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Introduction

A Matter of Tone

Chiaroscuro Woodblock Prints, 1520-1800
July 16 - October 31, 2004

In 1516, Ugo da Carpi petitioned the Venetian Senate for exclusive copyright for "a new way to print chiaro et scuro [light and dark]." His technique relied on printing multiple woodblocks over each other on a single piece of paper to create layers evoking the tonal washes of ink drawings. Ugo's interest in tone (the range of values from black through grays to white) paralleled a new and growing contemporary Italian interest in monochromatic drawings, paintings, and façade decorations for houses. Ugo stated that the technique would be "useful to many who take pleasure in drawing" (see Evelyn Lincoln, The Invention of the Italian Renaissance Printmaker. New Haven: 2000, p. 72); yet from the start, chiaroscuro prints required the translation of drawing into what became an independent exploration of value, tone, and form in print media. Despite Ugo's claim to have invented chiaroscuro printmaking, works on paper created with multiple colors and multiple woodblocks dated back more than a half century in northern Europe. The colored initial letters that appeared in German books of the mid-15th century were followed by experiments with chiaroscuro techniques in the first decade of the 16th century. Whereas northern artists typically used a key block to provide a continuous outline, Ugo's innovation dispensed with the key block and relied solely on tone blocks to create an image built from overlapping areas of different tonal values. Chiaroscuro prints were difficult and expensive to produce. They required multiple runs through the press, and the layers of ink were easily printed out of alignment. Only a few artists took up the challenge, and by the 19th century the technique was rarely used; yet the tonal range and virtuoso block-cutting continue to fascinate viewers to this day.

Selected Objects

Antonio Maria Zanetti I

An Old Man Standing, 1723

Antonio Maria Zanetti I

St. John and the Lamb, 1723

Andrea Andreani, woodcutter

Virtue Attacked by Love, Ignorance, Opinion and Error, 1585
No Image Available

John Baptist Jackson, designer

Marriage at Cana, 1740
No Image Available

John Baptist Jackson, designer

The Marriage at Cana, 1740

Antonio Maria Zanetti I

Madonna and Child, 1723

Italian

Saint Michael the Archangel Triumphing over the Devil, 1580 - 1620

French or Flemish

Venus and Adonis, late 1600s- early 1700s

Bartolomeo Coriolano

St. Jerome, 1637/40
No Image Available

Andrea Andreani

Eve Kneeling, 1587

Possibly Antonio da Trento, printmaker

St. Thomas, ca. 1530

Hendrick Goltzius

Nox, ca. 1588 - 1590

Hendrick Goltzius

Helios, ca. 1588 - 1590

Hendrick Goltzius

Demogorgon in the Cave of Eternity, ca. 1588 - 1590

Antonio Maria Zanetti I

St. John in the Desert with an Angel and the Lamb, 1725

Bartolomeo Coriolano

Sleeping Cupid, ca. 1640

Hendrick Goltzius

Oceanus, ca. 1588 - 1590

Hendrick Goltzius

Tethys, ca. 1588 - 1590

Hendrick Goltzius

Proserpine, ca. 1588 - 1590

Francesco Mazzuoli, called II Parmigianino

Study of an Antique Head of Julius Caesar, ca. 1530–1535

Attributed to Antonio da Trento, designer

Narcissus, ca.1527-30

Bartolomeo Coriolano

Mars and Bacchus, ca. 1589-90

Paulus Moreelse, designer

Cupid between Two Women, 1612

Hendrick Goltzius

Cliff on a Seashore, 1597 - 1600

Hendrick Goltzius

Mars, 1589 - 1590

Antonio Maria Zanetti I

Woman with an Amphora, 1724

Antonio da Trento, woodcutter

The Tiburtine Sibyl Showing the Virgin and Child to Augustus, ca. 1527-1530

Hendrick Goltzius

Landscape with a Farmhouse, ca. 1597 - 1600

Hendrick Goltzius

Bacchus, 1589 - 1590

More objects +

Exhibition Checklist

A Matter of Tone : Chiaroscuro Woodblock Prints, 1520-1800

July 16 - October 31, 2004
View Checklist PDF

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