In the twilight zone: a mezzotint by Rapha�l Drouart
Mezzotint is a method of creating a tonal intaglio image; the name means "half-tint" in Italian. The French term, mani�re noire ("black manner") expresses the particular nature of this printmaking method more clearly. The special quality of mezzotints is the the subtlety with which they graduate from purest black to white. For this reason the method is especially suited to muted and mysterious subjects, murky twilights and forbidden shadows. English readers will be familiar with the supernatural powers lurking in such a picture in M. R. James's classic ghost story "The Mezzotint". Rapha�l Drouart, Hermaphrodite et Salmacis Mezzotint, 1922 Rapha�l Drouart's mezzotint Hermaphrodite et Salmacis depicts just such a twilight moment. The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, though it is older than that. The fifteen-year-old Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, has left Mount Ida, and chanced upon the nymph Salmacis. For her, it is love