An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World). Printing is a process for reproducing text and image typically with ink on Paper using a printing press A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it For other uses of etch or etching, see Etching (disambiguation, for the history of the method see Old master prints. With rare exceptions, old master prints are printed on paper. Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon printing upon or packaging This article is concerned with the artistic, historical and social aspects of the subject; the article on printmaking describes the techniques used in making old master prints, although from a modern perspective. Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper.
Many great European artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, and Francisco Goya, were dedicated printmakers. Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher. In their own day, their international reputations largely came from their prints, which were spread far more widely than their paintings. Today, thanks to colour photo reproductions, and public galleries, their paintings are much better known, whilst their prints are only rarely exhibited, for conservation reasons.
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History
Woodcut before Albrecht Dürer
The oldest technique is woodcut, or woodblock printing, which was invented as a method for printing on cloth in China, and perhaps separately in Egypt in the Byzantine period. Petrus Christus (c 1410/1420 – 1475/1476 was a Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444 This article is about the National Gallery of the United States for other National Galleries see National Gallery. This had reached Europe via the Byzantine or Islamic worlds before 1300, as a method of printing patterns on textiles. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Paper arrived in Europe, also from China via Islamic Spain, slightly later, and was being manufactured in Italy by the end of the thirteenth century, and in Germany by the end of the fourteenth. Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon printing upon or packaging Al-Andalus (الأندلس was the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims or [1] Religious images and playing cards are documented as being produced on paper, probably printed, by a German in Bologna in 1395. A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper thin card or thin plastic figured with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing Card games Bologna (boloɲa from Latin Bononia, Bulåggna in Bolognese dialect is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy [2] But the most impressive printed European images to survive from before 1400 are printed on cloth, for use as hangings on walls or furniture, including altars and lecterns. A lectern (from the Latin lectus, past participle of legere, "to read" is a reading desk with a slanted top usually placed on a stand or affixed to Some were used as a pattern to embroider over. Some religious images were used as bandages, to speed healing. [3]
The earliest print images are mostly of a high artistic standard, and were clearly designed by artists with a background in painting (on walls, panels or manuscripts). Whether these artists cut the blocks themselves, or only inked the design on the block for another to carve, is not known. During the fifteenth century the number of prints produced grew hugely as paper became freely available and cheaper, and the average artistic level fell, so that by the second half of the century the typical woodcut is a relatively crude image. The great majority of surviving 15th-century prints are religious, although these were probably the ones more likely to survive. Their makers were sometimes called "Jesus maker" or "saint-maker" in documents. [4] As with manuscript books, monastic institutions sometimes produced, and often sold, prints. No artists can be identified with specific woodcuts until towards the end of the century.
The little evidence we have suggests that woodcut prints became relatively common and cheap during the fifteenth century, and were affordable by skilled workers in towns. For example, what may be the earliest surviving Italian print, the "Madonna of the Fire", was hanging by a nail to a wall in a small school in Forlì in 1428. Forlì ( Latin: Forum Livii) is a Comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy famed as the birthplace of the great painter Melozzo da Forlì The school caught fire, and the crowd who gathered to watch saw the print carried up into the air by the fire, before falling down into the crowd. This was regarded as a miraculous escape and the print was carried to Forlì Cathedral, where it remains, since 1636 in a special chapel, displayed once a year. Like the majority of prints before approximately 1460, only a single impression (the term used for a copy of an old master print; "copy" is used for a print copying another print) of this print has survived.
Woodcut blocks are printed with light pressure, and are capable of printing several thousand impressions, and even at this period some prints may well have been produced in that quantity. Many prints were hand-coloured, mostly in watercolour. Watercolor ( US) or Watercolour ( UK) (and "aquarelle" in French is a Painting method Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands were the main areas of production — England does not seem to have produced any prints until about 1480. But prints are highly portable, and were transported across Europe. A Venetian document of 1441 already complains about cheap imports of playing cards damaging the local industry. A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper thin card or thin plastic figured with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing Card games
Block-books were a very popular form of (short) book, where a page with both pictures and text was cut as a single woodcut. For the use of the technique in art see Woodcut on the technique and Old master print for the history in Europe and Woodblock printing in Japan. They were much cheaper than manuscript books, and were mostly produced in the Netherlands; the Art of Dying (Ars moriendi) was the most famous; thirteen different sets of blocks are known. Ars moriendi ("The Art of Dying" is the name of two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures As a relief technique (see printmaking) woodcut can be printed easily together with movable type, and after this invention arrived in Europe about 1450 printers quickly came to include woodcuts in their books. Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper. Some book-owners also pasted prints into prayer-books in particular. [5]Playing cards were another notable use of prints, and French versions are the basis of the traditional sets still in use today. A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper thin card or thin plastic figured with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing Card games
By the last quarter of the century there was a large demand for woodcuts for book-illustrations, and in both Germany and Italy standards at the top end of the market improved considerably. Nuremberg was the largest centre of German publishing, and Michael Wolgemut, the master of the largest workshop there worked on many projects, including the gigantic Nuremberg Chronicle. Michael Wolgemut (formerly spelt Wohlgemuth) (1434 &ndash 1519 German painter and Printmaker, was born and died in Nuremberg The Nuremberg Chronicle, written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, with a version in German translation by Georg Alt is one of the best documented early printed books Dürer was apprenticed to Wolgemut during the early stages of the project, and was the godson of Anton Koberger, its printer and publisher. His career was to take the art of the woodcut to its highest development.
