Netherlands Hardpoint / Metalpoint Instruments

Hardpoint / Metalpoint was used longest in the Netherlands. Drawing tools were made by forming tin, copper, lead, silver or gold into a stylus or different metals were cut, beaten, or cast into various shapes and sizes.  Metalpoint drawings can suggest shading by adding fine hatching lines to introduce shading in a drawing. Early Metalpoint drawings on paper date from around 1400-1420 and seem to be linked to manuscript illuminators working for the Burgundian court ... ​The use of Metalpoint coincided with the practice of painting in the pale and exacting egg tempera medium, before the widespread use of oil paint. The use of Metalpoint was common in the late Middle Ages and in the early Renaissance.

From around the beginning of the sixteenth century, Netherlandish artists such as Gerard David began to use Metalpoint for more spontaneous sketches. Metalpoint use faded in the 1520s and  by 1579  its popularity experienced a revival, particularly in the Northern Netherlands. The last major artist to use the technique in the Netherlands was Rembrandt, who briefly carried a silverpoint sketchbook on his trip to Friesland in 1633.