EN
imPRESSive NEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BRUGES PRINT ROOM
The art of collecting The print Sot’s Paradise by George Bickham is an apt introduction to this exhibition of highlights from the collection of the dealer and collector Guy Van Hoorebeke. This is because the assembled printed matter engraved here is representative of the variety of the newly purchased print collection. Some of the prints that Bickham shows are in fact actually in Guy Van Hoorebeke’s collection, or else were already owned by the Groeninge Museum. An example of the former is the portrait of Philippe de Champaigne, and of the latter the prints by Jacques Callot shown here. This sort of engraved trompe l’oeil collage is called a ‘medley’. It was an innovative print genre in early 18th-century London. Printmakers here displayed their virtuosity, on the one hand by creating illusory collage effects, and on the other by imitating various printmaking techniques. The whole thing is a sort of advertisement for the artist’s talents. In addition, this medley encourages the viewer to identify the prints pictured and to guess at a possible link between the various items of printed matter. The title of the print refers to the pamphlet Sot’s Paradise (also illustrated) by the 18th-century satirical writer Edward Wards.
The album in the showcase offers yet another introduction to this exhibition. It contains more than 600 portraits, most of which were done in the 16th and 17th centuries. The majority are likenesses of historical figures such as artists, philosophers, clerics, kings and warlords. They were probably assembled in this album by an 18th-century collector. Guy Van Hoorebeke’s collection contains a striking number of portraits, even though this genre actually did not sell well. This demonstrates well that when buying works, this dealer was sometimes guided more by his passion for prints than by his interest in financial profit.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder In the course of the 16th century, the demand for prints increased enormously. This necessitated the more efficient organisation of the production process. In many cases, the design, cutting, printing and distribution of prints were for this reason no longer all done by the same person. Production was usually coordinated by a publisher. He delegated the various tasks to a series of specialists. Around the mid-16th century, Hieronymus Cock was one of the most important publishers in Antwerp. He worked with leading engravers and designers. When Pieter Bruegel returned from his trip to Italy in 1554, he also started doing designs for this print publisher. This led to a long-term partnership that was maintained until the end of Bruegel’s career. His designs were made into prints by a variety of engravers.
In the print The Ass at School, a naughty pupil is receiving a beating from the schoolmaster amidst a class of noisy children. The attention is attracted mainly by the fellow pupil on the left who is studying a musical score. According to the inscription – which has been cut off this print – the ass is making an effort in vain: he can learn what he likes, but he will never become a horse. The print was done by Pieter van der Heyden, who usually kept faithfully to Bruegel’s designs. The North Netherlands printmaker Philips Galle also engraved designs by Pieter Bruegel, but he was a much more inventive artist than Van der Heyden and took more liberties with the designs. The print entitled Temperance is one of his. It comes from a series showing the Seven Virtues: a sequel to the Seven Deadly Sins that Bruegel had previously designed. Temperantia’s belt of snakes is a reference to the planet Mercury. Temperantia is surrounded by allegories of the arts that come under the influence of this planet, such as theatre and music, astronomy, geometry, rhetoric, linguistics and mathematics.
Mannerism in the Northern Netherlands Hendrick Goltzius introduced Mannerism into printmaking in the Netherlands in the 16th century. Mannerism is the artistic tendency that succeeded the harmonious style of the Renaissance. It is characterised by portrayals of unnaturally proportioned and overly muscular figures in contorted physical positions. Goltzius developed an engraving style of swelling lines that followed the curvature of these figures excellently. This method was much imitated by his pupils and fellow engravers including Jacob Matham, Jan Harmensz. Muller and Jan Saenredam.
‘Fui, non sum; es, non eris’: these words are inscribed on a grave on which a skeleton is sitting. It is a message to the elegant young man who – like the flower in his hand – is in the prime of his life. The skeleton reminds the young man of his mortality with the words ‘what I was, I am not; what you are, you will not be’. This sort of ‘vanitas’ picture, which draws the viewer’s attention to his transience, are a common genre in art. Jan Saenredam engraved this print from a work by Goltzius. Saenredam also engraved the print An Elderly Woman tempting a Young Man. In this print, a young couple is passing a table where an older woman with a strongbox is sitting. She cannot seduce the young man with her beauty like the woman with him, so she attracts his attention with the money she is counting out in front of him. This print is the counterpart to one in which an older man tries to seduce a young woman (not shown here).