German engraving before Dürer
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Engraving on metal was part of the goldsmith's craft throughout the Medieval period, and the idea of printing engraved designs onto paper probably began as a method for them to record the designs on pieces they had sold. Saint Sebastian (traditionally died January 20, 287 was a Christian Saint and Martyr, who is said to have been killed while the Roman emperor The Master of the Playing Cards was the first major master in the history of Printmaking. A goldsmith is a Metalworker who specializes in working with Gold and other Precious metals usually in modern times to make Jewelry. Some artists trained as painters became involved from about 1450–1460, although many engravers continued to come from a goldsmithing background. From the start, engraving was in the hands of the luxury tradesmen, unlike woodcut, where at least the cutting of the block was associated with the lower-status trades of carpentry, and perhaps sculptural wood-carving. Engravings were also important from very early on as models for other artists, especially painters and sculptors, and many works survive, especially from smaller cities, which take their compositions directly from prints. Serving as a pattern for artists may have been a primary purpose for the creation of many prints, especially the numerous series of apostle figures. The Twelve Apostles (Greek apostolos, "someone sent out" e
The surviving engravings, though the majority are religious, show a greater proportion of secular images than other types of art from the period, including woodcut. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving This is certainly partly the result of the relative survival rates — although wealthy fifteenth century houses certainly contained secular images on walls (inside and outside), and cloth hangings, these types of image have survived in tiny numbers. The Church was much better at retaining its images. Engravings were relatively expensive and sold to an urban middle-class that was become increasingly affluent in the belt of cities that stretched from the Netherlands down the Rhine to Southern Germany, Switzerland and Northern Italy. Engraving was also used for the same types of images as woodcuts, notably devotional images and playing cards, but many seem to have been collected for keeping out of sight in an album or book, to judge by the excellent state of preservation of many pieces of paper over five hundred years old. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper thin card or thin plastic figured with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing Card games
Again unlike woodcut, identifiable artists are found from the start. The German, or possibly German-Swiss, Master of the Playing Cards was active by at least the 1440s; he was clearly a trained painter. The Master of the Playing Cards was the first major master in the history of Printmaking. The Master E. S. was a prolific engraver, from a goldsmithing background, active from about 1450–1467, and the first to sign his prints with a monogram in the plate. Master E S (c 1420 &ndash c 1468 (previously known as the Master of 1466) is an unidentified German Engraver, Goldsmith, and A goldsmith is a Metalworker who specializes in working with Gold and other Precious metals usually in modern times to make Jewelry. He made significant technical developments, which allowed more impressions to be taken from each plate. Many of his faces have a rather pudding-like appearance, which reduces the impact of what are otherwise fine works. Much of his work still has great charm, and the secular and comic subjects he engraved are almost never found in the surviving painting of the period. Like the Otto prints in Italy, much of his work was probably intended to appeal to women.
The first major artist to engrave was Martin Schongauer (c. Martin Schongauer (c 1448 &ndash February 2, 1491) was a German Engraver and painter. 1450–1491), who worked in Southern Germany, and was also a well-known painter. His father and brother were goldsmiths, so he may well have had experience with the burin from an early age. His 116 engravings have a clear authority and beauty, and became well known in Italy as well as Northern Europe, as well as much copied by other engravers. He also further developed engraving technique, in particular refining cross-hatching to depict volume and shade in a purely linear medium. Hatching ( hachure in French) and cross-hatching are artistic techniques used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing closely
The other notable artist of this period is known as the Housebook Master. Master of the Housebook and Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet are two names used for an Engraver and painter working in South Germany in He was a highly talented German artist who is also known from drawings, especially the Housebook album from which he takes his name. His prints were made exclusively in drypoint, scratching his lines on the plate to leave a much shallower line than an engraver's burin would produce; he may have invented this technique. Drypoint is a Printmaking technique of the intaglio family in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix" with a hard-pointed "needle" Burin from the French burin meaning "cold Chisel " has two specialised meanings for types of tools in English one meaning a Steel Consequently only a few impressions could be produced from each plate — perhaps about twenty — although some plates were reworked to prolong their life. Despite this limitation, his prints were clearly widely circulated, as many copies of them exist by other printmakers. This is highly typical of admired prints in all media until at least 1520; there was no enforceable concept of anything like copyright. Many of the Housebook Master's print compositions are only known from copies, as none of the presumed originals have survived — a very high proportion of his original prints are only known from a single impression. The largest collection of his prints is at Amsterdam; these were probably kept as a collection, perhaps by the artist himself, from around the time of their creation.
Israhel van Meckenam was an engraver from the borders of Germany and the Netherlands, who probably trained with Master ES, and ran the most productive workshop for engravings of the century between about 1465 and 1503. Israhel van Meckenem (also known as Israhel van Meckenem the Younger, c Israhel van Meckenem (also known as Israhel van Meckenem the Younger, c He produced over 600 plates, most copies of other prints, and was more sophisticated in self-presentation, signing later prints with his name and town, and producing the first print self-portrait of himself and his wife. Some plates seem to have been reworked more than once by his workshop, or produced in more than one version, and many impressions have survived, so his ability to distribute and sell his prints was evidently sophisticated. His own compositions are often very lively, and take a great interest in the secular life of his day.
The earliest Italian engravings
Printmaking in woodcut and engraving both appeared in Northern Italy within a few decades of their invention north of the Alps, and had similar uses and characters, though within significantly different artistic styles, and with from the start a much greater proportion of secular subjects. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it The earliest known Italian woodcut has been mentioned above. Engraving probably came first to Florence in the 1440s; Vasari typically claimed that his fellow-Florentine, the goldsmith and nielloist Maso Finiguerra (1426–64) invented the technique. Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Giorgio Vasari ( 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian painter and Architect, who is today famous Niello is a black metallic Alloy of Sulfur, Copper, Silver, and usually Lead, used as an inlay on engraved metal Maso Tommasoii Finiguerra (1426 &ndash 1464 was an Italian Goldsmith, draftsman, and engraver working in Florence, whose name is It is now clear this is wrong, and there are now considered to be no prints as such that can be attributed to him on anything other than a speculative basis. He may never have made any printed engravings from plates, as opposed to taking impressions from work intended to be nielloed. There are a number of complex niello religious scenes that he probably executed, and may or may not have designed, which were influential for the Florentine style in engraving. Niello is a black metallic Alloy of Sulfur, Copper, Silver, and usually Lead, used as an inlay on engraved metal Some paper impressions and sulphur casts survive from these. These are a number of paxes in the Bargello, Florence, plus one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York which depict scenes with large and well-organised crowds of small figures. For the type of embroidery see Bargello (needlework. The Bargello, also known as the Bargello Palace or Palazzo del Popolo The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, There are also drawings in the Uffizi, Florence that may be by him. The Uffizi Gallery (Galleria degli Uffizi one of the oldest and most famous Art Museums in the world is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a [6]
Florence
Where German engraving arrived into a still Gothic artistic world, Italian engraving caught the very early Renaissance, and from the start the prints are mostly larger, more open in atmosphere, and feature classical and exotic subjects. The Battle of the Nudes or Battle of the Naked Men, probably dating from 1465&ndash1475 is an Engraving by the Florentine Goldsmith and This article is about Gothic art See also Gothic architecture Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that lasted about 200 They are less densely worked, and usually do not use cross-hatching. From about 1460–1490 two styles developed in Florence, which remained the largest centre of Italian engraving. These are called (although the terms are less often used now) the "Fine Manner" and the "Broad Manner", referring to the typical thickness of the lines used. The leading artists in the Fine Manner are Baccio Baldini and the "Master of the Vienna Passion", and in the Broad Manner, Francesco Rosselli and Antonio Pollaiuolo, whose only print was the Battle of the Nude Men (right), the masterpiece of Florentine C15 engraving. Baccio Baldini (1436 - c 1487 was an Italian engraver of the Renaissance, active in his native Florence. Francesco Rosselli (b 1445 Florence d before 1513 Florence was an Italian miniature painter and an important Engraver of maps and Old master prints He is described Antonio del Pollaiolo ( January 17, 1429 /1433 &ndash February 4, 1498) also known as Antonio di Jacopo Pollaiuolo or Antonio The Battle of the Nudes or Battle of the Naked Men, probably dating from 1465&ndash1475 is an Engraving by the Florentine Goldsmith and This uses a new zigzag "return stroke" for modelling, which he probably invented.
