Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
Search
The Journal
Subscribe
Reviews
Articles
Calendar
About Us
Resources
Directory
Among the very first items accessioned by the Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design (founded in 1877 along
with the school where I teach) was a set of etchings by Salvator Rosa. Although the artist made the plates in the 17th
century, the impressions are from the 1870s, printed in reddish-brown ink on 19th century paper. These prints were
made at the Calcografia in Rome, the worlds largest repository of printing matrices. Subsequent curators have
collected impressions made closer to the artists lifetime and our Calcografia Rosas are now catalogued as restrikes,
but they continue to tell an important story about the early aspirations of collecting institutions in the United States.
Just as casts of Classical and Renaissance sculpture were assembled to bring masterpieces of European art to
American audiences, modern impressions of old plates had a significant place in Americas fledgling cultural
institutions.
RISDs early acquisition of Rosas etchings is a small, if telling, episode in the long history of the Calcografia, now part
of Romes Istituto Nationale per la Grafica. This collection of 23,400 printing matrices was assembled over centuries
from a variety of sources. Pope Clement XII founded the Calcografia in 1738 with a cache of 9000 plates from the
famed Roman print publisher De Rossi. The 19th century added collections of matrices by individual artists, including
plates by Rosa, Volpato, Canova and Piranesi. In addition, new plates reproducing famous works of art and
architecture were commissioned from leading Italian printmakers. Impressions from these plates were kept in stock and
could be ordered. The Calcografia maintained plates in printing condition: popular plates were steel-faced to ensure
longer printing life and plates deemed obscene by Papal censors received appropriate fig leaves.
This pattern of collecting and printing continued into the 20th century. Impressions from the most popular plates were
made as late as the 1970s when it was decided to cease printing and protect the matrices from further wear. Most
importantly, the matrices of important artists such as Giorgio Morandi and Carlo Carra were added to the holdings. In
1986, some 700 plates produced by the Stamperia Romero in Rome were donated, documenting the activity of some of
Italys most progressive artists from 1961 to its closing in the 80s. The Istituto continues to commission and publish
new print projects in its studio while its scholarly mission embraces cutting edge technical and historical research.
1 of 9
Sign In
ShareThisArticle
3
RelatedtoThisArticle
Cameron Martin
Jordi Alcaraz
Publishing, Secrecy and Curiosity in a
German Conclave Print
Dorothy Cross
Wendy Artin
Robert Cottingham
Printmaking Revolution - New
Advancements in Technology, Safety and
Sustainability
Mokuhanga International
Printed Bodies and the Materiality of Early
Modern Prints
Toyin Odutola
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
Fig. 1. Giorgio Ghisi, Il Giudizio universale (Ghisi Composite) after Michelangelo (1549),
10 matrices and an additional portrait of Michelangelo, burin on copper, entire composition
122 x 107 cm. Rome, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Inv. 201/1-11.
For an engraver, walking into an exhibition solely devoted to intaglio plates is an exhilarating experience. After all, the
plate is the actual object I make when I work on a print. Though a handful of plates may get shown in historical
exhibitions or at print fairs, their surfaces are often obscured by dried ink, tarnish, or varnishes, or they are disfigured
by cancellation marks or submerged in deep glass cases. The Calcografia plates are beautifully clean and many of
them have not been steel plated to prevent wear. They were mounted in acrylic and hung on the wall, making it
possible to take in the entire object as well as the details. To see the tool marks of the masters was a rare privilege. I
2 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
had many questions about depth of line, layering of marks, spacing and
effects of wear as I examined the plates with the Optivisor I always carry
when I look at prints. The Drawing Center, thoughtfully, had magnifiers on
hand for visitors who were not so well equipped.
The exhibition
opened with the
plates for Giorgio
Ghisis magnificent
engraving (c. 1548)
after Michelangelos
Last Judgment in the
Sistine Chapel (Fig.
