IVITALY

Thesixteenth century brings new developments to be noted, new factors to be considered. In Germany it rings in the culmination of artistic development under the leadership of Albrecht Dürer, whose towering personality lifts both engraving and woodcut to high levels of excellence. The cultivation of the technique of engraving has carried Germany far and away beyond the South, in a technical perfection duly appreciated in Italy; and when the demand for prints grows, when they become a marketable article, the Italian engraver copies German prints in order to gain the requisite technical knowledge. This Italianengraver, however, is not a painter-engraver as in Germany, an artist, namely, engraving his own designs. We know that the Italian artist continues intent on grander tasks andindifferent to the charms of the graver, hence a division of labor: the busy painter jots down the sketch or cartoon and the professional engraver undertakes the lengthy task of transferring, of interpreting the artist’s drawing by means of the graver. The subtle continuity of thought, from the first conception to the finished plate, which we prize in original engraving, is necessarily destroyed in such collaboration, but the engraver, working exclusively on the copper plate, is able infinitely to vary and develop the resources of the process by dint of practice. A noted instance of such collaboration is found in the “Death of Dido,” engraved after Raphael’s design by Marcantonio Raimondi. The lifework of Marcantonio is mainly devoted to the reproduction of sketches of the great Urbinate, whose genius inspires the engraver and lifts him to the highest rank in sixteenth-century Italy. His pliable graver, trained by much copying after Dürer and other Northern masters, delicately outlines the figures.The shade-strokes follow and accent in easy curves the rounding forms and the gradations of light and shade. There is variety in the line, no longer the uniform diagonal shading of the early period. It is, in a word, excellent engraving, which is seen likewise in his “Adam and Eve,” after a figure sketch of Raphael. The latter print shows also the pitfalls which await the thoughtless copyist. Raphael’s cartoon for this print shows the two lovely figures without any background whatever; Marcantonio, always at a loss without a definite model to copy, looked for a suitable background, and found it in a German print which he faithfully pieced in, peasant houses and all, as a setting for Adam and Eve!

DEATH OF DIDOMarcantonio Raimondi

DEATH OF DIDO

Marcantonio Raimondi

ADAM AND EVEMarcantonio Raimondi

ADAM AND EVE

Marcantonio Raimondi

About this time the publisher of prints appears, buying plates from engravers and publishing them, centralizing a commerce which—before this—had been carried on by the engraver himself or by the artist who employed him. This commercial factorlowers the standard of engraving, both by the choice of subjects demanded of the engraver, with a view mainly to a ready sale, and by the quality of work tolerated. The only excuse for some of the plates published must have been their cheapness. Under these conditions and, moreover, at a time when painting was rapidly declining, one cannot look to the graphic arts for masterpieces. Venice, it is true, is yet in her glory; encouraged by the interest of Titian, woodcut flourishes for a while at the hands of Boldrini and others. As to engraving, Venetian art demanded of it a technique strongly expressive of color; a new impetus was needed for a revival of the medium. This was supplied by engravers from the Netherlands, where the technique of engraving had been highly elaborated in this the latter part of the sixteenth century. A noted representative of this Italian revival is the painter-engraver Agostino Carracci. If we examine this portrait of Titian, engraved after the greatmaster’s own painting, Carracci’s skill in engraving will be at once apparent. Long parallel strokes, close together, give a rich deep hue to cloak and cap. The brown fur trimming, with its loose, broad handling, contrasts effectively with the delicate work on beard and hair. The short, swelling stroke used in the light background, the clear, transparent cross-hatching on the cheek, all denote great advance in differentiating this variety of textures.

TITIANAgostino Carracci

TITIAN

Agostino Carracci

MADONNA AND CHILDFederigo Barocci

MADONNA AND CHILD

Federigo Barocci

Thereafter, as engraving sinks into routine and commercialism, let us turn to etching, a process likewise introduced from the North and practiced in Italy since the sixteenth century. Its easy technique offered many advantages to the artist over the intricacies which had crept into engraving, to be mastered only by long practice. The ease and freedom of the etched line, its expressiveness and—not least—the accidental effects resulting from unforeseen action of the acid, appealed to the artists, but the processcame too late to share with engraving in the reflected glory of the grand Renaissance period. Etching is the medium used by Parmeggiano, Primaticcio, Guido Reni, and many others, but they do not take the graphic arts any more seriously than their predecessors in Italian art. Their plates are hasty experimental jottings, which show that their main interest is centered on more pretentious conceptions; only rarely do they attempt the picture-like elaboration which we find in this “Madonna and Child.” It is the work of Federigo Barocci, certainly one of the best painter-etchers of the period, and reveals to some extent the rich, effective accents, the freshness and freedom of line attainable in etching, which is to find such splendid exponents in the Netherlands. It is well worth while, though not within the scope of this condensed review, to dally amidst these sixteenth-century etchings, and then, proceeding to a later period, to linger over the powerful, direct presentations ofGiuseppe Ribera and to glance at the figure sketches of Salvator Rosa. The eighteenth century brings us the spirits compositions of the two Tiepolo, effective, with sharp, sparkling play of light and shade, and Antonio Canale (Canaletto), who makes us feel the very breeze which blows, in his etchings, and the warmth of the sunshine which bathes his Venetian views. What more delightful glimpse of the Italian coast than this “Torre di Malghera” with the dazzling white watch-tower and the exquisite, luminous handling of sea, sky, and distance. The same eighteenth century witnesses an intense revival of activity in engraving. The technical triumphs then achieved in France stimulate Italian engravers, whose mastery of an elaborate technique is plentifully exemplified in the plates of Raphael Morghen, Volpato, Longhi, Toschi, and a number of other well-known men in the large group of “classical” engravers. Their energies and skill are mainly devoted to the interpretationof those glorious creations of painters of the Renaissance, which had entirely baffled the early engravers with their limited technical resources. These thousands of plates were exceedingly popular for many years, some of them—the “Last Supper” after Leonardo, engraved by Morghen, for instance—is much sought for to this day in fine impressions. Broadly speaking, while these engravings are certainly skillful achievements in a highly systematized, elaborate technique, their technical perfection is aggressive and imparts a formal coldness, a lifelessness, and a metallic quality, which doubtless explains—in part—their decline in popular favor during recent years.

TORRE DI MALGHERAAntonio Canale

TORRE DI MALGHERA

Antonio Canale

DIOGENESChiaroscuro woodcut by Ugo da Carpi

DIOGENES

Chiaroscuro woodcut by Ugo da Carpi

Before leaving the South, we must yet cast a glance at an interesting though minor manifestation of the graphic arts, thechiaroscuro. Repeated allusions have been made to the demand for color on the part of the general public. In response to this ever-present craving for the joy of varied tones, thechiaroscurotakes a step in the direction of painting by translating color into several graded tones giving the effect of a semi-colored wash-drawing. The process was used in various ways, in various countries and at various times, but the golden era ofchiaroscurois the sixteenth century in Italy. The example selected, “Diogenes,” by Ugo da Carpi, is one of the finest of the period. It is impossible to render in this monochrome reproduction the rich glow of superimposed tones of golden and greenish browns, which constitute its greatest charm;chiaroscurosmust be seen themselves to be appreciated. One can then see what manner of success attended the wood-cutter’s endeavors, the endless possibilities of variety of tones become apparent, also the difficulty attendant upon the accurate placing (register) of the paper on the three or more successive blocks printed from, one for each tone. A few scattered experiments in Germany, during the period of extensiveproduction in northern Italy, and thereafter a short-lived appearance here and there, such is—briefly—the history of thechiaroscurowoodcut.

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