A chance survival is a collection of mostly rather crudely executed Florentine prints now in the British Museum, known as the Otto Prints after an earlier owner of most of them. The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. This was probably the workshop's own reference set of prints, mostly round or oval, that were used to decorate the inside covers of boxes, primarily for female use. It has been suggested that boxes so decorated may have been given as gifts at weddings. [6] The subject matter and execution of this group suggests they were intended to appeal to middle-class female taste; lovers and cupids abound, and an allegory shows a near-naked young man tied to a stake and being beaten by several women. An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation
Ferrara
The other notable early centre was Ferrara, from the 1460s, which probably produced both sets of the so-called "Mantegna Tarocchi" cards, which are not playing cards, but a sort of educational tool for young Humanists with fifty cards, featuring the Panets and Spheres, Apollo and the Muses, personifications of the Seven liberal arts and the four Virtues, as well as "the Conditions of Man" from Pope to peasant. The Mantegna Tarocchi, also known as the Tarocchi Cards, Tarocchi in the style of Mantegna, Baldini Cards, are two different sets each of fifty 15th century In Greek mythology, the Muses ( Ancient Greek, hai moũsai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root * men- "think" are The term liberal arts refers to a particular type of educational Curriculum broadly defined as a Classical education.
Mantegna in Mantua
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Andrea Mantegna who trained in Padua, and then settled in Mantua, was the most influential figure in Italian engraving of the century, although it is still debated whether he actually engraved any plates himself (a debate revived in recent years by Suzanne Boorsch). Hercules is the Roman name for the Mythical Greek hero Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. http//enwikipediaorg/wiki/ImageHerkules_und_Ant%C3%A4us_(Mantegna Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it Andrea Mantegna (c 1431 &ndash September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance artist a student of Roman Archeology, and son in law of Padua ( Padova 'padova Latin: Patavium, Padoa) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. Mantua (Màntova in the local dialect of Lombard language Mantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the A number of engravings have long been ascribed to his school or workshop, with only seven usually given to him personally. The whole group form a coherent stylistic group and very clearly reflect his style in painting and drawing, or copy surviving works of his. They seem to date from the late 1460s onwards.
The impact of Dürer
In the last five years of the fifteenth century, Dürer, then in his late twenties and with his own workshop in Nuremberg, began to produce woodcuts and engravings of the highest quality which spread very quickly through the artistic centres of Europe. Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker By about 1505 most young Italian printmakers went through a phase of directly copying either whole prints or large parts of Dürer's landscape backgrounds, before going on to adapt his technical advances to their own style. Copying of prints was already a large and accepted part of the printmaking culture but no prints were copied as frequently as Dürer's.
Dürer was also a painter, but few of his paintings could be seen except by those with good access to private houses in the Nuremberg area. The lesson of how he, following more spectacularly in the footsteps of Schongauer and Mantenga, was able so quickly to develop a continent-wide reputation very largely through his prints was not lost on other painters, who began to take much greater interest in printmaking.
Italy 1500–1515
For a brief period a number of artists, who began by copying Dürer, made very fine prints in a range of individual styles. These included Giulio Campagnola, who succeeded in translating the new style Giorgione and Titian had brought to Venetian painting into engraving. Giulio Campagnola (c 1482 – c 1515 was an Italian Engraver and painter, whose few rare prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance Giorgione (c 1477 &ndash 1510 is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italian painter a seminal artist of the High Renaissance Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c 1485 &ndash August 27 1576 better known as Titian, was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the Marcantonio Raimondi and Agostino Veneziano both spent some years in Venice before moving to Rome, but even their early prints show classicizing tendencies as well as Northern influence. Marcantonio Raimondi, also simply Marcantonio, (c 1480 &ndash c Agostino Veneziano, ("Venetian Agostino" whose real name was Agostino de' Musi, ( Venice ca Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 The styles of the Florentine Christfano Robetta, and Benedetto Montagna from Vicenza are still based in Italian painting of the period, and are also later influenced by Giulio Campagnola. Vicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region at the northern base of the Monte Berico Giulio Campagnola (c 1482 – c 1515 was an Italian Engraver and painter, whose few rare prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance
Giovanni Battista Palumba , once known as "Master IB with the Bird" from his monogram, was the major Italian artist in woodcut in these years, as well as an engraver of charming mythological scenes, often with an erotic theme. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving
The rise of the reproductive print
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Prints copying prints were already common, and many fifteenth century prints must have been copies of paintings, but not intended to be seen as such, but as images in their own right. Moses ( Latin: Moyses,; Greek: grc Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: ar موسىٰ Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Mantegna's workshop produced a number of engravings copying his Triumph of Caesar (now Hampton Court Palace), or drawings for it, which were perhaps the first prints intended to be understood as depicting paintings - called reproductive prints. Andrea Mantegna (c 1431 &ndash September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance artist a student of Roman Archeology, and son in law of Hampton Court Palace is a former royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, south west London, England. With an increasing pace of innovation in art, and of a critical interest among a non-professional public, reliable depictions of paintings filled an obvious need. In time this demand was almost to smother the old master print.