1). Distributed over
10 irregular shaped
plates, the entire
assemblage is over a
meter wide. Fine
impressions of the
complete set are
Fig. 2. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Il Genio
extremely rare. This
della Pittura (1648), etching on copper, 37.8 x 25.2
popular print was
cm. Courtesy of Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica,
Rome, VIC 369.
issued many times
and the plates were
probably well worn
by the time they entered the Calcografia. Perhaps it is only when
viewed as a group of plates that the image has such a strong
Fig. 3. Arnold Van Westerhout, Nuova raccolta di varie e
impact. The oversize scale of the multiple matrices gives some
diverse sorti di fiori (1631), etching on copper, 29.9 x 20.6 cm.
idea of the grandeur of Michelangelos invention, while the
Courtesy of Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome, VIC
puzzle-like interlocking shapes imply the seams of the giornata
1469/8.
(days work) in the fresco. It is an imposing sculptural object, with
a physical presence that is only rivaled by some of the
experimental shaped plates from the 1970s, such as those by Umberto Mastroianni and Nino Franchina.
Plates for famous prints by Frederico Barocci, Pietro Testa, Rosa and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione chronicled high
points in the development of Italian etching in the 16th and 17th centuries, but also made the point that sometimes
paper trumps plates, if the paper was pulled early on and the plate had a hard life. The feathery touches in
Castigliones plate for Il Genio della Pitura (1648) (Fig. 2) are still evident, but in other examples, such as the Barocci
Annunciation of 1584/88, the lines are worn and perhaps retouched, suggesting that the image would be better studied
3 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
in a fine, early impression than in the plate itself. The surprise stars of this section were by lesser-known artists.
Arnold van Westerhouts flower studies after Jacques Bailly (1631) (Fig. 3), offered graceful mixed bouquets rendered
in etching, the forms delicately outlined and shaded without cross hatching. Pure engraving was reserved for the
exquisite calligraphy surrounding the plants. Another highlight was an allegorical frontispiece for a book of artistic
anatomy attributed to Franois Andriot after a sketch by Charles Errard and dated 1691 (Fig. 4). This image depicts a
sculptural group of three skeletons around a draped relief of flayed bodies. It is rendered with incredibly precise burin
work. Its near pristine state of preservation allowed one to study the multiple engraved levels that differentiate areas of
shadow, middle tone and light.
Piranesi was, of course, a central figure. (see Messing About With Masterpieces:
New Work by Giambattista Piranesi) A double-sided plate illustrated the two
sides of his character: the comparatively staid Piazza di Monte Cavallo showed
him as the master of the Roman view. Staged biting created deep atmospheric
space and Piranesis technique of etching linear textures into his exceptionally
wide lines to make them hold ink is evident in the foreground forms. The backside
of the plate was also etched, though this was only discovered in the mid-1960s
during an inventory of Piranesis plates. The image, La caduta di Feronte, was
finally catalogued and a few impressions were printed. It is in the florid rococo
style of the Grotteschi and like that series is dated c. 1748. The scratchy lines
were bitten to many levels and there seems to be some damage that happened in
the acid bath, but it is a marvelous, rhythmic image in which figure, earth,
architecture, water, foliage and clouds swirl in harmony. Apparently, it was not
published in Piranesis lifetime, perhaps because the artist did not consider it
publishable. Turning from this plate to the next in the exhibition, we watch an artist
at the point of failure leap from the muddiness of the unpublished plate to the
brilliant transparency of Carceri XV (Fig. 5). First worked on in 1749-50 and
reworked by 1761, the Carceri plate was a revelation for me, having studied
impressions of the two states of the print over many years. Because the later
revisions were etched more deeply, they cut through the original lines. On paper
the earlier work is less apparent. On the plate the two states seem to exist
simultaneously.
