oldest works of woodcut that we know today date from before AD 220, from China, and are printed on cloth. With respect to the examples from Egypt, they are three centuries more recent. In Japan there is the ukiyo-e , a kind of printing that is made with the help of wooden stamps.

Logically, when the printing press emerged , the woodcut lost its relevance, and that is why it began to be used for illustration. Later, with the advent of intaglio (also called hollow stamping or intaglio engraving , it consists of printing images engraved on a metal sheet, with the help of a press), which considerably surpassed it in precision, its popularity decreased even more.

The woodcut can be classified in different ways according to how the engraving is developed. In butt woodcut, the surface on which it is engraved is cut perpendicular to the fibers of the wood. In thread woodcut, on the other hand, the surface is cut parallel to the fibers.

Among the most popular artists who have stood out in the field of woodcut is Albrecht Dürer ( 1471 - 1528 ), known in our language as Albrecht Dürer.

Broadly speaking, the process begins with the realization of a drawing on a sheet of paper, which must then be transferred to the wooden board. This step is essential, as it is very important to come up with a design that adapts to the format, that can be appreciated and generate a positive impact once the engraving process is complete.

In general, the woodcut drawings present an admirable level of detail, especially in the textures; for example, birds have well-defined feathers, each brick in the walls can be seen, and plants display a large number of independent leaves. Of course, this makes the work of xylographers even more impressive, since the woodcarving of these elements requires dedication and unparalleled precision.

Having transferred the drawing to the wood, it is time to use the aforementioned instruments to carry out the engraving: with the help of a gouge or a burin it is necessary to carve the surface so that only the lines that we intend to print at the end of the process stand out. Woodcut artists have a very particular talent, which allows them to intuit where, how and how much to carve to obtain the result they expect; a machine, on the other hand, could achieve greater precision, but would not offer a work of art.