Dürer never copied any of his paintings directly into prints, although some of his portraits base a painting and a print on the same drawing, which is very similar. The next stage began when Titian in Venice, and Raphael in Rome, almost simultaneously began to collaborate with printmakers to make prints to their designs. Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c 1485 &ndash August 27 1576 better known as Titian, was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and Titian at this stage worked with Domenico Campagnola and others on woodcuts, whilst Raphael worked with Raimondi on engravings, for which many of Raphael's drawings survive. Rather later, the paintings done by the School of Fontainebleau were copied in etchings, apparently in a brief organised programme including many of the painters themselves. The Ecole de Fontainebleau refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered around the royal Château de Fontainebleau
The Italian partnerships were artistically and commercially successful, and inevitably attracted other printmakers who simply copied paintings independently to make wholly reproductive prints. Especially in Italy, these prints, of greatly varying quality, came to dominate the market and tended to push out original printmaking, which declined noticeably from about 1530-40 in Italy. By now some publisher/dealers had become important, especially Dutch and Flemish operators like Philippe Galle and Hieronymus Cock, developing networks of distribution that were becoming international, and much work was commissioned by them. Philip or Philips Galle ( Haarlem 1537 &ndash Antwerp March 1612 was best known as a publisher of Old master prints which he also produced as Hieronymus (Jérôme Cock (Kock (c 1510—1570 was a Flemish painter and Etcher of the Northern Renaissance, but was perhaps most significant as The effect of the development of the print-selling trade is a matter of scholarly controversy, but there is no question that by the mid-century the rate of original printmaking in Italy had declined considerably from that of a generation earlier, if not as precipitously as in Germany.
The North after Dürer
Although no artist anywhere from 1500 to 1550 could ignore Dürer, several artists in his wake had no difficulty maintaining highly distinctive styles, often with little influence from him. Lucas Cranach the Elder was only a year younger than Dürer, but he was about thirty before he began to make woodcuts, in an intense Northern style reminiscent of Matthias Grünewald. Lucas Cranach the Elder ( Lucas Cranach der Ältere, 4 October 1472 &ndash 16 October 1553) was a German painter Matthias Grünewald or "Mathis" (as first name "Gothart" or "Neithardt" (as surname (c He was also an early experimenter in the chiaroscuro woodcut technique. Chiaroscuro ( Italian for light-dark) is a term in Art for a contrast between light and dark His style later softened, and took in the influence of Dürer, but he concentrated his efforts on painting, in which he became dominant in Protestant Germany, based in Saxony, handing over his very productive studio to his son at a relatively early age. The Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen ˈzaksən Swobodny Stat Sakska is the easternmost federal state of Germany.
Lucas van Leyden had a prodigious natural talent for engraving, and his earlier prints were highly successful, with an often earthy treatment and brilliant technique, so that he came to be seen as Dürer's main rival in the North. Lucas van Leyden ( Leiden, 1494 &ndash August 8 1533 in Leiden also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a Lucas van Leyden ( Leiden, 1494 &ndash August 8 1533 in Leiden also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a However, his later prints suffered from straining after an Italian grandeur, which left only the technique applied to far less dynamic compositions. His Dutch successors for some time continued to be heavily under the spell of Italy, which they took most of the century to digest.
Albrecht Altdorfer produced some Italianate religious prints, but he is most famous for his very Northern landscapes of drooping larches and firs, which are highly innovative in painting as well as prints. Albrecht Altdorfer (c 1480 near Regensburg &ndash 12 February 1538 in Regensburg) was a German painter, Printmaker He was among the most effective early users of the technique of etching, recently invented as a printmaking technique by Daniel Hopfer, an armourer from Augsburg. For other uses of etch or etching, see Etching (disambiguation, for the history of the method see Old master prints. Daniel Hopfer (circa 1470, Kaufbeuren – 1536, Augsburg) was a German artist who is widely believed to have been the first to use Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. Neither Hopfer nor the other members of his family who continued his style were trained or natural artists, but many of their images have great charm, and their "ornament prints", made essentially as patterns for craftsmen in various fields, spread their influence widely.
