Prints

I really enjoy learning new words, even ones that can not serve my Scrabble game. Today I learned the term for early prints: Incunabula. The word means cradle in Latin but was used to designate simple prints usually of a single easy image produced during the earliest stages of printing from movable type (apparently before 1500)–perhaps a saint card that could be carried on one's person.

Though the Chinese invented paper and printed books and pictures from woodblocks, the 15th century radicalized printing technology. With the advent of movable text, suddenly a whole host of complications could be introduced into a picture as well. Individually designed artist prints started being created, in which the artist was on site to confirm the quality of the piece.

Woodcuts precede metal engraving but both techniques require a great deal of skill, which is one reason why so many woodblock prints are not pleasing to me. The technique is often rough, something you never find with Dürer.

Albrecht Dürer was born in Nüremburg, the son of a goldsmith who had the advantage of being able to travel after completing his apprenticeship under Michael Wolgemut, a successful artist with a large studio. It is possible that he planned to go see Schongauer, the great engraver, but when he arrived in Colmar, Schongauer had died the month previous.

This marvelous engraving of The Temptation of Saint Anthony is an example of Schongauer's work. In engraving, v-shaped grooves are carved, with a tool called a burin, into metal (usually copper but silver, gold and other metals can work too). Ink is spread across so that it seeps into the grooves, the sheet of metal is then wiped clean so that the only ink is in the indentations before a piece of paper is placed on it and pressed with the image. The engraving appears on the paper as a mirror image of the engraving. Vasari says that Michelangelo copied this engraving for his own Trial of Saint Anthony.

Dürer is known for his engravings and they are beautiful, though his oil and watercolor paintings also deserve to be appreciated. In the Fall of Man, from 1504, we can see all of his skill evident. Not only does he produce subtle shadows on the skin of Adam and Eve, but the animals and woods reveal his ready hand at nature too. A placard hangs from the stick that Adam is holding in his right hand which dates and signs the piece.

Adam, I am told, recalls the Apollo Belvedere, which was excavated in Italy during Dürer's lifetime. Most seem to believe that he would have seen a drawing of it, which he then used as a model for Adam's posture. Remembering that engraving produces a mirror reflection allows the model to become even more evident.

Prints are still used by artists to allow their work to be disseminated, appreciated by those many of us who can not afford the larger, more expensive canvas works. The history of prints and printmaking deserves more of my attention but suffice to say that it is an excellent way to collect and support those artists whose work you admire but can not afford. Limited edition series become valuable in their own right, if that is an issue of concern for you...and if you really need proof: Warhol. But that is another print conversation altogether.