Silverpoint is drawing with a silver stylus on a specially prepared surface, leaving delicate gray lines that oxidize to warm brown. Learn its history from Leonardo to today.
Draw a line with a silver stylus on ordinary paper and nothing happens. The silver is too hard to leave a mark on untreated paper. But coat that paper with a thin layer of gesso or bone ash, and the same stylus deposits microscopic particles of metal as it moves across the surface. The line appears pale gray at first, almost invisible. Over months and years, the silver oxidizes and the line turns warm brown. A silverpoint drawing made in 1490 looks different today than it did when Leonardo drew it, and it will look different again in another century. The medium changes over time, and that is part of its character.
Silverpoint is a drawing technique in which a silver-tipped stylus is used on a specially prepared surface. The stylus scrapes off tiny particles of metal that adhere to the coated ground, creating a line of extraordinary delicacy. Silverpoint is the most common form of metalpoint, a broader category that includes gold, lead, and copper styluses. The technique was the dominant drawing method of the Renaissance, used by Leonardo, Raphael, and Durer, before being displaced by graphite and chalk. It experienced a revival in the 19th century and continues to be practiced today.
This entry covers what silverpoint is, how it works physically, its history from medieval origins to contemporary practice, which artists are known for it, and what makes it different from every other drawing medium.
Silverpoint requires two things: a stylus with a silver tip and a surface prepared with an abrasive ground. The ground is typically a mixture of bone ash, calcium carbonate, or gesso mixed with a binder like rabbit skin glue, brushed onto paper, parchment, or wood. The ground provides the slight abrasion needed for the silver to leave a mark. Without it, the silver simply slides across the surface.
The line produced by silverpoint is unlike any other drawing medium. It is pale, uniform, and almost impossible to erase. Unlike pen ink, which can produce strokes of varying thickness, or chalk, which can be smudged and blended, silver leaves a nearly uniform line regardless of pressure. The artist builds tonal range through layering and varying the spacing of strokes, not through pressure variation. This limitation is also the medium's strength: silverpoint drawings have a shimmering, luminous quality that no other medium can replicate.
The National Gallery of Art's 2015 exhibition Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns described the medium's characteristics: "The lines can be difficult or even impossible to erase depending on such factors as the type of ground. Unlike pen or chalk, which can produce strokes of varying thickness or darkness depending on how hard artists bear down on the instrument, silver leaves a nearly uniform line. Nonetheless, the medium offers practical and aesthetic advantages: its portability and convenience make it particularly suited for use in sketchbooks. Silverpoint is especially resistant to smearing and therefore has the added benefit of durability." Read the exhibition guide at National Gallery of Art.
A 2025 study published in npj Heritage Science used microscopy, multiband imaging, X-ray fluorescence mapping, and Raman spectroscopy to analyze six Renaissance drawings by Raphael, Leonardo, and Perugino. The research revealed that these artists used complex combinations of media on single sheets: bone ash preparatory layers, amalgamated silver metalpoint (silver combined with mercury), lead white highlights, and iron gall inks with varied compositions. Perugino's Kneeling Youth was found to use a silver-mercury amalgam stylus, a technique that modifies the properties of the silver to produce different line qualities. Read the study at Nature.
Metalpoint drawing has medieval origins. The technique was used by scribes and illuminators in the 12th and 13th centuries for manuscript production, where the precision of the metal line suited the small scale of illuminated initials and marginalia. Cennino Cennini's Il Libro dell'Arte (c. 1390s) describes metalpoint as a standard technique, noting that lead could be used on unprepared paper but that silver required a coated ground.
The technique reached its peak during the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci used silverpoint in the 1470s and 1480s, producing drawings like A Bust of a Warrior (c. 1475-1480, British Museum) that demonstrate the medium's capacity for precise, delicate description. Raphael learned silverpoint in Perugino's workshop and used it for preparatory studies throughout his career. Albrecht Durer produced silverpoint drawings during his travels, including self-portraits made at age 13 (1484, Albertina) that show the medium's suitability for careful observation.
Silverpoint declined in the 16th century as graphite became available. Graphite, discovered in England in the 1560s, could produce darker lines, allowed for erasure, and did not require a prepared surface. By the 17th century, silverpoint was a rarity. Rembrandt made a few metalpoint drawings, but the medium had largely fallen out of use.