The Little Masters
Hans Burgkmair from Augsburg, Nuremberg's neighbour and rival, was slightly older than Dürer, and had a parallel career in some respects, training with Martin Schongauer before apparently visiting Italy, where he formed his own synthesis of Northern and Italian styles, which he applied in painting and woodcut, mostly for books, but with many significant "single-leaf" (ie individual) prints. Hans Burgkmair the elder (1473 - 1531 was a German painter and Printmaker in Woodcut. Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. Martin Schongauer (c 1448 &ndash February 2, 1491) was a German Engraver and painter. He is now generally credited with inventing the chiaroscuro (coloured) woodcut. Chiaroscuro ( Italian for light-dark) is a term in Art for a contrast between light and dark Hans Baldung was Dürer's pupil, and was left in charge of the Nuremberg workshop during Dürer's second Italian trip. Hans Baldung known as Hans Baldung Grien/Grün (c 1480 - 1545 He had no difficulty in maintaining a highly personal style in woodcut, and produced some very powerful images. Urs Graf was a Swiss mercenary and printmaker, who invented the white-line woodcut technique, in which his most distinctive prints were made. Urs Graf (born 1485 in Solothurn, Switzerland; died after 1529 was a Swiss Renaissance painter and Printmaker (of For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving
The Little Masters is a term for a group of several printmakers, who all produced very small finely detailed engravings for a largely bourgeois market, combining in miniature elements from Dürer and from Marcantonio Raimondi, and concentrating on secular, often mythological and erotic, rather than on religious themes. Marcantonio Raimondi, also simply Marcantonio, (c 1480 &ndash c The most talented were the brothers Bartel Beham and the longer-lived Sebald Beham. Barthel Beham or Bartel (1502 &ndash 1540 was a German engraver, Miniaturist and painter. Hans Sebald Beham (1500 &ndash 1550 was a German printmaker who did his best work as an engraver, and was also a designer of Woodcuts and Like Georg Pencz, they came from Nuremberg and were expelled by the council for atheism for a period. Georg Pencz (c 1500 - 1550 was a German engraver, painter and printmaker. Atheism The other principal member of the group was Heinrich Aldegrever , a convinced Lutheran with Anabaptist leanings, who was perhaps therefore forced to spend much of his time producing ornament prints. Heinrich Aldegrever or Aldegraf (1502 - 1555 or 1561 was a German painter and Engraver. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther Anabaptists ( Greek ανα (again twice + βαπτιζω (baptize thus "re-baptizers" are Christians of the Radical Reformation
Another convinced Protestant, Hans Holbein the Younger spent most of his adult career in England, then and for long after too primitive as both a market and in technical assistance to support fine printmaking. Whilst the famous blockcutter Hans Lützelburger was alive, he created from Holbein's designs the famous small woodcut series of the Dance of Death. Another Holbein series, of ninety-one Old Testament scenes, in a much simpler style, was the most popular of attempts by several artists to create Protestant religious imagery. Both series were published in Lyon in France by a German publisher, having been created in Switzerland. ||-||} Lyon, also known as Lyons in English is a city in east-central France. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation
After the deaths of this very brilliant generation, both the quality and quantity of German original printmaking suffered a strange collapse; perhaps it became impossible to sustain a convincing Northern style in the face of overwhelming Italian productions in a "commoditized" Renaissance style. The Netherlands now became more important for the production of prints, which would remain the case until the late 18th century.
Mannerist printmaking
Some Italian printmakers went in a very different direction to either Raimondi and his followers, or the Germans, and used the medium for experimentation and very personal work. Parmigianino produced some etchings himself, and also worked closely with Ugo da Carpi on chiaroscuro woodcuts and other prints. Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola ( 11 January 1503 - 24 August 1540) also known as Francesco Mazzola or more commonly as Ugo da Carpi (c 1455 &ndash c 1523 was an Italian painter and Printmaker who worked in Woodcut, once thought to be the inventor of the chiaroscuro
Giorgio Ghisi was the major printmaker of the Mantuan school, which preserved rather more individuality than Rome. Giorgio Ghisi (between 1512 and 1520 — December 15, 1582) was an Italian Coppersmith, painter and Engraver. Much of his work was reproductive, but his original prints are often very fine. He visited Antwerp, a reflection of the power the publishers there now had over what was now a European market for prints. A number of printmakers, mostly in etching, continued to produce excellent prints, but mostly as a sideline to either painting or reproductive printmaking. They include Battista Franco, Il Schiavone, Federico Barocci, and Ventura Salimbeni, who only produced nine prints, presumably because it did not pay. Battista Franco Veneziano also known by his correct name of Giovanni Battista Franco ( before 1510 - 1561 was an Italian Mannerist painter and Printmaker Andrea Meldolla called Andrea Schiavone or Lo Schiavone, or Andrija Medulić (in Croatian) (c Federico Barocci (1528&ndash1612 was an Italian Renaissance painter and Printmaker. Ventura di Archangelo Salimbeni (also later called Bevilacqua 20 January 1568 - 1613 was an Italian Mannerist painter and Printmaker
France
The Italian artists known as the School of Fontainebleau were hired in the 1630s by François I of France to decorate his showpiece Chateau at Fontainebleau. The Ecole de Fontainebleau refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered around the royal Château de Fontainebleau Francis I (September 12 1494 &ndash March 31 1547 was crowned King of France in 1515 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until 1547 In the course of the long project, etchings were produced, in unknown circumstances but apparently in Fontainebleau itself and mostly in the 1540s, mostly recording wall-paintings and plasterwork in the Chateau (much now destroyed). Technically they are mostly rather poor - dry and uneven - but the best powerfully evoke the strange and sophisticated athmosphere of the time. Many of the best are by Leon Davent to designs by Primaticcio. Francesco Primaticcio ( April 30, 1504 &ndash 1570 was an Italian Mannerist painter, Architect and sculptor Several of the artists, including Davent, later went to Paris and continued to produce prints there.
Previously the only consistent printmaker of stature in France had been Jean Duvet, a goldsmith whose highly personal style seems halfway between Dürer and William Blake. Jean Duvet (1485 &ndash after 1562 was a French Renaissance Goldsmith and Engraver, now best known for his engravings William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827 was an English poet, painter, and Printmaker. His plates are extremely crowded, not conventionally well-drawn, but full of intensity; the opposite of the langourous elegance of the Fontainebleau prints, which were to have the greater effect on French printmaking. His prints date from 1520 to 1555, when he was seventy, and completed his masterpiece, the twenty-three prints of the Apocalypse.
The Netherlands
Cornelius Cort was an Antwerp engraver, trained in Cock's publishing house, with a controlled but vigorous style, and excellent at depicting dramatic lighting effects. The Farnese Hercules is an ancient sculpture probably an enlarged copy made in the early third century AD by Glykon of an original of Lysippos or one of his circle of the fourth Hendrik Goltzius ( 1558 - January 1, 1617) Dutch Printmaker, draftsman, and painter, was born at Millebrecht Cornelis Cort (1533? - c March 17 1578) was a Dutch Engraver and draughtsman. He went to Italy and in 1565 was retained by Titian to produce prints of his paintings (Titian having secured his "privileges" or rights to exclusively reproduce his own works). Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c 1485 &ndash August 27 1576 better known as Titian, was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian Titian took considerable trouble to get the effect he wanted; he said that Cort could not work from the painting alone, so he produced special drawings for him to use. Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium Eventually, the results were highly effective and successful, and after Titian's death Cort moved to Rome, where he taught a number of the most successful printmakers of the next generation, notably Hendrik Goltzius, Francesco Villamena and Annibale Carracci. Hendrik Goltzius ( 1558 - January 1, 1617) Dutch Printmaker, draftsman, and painter, was born at Millebrecht Annibale Carracci ( November 3, 1560 - July 15, 1609) was an Italian Baroque painter.