Italian printmaking Marcantonio Raimondi played an important part in the printmaking of the Italian Renaissance. He developed an engraving technique that effortlessly imitated the chiaroscuro effects of painting and the volumes of sculpture. In a certain sense, he thereby laid the foundations for printed reproductions. Yet Raimondi was not a typical reproduction engraver. He did not make exact copies, but rather cited and paraphrased elements from other artists’ work. In this way he created his own interpretations of the examples he chose. Marco Dente and Agostino Veneziano, works of whose are shown here, belong to what was called the ‘School of Marcantonio’. These three artists regularly repeated complete compositions or details from their own and each other’s work. Naked Man carrying the Base of a Column, for example, was done by Agostino Veneziano after a print by Marcantonio Raimondi.
The artist Raphael occupied a key position in the production of prints by the school of Marcantonio Raimondi. The engravers cut a great many prints that can be traced back to works by this master painter. Raphael probably supplied the designs for these prints himself. Marco Dente’s Battle Scene, for example, was made after Raphael’s The Battle of the Milvian Bridge. This scene was also used by Giulio Romano for a fresco in the Sala di Costantino at the Vatican.
The monumental print John the Baptist preaching was done by Giovanni Battista Fontana. Approximately 68 prints are attributed to him. John the Baptist preaching is one of the few prints that Fontana did himself. As from 1573, this Veronese artist worked as court painter for Archduke Ferdinand II in Austria.
Rembrandt van Rijn The famous painter Rembrandt van Rijn was also an exceptionally talented etcher. He was what was called a peintre-graveur (painter-engraver), which means he converted his own pictures into prints. The etching technique is especially well suited to this. This is because it is not necessary to cut into a plate to make an etching. The artist draws in a coating of wax on the printing plate, and acid is then used to etch out the exposed lines. This meant that Rembrandt was able to draw just as easily as he would on paper. Rembrandt did natural, moving etchings in which he often played with the contrast between light and dark. In addition to the frequent portraits and mythological, biblical and historical scenes in his paintings, in his etchings this North Netherlands master also depicted other subjects, such as the nude and figure studies.
When Rembrandt did his etching Beggar in 1630, he had already been working as a self-employed artist in his studio in Leiden for several years. During this period he etched a great many beggars, tramps and quacks, and these prints became widely known. In this regard, he was inspired by the previously published prints of street figures by the French artist Jacques Callot, and possibly also by the work of the Italian Stefano Della Bella. In 1631 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam. A Naked Woman seated on a Mount dates from that year. It is one of the earliest nudes in Rembrandt’s oeuvre of etchings. Unlike classical artists, he did not depict idealised bodies, but preferred to picture the natural body, as this print shows.
The uprising in the Netherlands against Spanish rule In 1555, the Spanish ruler Philip II was granted authority over the Netherlands. As a result of diminishing participation and self-determination, the imposition of Catholicism and the loss of religious freedom, there was soon unrest in the Netherlands. In 1568, this friction led to a war that was to last for eighty years. A print by Willem Jacobsz. Delff shows the maids of the Netherlands’ provinces in chains. They are kneeling before the Duke of Alva, whom the Spanish king had appointed governor of the Netherlands. In the print, a devil is crowning Alva and the Spanish advisor Granvelle with a papal tiara. The gruesome consequences of the evil suggestions Granvelle is blowing into Alva’s ear are depicted in the background. The legendary widow Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer was the figurehead of the uprising in the North Netherlands city of Haarlem. Tradition has it that together with a group of Haarlem women she put up brave resistance to the Spanish troops that arrived at the city’s gates in 1572. Portraits of this intriguing and courageous woman in prints were already appearing in the city while it was under siege. The print shown
here is a previously unknown variant of a common type. A news print by the engraver Frans Hogenberg, whom Alva had banished from Antwerp, depicts the people of Antwerp chasing German mercenaries out of the city in 1577. The Spaniards had installed these troops in the city to keep the population quiet. Another print praises Bourse, Van Roeck and Van Liedekercke as the initiators of this resistance. When it later turned out that they had shamefully exaggerated their share in the resistance, Pieter Baltens, who had created the print, dissociated himself from it. Willem van Haecht subtly showed his resistance to Spanish rule by means of a series of prints of ancient and Biblical rebels. It is only the foreword to the series that alludes to any connection between the courage of these earlier figures and that of the ‘modern’ rebels. Van Haecht had the portraits in this series designed in pairs by important artists such as Maarten de Vos and Marten van Cleve I.
