Engravers and Etchers: Six Lectures Delivered on the Scammon Foundation at the Art Institute of Chicago, March 1916Carrington, Fitz Roy
History
Engravers and Etchers: Six Lectures Delivered on the Scammon Foundation at the Art Institute of Chicago, March 1916
Carrington, Fitz Roy
Engraving -- History; Etching -- History
Somewhat later in date, by an engraver of the Finiguerra School, is the
_Triumphal Procession of_ _Bacchus and Ariadne_, the most joyous of
all Florentine engravings. The original design was attributed at one
time to Botticelli; and although, as Herbert P. Horne has shown, it
cannot be by this master, it is similar in style to his compositions.
Whatever the immediate original, it shows marked traces of classical
influences, and its motive is directly derived from antique
sculpture--a sarcophagus in all probability. “The splendid design has
suffered not only from the feebleness of the engraving, but also from
the florid manner in which the engraver has exaggerated some of the
decorative details and added others.... In spite of the feebleness of
its execution it remains an incomparably greater work of art than any
other print in the Fine Manner.”[2]
[2] Sandro Botticelli. By Herbert P. Horne. London: George Bell & Sons.
1908. p. 84.
The Fine Manner, in which all of the engravings hitherto mentioned
are executed, owes its name to the method employed. The engraver has
incised his outlines upon the plate--probably unbeaten copper or
some even softer metal--and for his shading has employed a system of
delicate strokes, laid close to one another and overlaid with two, and,
at times, three, sets of cross-hatching. Such engravings, when printed,
as is usually the case, in a greenish or grayish ink, give a result
similar to a wash drawing. In the Broad Manner the style of engraving
is based upon that of pen drawing, with open, diagonal shade strokes
and without cross-hatching. The Broad Manner was finally developed by
Pollaiuolo and Mantegna, who modified it by a series of delicate lines
laid at an acute angle to the heavier shadings, blending the main lines
into a harmonious whole.
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