Goltzius, arguably the last great engraver, took Cort's style to its furthest point. Because of a childhood accident, he drew with his whole arm, and his use of the swelling line, altering the profile of the burin to thicken or diminish the line as it moved, is unmatched. He was extraordinarily prolific, and the artistic, if not the technical, quality of his work is very variable, but his finest prints look forward to the energy of Rubens, and are as sensuous in their use of line as he is in paint.
At the same time Pieter Brueghel the elder, another Cock-trained artist, who escaped to paint, was producing prints in a totally different style; beautifully drawn but simply engraved. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c 1525 &ndash September 9, 1569) was a Netherlandish Renaissance He only etched one plate himself, a superb landscape, the Rabbit Hunters, but produced many drawings for the Antwerp specialists to work up, of peasant life, satires, and newsworthy events.
Meanwhile numerous other engravers in the Netherlands continued to produce vast numbers of reproductive and illustrative prints of widely varying degrees of quality and appeal - the two by no means always going together. Notable dynasties, often publishers as well as artists, include the Wierix family, the Saenredams, and Aegidius Sadeler and several of his relations. Aegidius Sadeler (sometimes written Egidius, or Gilles) (c 1570 - 1629 was a Flemish Baroque era painter and engraver; the best (Hind of a Philippe Galle founded another long-lived family business. Philip or Philips Galle ( Haarlem 1537 &ndash Antwerp March 1612 was best known as a publisher of Old master prints which he also produced as Theodor de Bry specialised in illustrating books on new colonial areas. Theodorus de Bry (1528 – 1598 was a Engraver, Goldsmith and editor who travelled around Europe starting from the City of Liège (where he
17th century
The 17th century saw a continuing increase in the volume of commercial and reproductive printmaking; Rubens, like Titian before him, took great pains in adapting the trained engravers in his workshop to the particular style he wanted, though several found his demands too much and left. The generation after him produced a number of widely dispersed printmakers with very individual and personal styles; by now etching had become the normal medium for such artists.
Rembrandt bought a printing-press for his house in the days of his early prosperity, and continued to produce etchings (always so called collectively, although many have engraving or drypoint as well) until his bankruptcy, when he lost both house and press. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher. Fortunately his prints have always been keenly collected, and what seems to be a high proportion of his intermediate states have survived, often in only one or two impressions. He was clearly very directly involved in the printing process himself, and probably selectively wiped the plate of ink himself to produce effects surface tone on many impressions. He also experimented continually with the effects of different papers. He produced prints on a wider range of subjects than his paintings, with several pure landscapes, many self-portraits that are often more extravagantly fanciful than his painted ones, some erotic (at any rate obscene) subjects, and a great number of religious prints. He became increasingly interested in strong lighting effects, and very dark backgrounds. His reputation as the greatest etcher in the history of the medium was established in his lifetime, and never questioned since. Few of his paintings left Holland whilst he lived, but his prints were circulated throughout Europe, and his wider reputation was initially based on them alone. A number of other Dutch artists of the century produced an original prints of quality, mostly sticking to the same categories of genre they painted. The eccentric Hercules Seghers and Jacob van Ruysdael produced landscapes, Nicolaes Berchem and Karel Dujardin animals in landscape, and Adriaen van Ostade peasant scenes. Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers or Segers (c 1589 – c 1638 was a Dutch painter and Printmaker of the Dutch Golden Age. Jacob Izaaksoon van Ruisdael (or Ruysdael) (c 1628 - March 14, 1682) the most celebrated of the Dutch landscapists, was Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem ( 1 October 1620 - 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch painter Karel Dujardin ( Sep 27 1626, Amsterdam - Nov 20 1678, Venice) Dutch animal and landscape painter Adriaen van Ostade (bapt Adriaen Hendricx 10 December 1610 – bur None was very prolific.
.jpg/250px-Die_Auferweckung_das_Lazarus_(Castiglione).jpg)
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione grew up in Genoa and was greatly influenced by the stays there of Rubens and van Dyck when he was a young artist. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized March 23, 1609 - 1664 was an Italian Baroque artist painter Printmaker and draftsman Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (baptized March 23, 1609 - 1664 was an Italian Baroque artist painter Printmaker and draftsman Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English His etching technique was extremely fluent, and in all mediums he often repeats the same few subjects in a large number of totally different compositions. His early prints include a number of bravura tratments of classical and pastoral themes, whilst later religious subjects predominate. He also produced a large series of small heads of exotically dressed men, which were often used by other artists. He was technically innovative, inventing the monotype and also the oil sketch intended to be a final product. Monotyping is a type of Printmaking made by Drawing or Painting on a smooth non-absorbent surface An Oil sketch or oil study is an artwork made primarily in Oil paints and which is more abbreviated in handling than a fully finished painting He, like Rembrandt, was interested in chiaroscuro effects (contrasts of light and dark). Chiaroscuro ( Italian for light-dark) is a term in Art for a contrast between light and dark
Jusepe de Ribera may have learned etching in Rome, but all his fewer than thirty prints were made in Naples during the 1620's when his career as a painter seems to have been in the doldrums. Jusepe de Ribera ( January 12, 1591 - 1652 was a Spanish Tenebrist painter and Printmaker, also known as José de Ribera in Spanish Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the When the painting commissions began to flow again, he all but abandoned printmaking. His plates were sold after his death to a Rome publisher, who made a better job of marketing them than Ribera himself. His powerful and direct style developed almost immediately, and his subjects and style remain close to those of his paintings.