Sixteenth-century ornament prints Ornament prints are in the first place designs for decorative motifs or complete works of art that are to be created in another medium, such as applied arts, glass or sculpture. These prints were however also appreciated for their aesthetic qualities. Examples include the designs for jewel pendants by Hans Collaert and the Design for a tazza showing William of Orange as the wise commander. The latter engraving is one of a series of prints with a political slant that are related to the ensemble, also shown here, on the theme of the uprising of the Netherlands against Spanish rule. In this series, William of Orange, the leader of the rebellious Northern Netherlands, is portrayed as a wise commander. The decorative border round his portrait contains scenes showing wise Old Testament judges. Another print in the same series (not shown here) depicts the Spanish governor of the Southern Netherlands, the Duke of Alva, as a foolish commander.
Several of the prints shown here contain grotesque ornamentation: excessive, but often symmetrically composed collections of fantastic creatures, rinceau, architectural elements and masks. This form of decoration was inspired by the murals of Antiquity that were discovered in excavated ruins in Rome during the Renaissance. This sort of ornament print in the grotesque style was largely responsible for the spread of the visual idiom of the Italian Renaissance in the 16th century. The print by Lucas van Leyden is early evidence of this influence in the Netherlands.
The Netherlandish landscape in the sixteenth century In the 16th century, the landscape freed itself from its inferior position as a background. It developed into an independent genre, which was even regarded internationally as a speciality of the Netherlands. The ensemble shown here illustrates some of the main trends in this period. In the course of the 16th century, the landscape was depicted increasingly realistically. Artists went out into nature to do studies from life. Even so, most of the compositions that have been preserved are still not truly realistic landscapes. They are, rather, arranged compositions that contain bits and pieces of nature inspired by the reality. Hans Bol’s prints are examples of typical Flemish village scenes from the middle of the 16th century. Another common type of print in that period was the topographical view, such as the one of Limburg, from the Description of the Netherlands by the renowned Italian humanist Ludovico Guicciardini, who lived in Antwerp.
As from the 16th century, artists also went abroad more frequently, mainly to Italy, to enjoy and study the art of Antiquity and the Renaissance. Their impressions were made into prints that were widely distributed. One of the earliest series in this genre in the Netherlands was Roman Ruins, published by Hieronymus Cock in 1551. Prague, where the Habsburg emperor Rudolf II had established his court, also exerted a powerful attraction on artists in the 16th century. This is demonstrated by the Bohemian landscape by Pieter Stevens, who, as court painter to the emperor, spent almost his entire career in Prague and its surroundings.
The culture of the French court in prints In 17th-century France, the Pérelle family of artists dominated the production of landscapes and topographical views in prints. Gabriel and his sons Nicolas and Adam together put about 1300 prints on the market. Since these engravers often only signed the works with the family name, it is not easy to distinguish Gabriel’s prints from those of his sons. Much of their oeuvre consists of views of Paris monuments, including royal palaces with their magnificent gardens. One of the prints shows the royal palace at in Fontainebleau. In the 16th century, King François I commissioned Italian artists to add Renaissance-style extensions to this originally mediaeval castle. This is the residence on which Louis XIV, the Sun King, based his extravagant Versailles palace. Fontainebleau palace pales beside the excessive architecture and huge gardens at the pompous Versailles, which Pérelle also immortalised in a print.
An impressive 18th-century print shows the magnificent funeral of King Philip V of Spain. He was the grandson of Louis XIV of France and the first Bourbon to sit on the Spanish throne. Because of his French roots, he was buried in Paris. The print gives a good impression of the labour of Hercules performed in order to light up Notre Dame with candles.