The Victorian era saw a silverpoint revival. Artists in late 19th-century England and France returned to the medium as part of a broader interest in Renaissance techniques. The Pre-Raphaelites and their associates experimented with silverpoint for its precision and historical associations. In the 20th century, Jasper Johns used metalpoint in his drawings, demonstrating that the medium could serve contemporary art, not just historical reconstruction.
Leonardo's A Bust of a Warrior (c. 1475-1480, British Museum) is one of the most celebrated silverpoint drawings. The warrior's profile is described with silverpoint lines of extraordinary precision, built up through careful hatching on a pink prepared ground. Leonardo also used silverpoint for compositional sketches, such as Compositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child (c. 1480-1485, Metropolitan Museum of Art), where the medium's resistance to smearing made it ideal for sketchbook work.
Raphael learned silverpoint in Perugino's workshop and used it throughout his career. The 2025 npj Heritage Science study analyzed four Raphael drawings and found that he used lead metalpoint for initial sketching, then reinforced outlines and shadows with iron gall ink. This practice of combining direct media, one that does not require preparation (metalpoint), followed by definitive lines of ink, was a common Renaissance drawing practice. Raphael's Small Head (c. 1500-1505) shows silverpoint used for the deepest shadows, with the metal lines visible in infrared imaging beneath later ink work.
Durer's Self-Portrait at Thirteen (1484, Albertina) is a silverpoint drawing made when the artist was a child. It demonstrates the medium's suitability for precise, controlled observation. Durer continued to use silverpoint during his travels, producing drawings of landscapes and figures that benefit from the medium's portability and resistance to smearing.
Rembrandt made a small number of metalpoint drawings late in his career, at a time when the medium had largely been abandoned. His use of silverpoint was unusual for the 17th century and reflects his willingness to work in any medium that served his purpose. The drawings are held in the Rijksmuseum and show the medium applied to Rembrandt's characteristic loose, searching style.
Johns is the most prominent contemporary artist to use metalpoint. His drawings from the 1990s onward use silverpoint and goldpoint for their luminous quality and historical resonance. Johns's use of the medium demonstrates that silverpoint is not confined to Renaissance-style drawing but can serve contemporary abstraction and conceptual art. The National Gallery of Art's 2015 exhibition included Johns's work alongside Leonardo's, making the case that metalpoint is a living medium.
Silverpoint is the most restrictive of drawing media. You cannot erase it. You cannot vary line thickness through pressure. You cannot achieve deep blacks. The tonal range is narrow, from pale gray to medium brown. Every mark is permanent the moment it is made. This sounds like a list of disadvantages, and for many artists it is. But the restrictions are also the medium's value. Silverpoint forces a level of precision and deliberation that no other drawing medium demands. You must know where each line goes before you make it, because you cannot take it back.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes metalpoint as "mostly associated with highly refined, finished drawings. However, artists have used it in a light summary manner for preliminary sketches, often further developed with pen and ink." The medium suits both careful, finished work and rapid sketching, depending on the artist's temperament. Read the Met's overview at The Met.
A 2004 study from the Metropolitan Museum used X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and multispectral infrared reflectography to identify the metal composition of 15th and 16th century Italian metalpoint drawings. The research found that different artists used different metal alloys, reflecting contemporary metallurgical practices, and that stylus composition could potentially serve as an aid to attribution. Read the study at Taylor & Francis.
Silverpoint is a form of metalpoint, which also includes goldpoint, leadpoint, and copperpoint. Pen and ink replaced metalpoint as the dominant drawing medium for finished work, offering darker lines and greater tonal range. Graphite pencil replaced metalpoint for sketching, offering erasability and ease of use. Charcoal offers the tonal mass that silverpoint lacks. The prepared ground used for silverpoint is related to gesso, the primer used on painting surfaces.
For more on drawing materials and techniques, read our entry on tonal drawing or explore our guide on how to read a painting.
The British Museum holds Leonardo's Bust of a Warrior and other Renaissance silverpoints in its Department of Prints and Drawings. The Albertina in Vienna holds Durer's early silverpoint self-portrait. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has Leonardo's compositional sketches on pink prepared paper. These works are light-sensitive and displayed in rotation, so check museum websites for current exhibitions.
The National Gallery of Art's 2015 exhibition Drawing in Silver and Gold was the most comprehensive survey of metalpoint ever mounted. The exhibition catalogue, published by Princeton University Press, remains the authoritative reference on the medium. For more on Renaissance drawing practices, read our entries on chiaroscuro and sfumato, or explore our post on Leonardo as painter and scientist.
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