Jacques Bellange was a court painter in Lorraine, a world that was to vanish abruptly in the Thirty Years War shortly after his death. Jacques Bellange (c 1575 place unknown - 1616 was an artist and Printmaker from Lorraine, now in France, whose Etchings and some Lorraine (Lorraine Lothringen is a historical area in present-day northeast France. For the Mauritanian Thirty Years' War see Char Bouba war. For the band see The 30 Years War. No surviving painting of his can be identified with confidence, and most of those sometimes attributed to him are unimpressive. His prints, mostly religious, are Baroque extravaganzas that were regarded with horror by many 19th century critics, but have come strongly back into fashion - the very different Baroque style of another Lorraine artist Georges de la Tour has enjoyed a comparable revival. Georges de La Tour ( Vic-sur-Seille, March 13, 1593 &ndash Lunéville, January 30, 1652) was a painter, He was the first Lorraine printmaker (or artist) of stature, and must have influenced the younger Jacques Callot, who remained in Lorraine but was published in Paris, where he greatly influenced French printmaking. Jacques Callot (c 1592 - 1635 was a Baroque Printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine (an independent state on the North-Eastern Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city
Callot's technical innovations in improving the recipes for etching ground were crucial in allowing etching to rival the detail of engraving, and in the long term spelt the end of artistic engraving. Previously the unreliable nature of the grounds used meant that artists could not risk investing too much effort in an etched plate, as the work might be ruined by leaks in the ground. Equally multiple stoppings-out, enabling lines etched to different depths by varying lengths of exposure to the acid, had been too risky. [8] Callot himself led the way in exploiting the new possibilities; most of his etchings are small but full of tiny detail, and he developed a sense of recession in landscape backgrounds in etching with multiple bitings to etch the background more lightly than the foreground. He also used a special etching needle called an echoppè to produce swelling lines like those created by the burin in an engraving, and also reinforced the etched lines with a burin after biting; which soon became common practice among etchers. Callot etched a great variety of subjects in over 1400 prints, from grotesques to his tiny but extremely powerful series on the Miseries of War. [9] Abraham Bosse, a Parisian illustrative etcher popularized Callot's methods in a hugely successful manual for students. Abraham Bosse (c 1602-1604 &ndash February 14 1676) was a French artist mainly as a Printmaker in Etching, but also in His own work is successful in his declared aim of making etchings look like engravings, and is highly evocative of French life at the middle of the century.
Wenzel Hollar was a Bohemian (Czech) artist who fled his country in the Thirty Years War, settling mostly in England (he was besieged at Basing House in the English Civil War, and then followed his Royalist patron into a new exile in Antwerp, where he worked with a number of the large publishers there). Václav Hollar (ˈvatslaf ˈɦolar known in England as Wenceslaus Hollar or sometimes Wenzel ( July 13, 1607 - March 25 Bohemia (Čechy; Bohemia Czechy is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czechs (Češi ˈt͡ʃɛʃɪ archaic Čechové) are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic Basing House, Hampshire, was a major English Tudor Palace and Castle that once rivalled Hampton Court Palace in its size The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. He produced great numbers of etchings in a straightforward realist style, many topographical, including large aerial views, portraits, and others showing costumes, occupations and pastimes. A bird's-eye view is a View of an object from above as though the observer were a Bird, often used in the making of Blueprints, Floor plans Stefano della Bella was something of an Italian counterpart to Callot, producing many very detailed small etchings, but also larger and freer works, closer to the Italian drawing tradition. Stefano della Bella ( 18 May 1610 - 12 July 1664) was an Italian Printmaker known for Etchings of many subjects Anthony van Dyck produced only a large series of portrait prints of contemporary notables, the Iconographia for which he only etched a few of the heads himself, but in a brilliant style, that had great influence on 19th century etching. Ludwig von Siegen was a German soldier and courtier, who invented the technique of mezzotint, which in the hands of better artists than he was to become an important, mostly reproductive, technique in the 18th century. Ludwig von Siegen (1609 ? Utrecht &ndash c 1680 ? Wolfenbüttel, Germany was a German soldier and amateur Engraver, who invented the Mezzotint is a Printmaking process of the intaglio family technically a Drypoint method
The last third of the century produced relatively little original printmaking of great interest, although illustrative printmaking reached a high level of quality. French portrait prints, most often copied from paintings, were the finest in Europe and often extremely brilliant, with the school including both etching and engraving, often in the same work. The most important artists were Claude Mellan, an etcher from the 1630s onwards, and his contemporary Jean Morin, whose combination of engraving and etching influenced many later artists. Claude Mellan ( 23 May 1598 in Abbeville – 9 March 1688 in Paris) was a French engraver and Jean Morin (in Latin, Joannes Morinus) ( 1591 - 28 February 1659) was a French theologian and biblical scholar Robert Nanteuil was official portrait engraver to Louis XIV, and produced over two hundred brilliantly engraved portraits of the court and other notable French figures. Robert Nanteuil (1623 or 1630 - 1678 was a French Printmaker in Engraving. Early years Birth and ancestry Louis XIV was born in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on September 5 1638 and bore the Heir apparent
18th century
The extremely popular engravings of William Hogarth in England were little concerned with technical printmaking effects; in many he was producing reproductive prints of his own paintings (a surprisingly rare thing to do) that only set out to convey his crowded moral compositions as clearly as possible. William Hogarth (10 November 1697 &ndash 26 October 1764 was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic It would not be possible, without knowing, to distinguish these from his original prints, which have the same aim. He priced his prints to reach a middle and even upper working-class market, and was brilliantly successful in this.
Canaletto was also a highly successful painter, and though his relatively few prints are veduti, they are rather different from his painted ones, and fully aware of the possibilities of the etching medium. This is about the first and better known artist "Canaletto" for his nephew and pupil sometimes also called "Canaletto" especially in Poland and Germany see A veduta ( Italian for "view" plural vedute) is a highly detailed usually large-scale Painting of a cityscape or some other Piranesi was primarily a printmaker, a technical innovator who extended the life of his plates beyond what was previously possible. His Views of Rome - well over a hundred huge plates, were backed by a serious understanding of Roman and modern architecture, and brilliantly exploit the drama both of the ancient ruins and Baroque Rome. Many prints of Roman views had been produced before, but Piranesi's vision has become the benchmark. Gianbattista Tiepolo, near the end of his long career produced some brilliant etchings, subjectless capprichi of a landscape of classical ruins and pine trees, populated by an elegant band of beautiful young men and women, philosophers in fancy dress, soldiers and satyrs. See also Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (or Giandomenico Tiepolo) or Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo, both sons of Giovanni Battista Bad-tempered owls look down on the scenes. His son Domenico produced many more etchings in a similar style, but of much more conventional subjects, often reproducing his father's paintings.