Scientific prints in the 18th century During the Enlightenment, there was a growing need to measure, study and describe the world. This business of examining, collecting and observing was not only with the aim of learning, but also for enjoyment. The print showing a perspective view of The Garden of Count D’Althann in Vienna is intended to be viewed using an optical diagonal machine, also called a ‘zograscope’. The convex lens and the mirror in this device emphasises the perspective in the print. This sort of optical print was published in extensive series, mostly of spectacular views of various types. The three-dimensional visual experience makes the viewer imagine for a moment that he is in an exotic location. The print of the equestrian statue of Louis XIV explains the lost-wax method. This process is used to cast a bronze sculpture. The print shows the wax mould of the equestrian statue with its pouring channels. At later stages of the process this mould is given a ceramic coating. When the whole ensemble is fired, the wax melts, leaving an empty space into which bronze can be poured via the channels. The illustration originates from the 28-volume Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
(1751-72) by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert. In this prominent publication from the French Enlightenment, its philosopher and mathematician authors document as much scientific, craft and artistic knowledge as possible. Three Cactuses and Cyclamen are illustrations from Phythantoza Iconographia (173745) by the chemist and botanist Wilhelm Weinmann. Most of the prints in this publication are based on the botanical drawings of Georg Ehret, which were highly influential in the 18th century. The print of the Three Cactuses was done using a special technique. It is an engraving that has been worked on with a dry point, giving it the effect of a mezzotint. The subtle gradations of tone produce a gradual transition of colour. Additional colour is then also applied to this result by hand.
Piranesi and Roman Antiquity The faded glory of Antiquity continued to appeal immensely to artists even after the Renaissance. In the 18th century, fierce debate raged about who laid the foundations of Western civilisation, the Greeks or the Romans. The Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi was convinced of the superiority of the Romans, and this is expressed abundantly clearly in his art.
This Italian master not only did prints, but also restored and sold antiquities, which was a flourishing trade in Rome at that time. As a form of advertising, Piranesi also published prints showing antiquities in his own collection and in those of other collectors. He indicated the provenance and present location of the illustrated objects in an inscription.
Piranesi produced more than a thousand prints that determined the 18th-century visualisation of Roman Antiquity. In his etchings, he documented the overgrown remains of the glorious Roman past that had been incorporated into the fabric of the modern city. Examples are to be found in the Views of Rome and Roman Antiquities.
Lastly, the Title Page for a Collection of Prints after Drawings by Guercino displays the artist’s interest in experimenting with printing methods. To imitate Guercino’s drawing style, Piranesi made use of two different coloured inks and plate tone – this latter is a thin veil of ink which is intentionally left on the plate for effect.
It was Piranesi’s opinion that one should not simply imitate antiquity, but also deal with it in a creative manner. He illustrated this in a series of designs for fireplaces; the one shown here is in the Egyptian style. Some of these designs were actually carried out and still exist today.
Curiosa The notable 17th- and 18th-century prints in this room either present an intriguing picture or were done using an unusual printing method. The hand-coloured etching of the large egg was originally intended as writing paper. Children wrote an Easter letter or Easter wish to their father of mother on it. The festive figures on the lower edge are based on figures created by the 17th-century North Netherlands artist Cornelis Bega. This Easter letter shows that prints were in origin not only works of art, but also of practical use. The portrait of the North Netherlands poet and playwright Joost van den Vondel was done using an exceptional method: dotted printing. This sort of print is made by beating depressions into the printing plate with a chisel and hammer. The engraver Johannes Lutma II was one of the first artists to experiment with this technique in the 17th-century Netherlands.
The portrayal of the Winter King, Frederick V of the Palatinate, and his wife on the ice is also composed of dots. This sort of etching is made using a tool called a roulette. The colours in the various copies of the print are always different, because they are applied by hand Ă la poupeĂŠ (with a wad of cloth). Frederick was the Elector of the Palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire and was King of Bohemia for just a single winter (1619-20). After his coronation he lost a major battle and as a consequence
was banished. The print was made from a drawing by the 17th-century North Netherlands artist Hendrick Avercamp, who is well known for his ice scenes. It probably shows the Winter King during his exile in The Hague.
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