The 19th century witnessed both the pinnacle of virtuoso reproductive engraving and its swan song. The most
stunning example of this genre is Giovanni Folos plate after Antonio Canovas sculpture Ercole e Lica (Fig. 6),
completed before the engravers death in 1836. Canova carefully supervised the production of prints after his
sculptures, directing draftsmen such as Giovanni Tognoli, who made the drawing for this engraving. Emphasizing the
importance of silhouette in his sculptural compositions, Canova chose an ideal vantage point for translation from three
into two dimensions. The contour is not indicated by an outline or even by a dark background, as in the French
4 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
5 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
6 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
Fig. 7. Giorgio Morandi, Natura morta con vaso, lumino e piatto (verso) (1929),
etching and aquatint on copper, 24.9 x 25.8 cm. Courtesy of Istituto Nazionale per la
Grafica, Rome, VIC 1799/30r.
installation of ten large etched plates by Paolo Canevari, (commissioned by the Istituto and produced at the Calcografia
with the assistance of master printer Antonio Sannino), which supplies one answer to this question. Canevari etched
and drypointed highly charged imagesa skull, cross, the Collosseum, The Bible and Mein Kampf, most engulfed in
flamesonto ten large (almost 3 x 5 feet) polished copperplates. The plates received a reflective nickel plating and
were bent at the edges and mounted so they stood out from the wall. The incised lines, depicting whirls of smoke that
contrast with solid forms, are inked as for printing in order to make the images more visible. At the same time, viewers,
reflected in the plates, become part of the images as they look. Clearly, though they refer to prints through their
materials and technique, here the plates are the primary objects.
The historical plates have a more equivocal status. They are striking for their physical presence, their tactile, highly
wrought qualities as objects. Many of them are strongly sculptural and all of them have subtle qualities of relief. They
employ drawing skills in their making, but they are not quite the same as drawings. Their makers understood them as
three-dimensional utilitarian objects, manipulating both images and three-dimensionality in reverse in order to impress
images onto surfaces. If they are not quite drawings, it has to be said they are also not quite sculptures. Even though
7 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
the makers may have spent months and even years working on the
metal, the primary object was always the graphic work on paper. For
the platemaker to lose sight of this goal would be disastrous, resulting in
a piece of decorated metalwork rather than a print.
Matrices, and by extension the prints they produce, have a unique and
curious identity in relation to other classes of art objects. The matrix
and every print pulled from it constitute the entire work of art. This is
true even when they are permanently dispersed or some elements in
the series are lost. (Sculptor Jonathan Bonner touched on this idea in a
recent project in which he had a professional lettering specialist
engrave palindromes on copperplates. The plates were printed in an
edition of one and the plate and proof were framed together, uniting the
plate and the print as a single entity.) Every plate in the Drawing Center
exhibition is intimately linked to the impressions it has made, perhaps
occasionally numbering in the thousands, often over many centuries. It
was only after looking at the plates on view that I remembered not only
the Salvator Rosas at the RISD Museum, but also the many hundreds of
impressions I had seen from these matrices over the years in museums,
private collections and on the market. Being in the presence of the
plate, the site of production, made me powerfully aware of the point at
which each individual print started its path in the world.
Decalogo series, etched copper and dry-point, nickelplated, 138 x 88 x 2 cm. Courtesy of the artist and
Gallery Christian Stein, Milan.
1. James McNeill Whistler is a prime example of an artist who used selective wiping and plate tone to augment
effects suggested by the etched lines in his plates. The artist wiped many of the etchings in the Venice Set, first
exhibited in 1880, to leave thin layers of ink on parts of the non-image surface of the plate, emphasizing effects of
atmosphere and light. Professional printers in Europe and America picked up on these techniques during the final
quarter of the 19th century and well into the 20th, extensively employing retroussage which involves heating the
plate after it has been wiped and going over the lines with a rag to pull out some ink and soften the edges. E. S.
Lumsdens book, The Art of Etching, offers an excellent compendium of Etching Revival platemaking and printing
techniques.
2. Mei-Ying Sungs study, William Blake and the Art of Engraving. London: Pickering & Chatto Ltd, 2009
8 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM
Home
The Journal
Subscribe
http://artinprint.org/index.php/articles/article/drawing_and_its_double
Reviews
Articles
Calendar
About Us
Resources
Directory
Advertise
All contents copyright Art in Print, 2012. Art in Print is an independent 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the history and culture of printed art. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
9 of 9
2/21/2013 8:42 PM