The technical means at the disposal of reproductive printmakers continued to develop, and many superb and sought-after prints were produced by the English mezzotinters (many of them in fact Irish) and by French printmakers in a variety of techniques. Mezzotint is a Printmaking process of the intaglio family technically a Drypoint method French attempts to produce high quality colour prints were successful by the last part of the century, although the techniques were expensive. Prints could now be produced that closely resembled drawings in crayon or watercolours. Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium A crayon is a stick of colored Wax, Charcoal, Chalk, or other materials used for writing and Drawing. Watercolor ( US) or Watercolour ( UK) (and "aquarelle" in French is a Painting method Some original prints were produced in these methods, but few major artists used them.
The rise of the novel led to a demand for small, highly expressive, illustrations for them. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story Many fine French and other artists specialised in these, but clearly standing out from the pack is the work of Daniel Chodowiecki, a German of Polish origin who produced over a thousand small etchings. Daniel Niklaus Chodowiecki (16 October 1726 – 1801 was a Polish - German painter and Printmaker with Huguenot ancestry who is most famous as an Mainly illustrations for books, these are wonderfully drawn, and follow the spirit of the times, through the cult of sentiment to the revolutionary and nationalist fervour of the start of the 19th century. The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation
Goya's superb but violent aquatints often look as though they are illustrating some unwritten work of fiction, but their meaning must be elucidated from their titles, often containing several meanings, and the brief comments recorded by him about many of them. Aquatint is an intaglio Printmaking technique a variant of Etching. Aquatint is an intaglio Printmaking technique a variant of Etching. His prints show from early on the macabre world that appears only in hints in the paintings until the last years. They were nearly all published in several series, of which the most famous are: Caprichos (1799), Los desastres de la guerra (The Disasters of War from after 1810, but unpublished for fifty years after). Rather too many further editions were published after his death, when his delicate aquatint tone had been worn down, or reworked.
William Blake was as technically unconventional as he was in subject-matter and everything else, pioneering a relief etching process that was later to become the dominant technique of commercial illustration for a time. William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827 was an English poet, painter, and Printmaker. Many of his prints are pages for his books, with text and image on the same plate, as in the 15th century block-books. The Romantic Movement saw a revival in original printmaking in several countries, with Germany taking a large part once again; many of the Nazarene movement were printmakers. The name Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art In England, John Sell Cotman etched many landscapes and buildings in an effective, straightforward style. John Sell Cotman ( 16 May 1782 &ndash 24 July 1842) was an artist of the Norwich school and an associate of John Crome JMW Turner, produced several print series including one, the Liber Studiorum, which consisted of seventy-one etchings with mezzotint that were influential on landscape artists; according to Linda Hults, this series of prints amounts to "Turner's manual of landscape types, and . Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 &ndash 19 December 1851 was an English Romantic landscape painter, Watercolourist and . . a statement of his philosophy of landscape. "[10] With the relatively few etchings of Delacroix the period of the old master print can be said to come to an end. Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 &ndash 13 August 1863 was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of Printmaking was to revive powerfully later in the 19th and 20th centuries, in a great variety of techniques.
See also
Notes
- ^ Prints and Printmaking, Antony Griffiths, p, British Museum Press (in UK), 2nd ed. List of Printmakers Artists who engaged significantly in Printmaking. , 1996 ISBN 0-7141-2608-X
- ^ Richard Field, Fifteenth Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965
- ^ An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Arthur M. Hind, p, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1935 (in USA), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963 ISBN 0-486-20952-0
- ^ The Renaissance Print, David Landau & Peter Parshall, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2
- ^ A number have survived pasted on the inside of the lids of boxes or chests, like this example
- ^ a b JA Levinson (ed); Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art; National Gallery of Art, 1973,LOC 7379624
- ^ Levinson No. 83
- ^ Mayor op cit Nos 455-460
- ^ Arthur Hind, A History of Etching and Engraving, 1923, pgs. 158-160
- ^ Linda Hults, The Print in the Western World: An Introductory History, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1996, pg. 522.
References
- Prints and Printmaking, Antony Griffiths, British Museum Press (in UK),2nd edn, 1996 ISBN 0-7141-2608-X
- A History of Engraving and Etching, Arthur M. Hind, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1923 (in USA), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963 ISBN 0-486-20954-7
- An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Arthur M. Hind, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1935 (in USA), reprinted Dover Publications, 1963 ISBN 0-486-20952-0
- Master E. S. , Alan Shestack, Pliladelphia Museum of Art, 1967
- Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art; JA Levinson (ed); National Gallery of Art, 1973,LOC 7379624
- The Renaissance Print, David Landau & Peter Parshall, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2
- A Hyatt Mayor, Prints and People, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Princeton, 1971, ISBN 0691003262
- KL Spangeberg (ed), Six Centuries of Master Prints, Cincinnati Art Museum, 1993,ISBN 0931537150
- Bartrum, Giulia; German Renaissance Prints, 1490-1550; British Museum Press, 1995, ISBN 071412604
Further reading
- Alan Shestack; Fifteenth century Engravings of Northern Europe; 1967, National Gallery of Art, Washington (Catalogue), LOC 67-29080
- Giulia Bartrum, Albrecht Dürer and his Legacy, British Museum Press, 2002, ISBN 0714126330
- Mark McDonald, Ferdinand Columbus, Renaissance Collector, 2005, British Museum Press, ISBN 978-0-7141-2644-9
- Christopher White, The Late Etchings of Rembrandt, 1969, British Museum/Lund Humphries, London
- Reed, Sue Welsh & Wallace, Richard (eds), Italian Etchers of the Renaissance and Baroque, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1989, ISBN 0-87846-306-2 or 304-4 (pb)
- Anthony Griffiths & Craig Hartley, Jacques Bellange, C. 1575-1616, Printmaker of Lorraine, British Museum Press, 1997, ISBN-10: 071412611X
- Anthony Griffiths (ed), Landmarks in Print Collecting - Connoisseurs and Donors at the British Museum since 1753, 1996, British Museum Press, ISBN 0714126098
External links
- The Printed Image in the West: History and Techniques from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Timeline of Art
- Large list of links to museum etc. online images of old master prints
- Washington Post review of NGA exhibition on C15 German woodcuts
- Old master prints blog
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