Chiaroscuro
Woodcut
Most
artists, from the 16th century on, preferred
the technical challenge and the results
of printed colour in relief prints, rather
than applying subsequent hand colouring
to an impression printed in black ink.
Flat
areas left in relief lend themselves to
creating broad areas of colour and it is
in the relief techniques that some of the
most interesting and successful colour
prints have been made.
Chiaroscuro
woodcuts were the earliest form of colour-printed
images. The term is from the Italian and
means light & shade, for usually two
or three different tones of similar colours
were used in conjunction with a black key
block and the natural white of the paper
to achieve an effect somewhat in the manner
of a wash drawing. The colours were generally
shades of brown, ochre, olive, green, grey
and other earth colours.
The
Augsburg printer Erwin Radtolt, who worked
in Venice in the 1490’s, was the
first to use coloured inks and superimposed
blocks for decorative borders in his books.
Jost de Negker in Augsburg probably enlarged
the technique about 1508 to produce the
earliest colour-printed pictorial woodcuts,
in collaboration with Hans Burgkmair. Cranach,
Altdorfer, Amman, Beham, and Baldung Grien
all designed some ‘chiaroscuros’ and
some of Dürer’s woodcuts were
printed posthumously as ‘chiaroscuro’ prints
with additional tone blocks engraved specially.
After that generation of artists interest
in the chiaroscuro woodcut process in Northern
Europe declined and was not renewed till
the end of the century, when Goltzius
took it up. (See illustration to right).
In Italy the technique had a longer and
more continuous popularity.
In
Italy Ugo da Carpi claimed to have invented
the process and applied in 1516 to the
Venetian Signoria for the exclusive privilege
to issue (i.e. to publish) chiaroscuro
prints in Venice.
Ugo da Carpi developed the Northern ‘Camaieu’ (cameo)
process into true chiaroscuro.
Northern
chiaroscuro almost invariably employed
a line block, printed in black, which carried
the whole linear design and could be printed
as an independent image without the addition
of the tone blocks. The colour or tone
blocks had large areas left in relief to
print as flat areas of colour. A separate
block was cut for each colour, usually
a maximum of two or three. Where the tone
block was cut away the natural colour of
the exposed paper created the effect of
a ‘white’ highlight.
In
Italy usually each block contributed to
the total design; there was no single line
block, but
a key block, printed in the darkest colour
and two or three supporting tone blocks necessary
for building up the complete design. The
key block printed on its own would be meaningless.
Again unprinted areas appeared as highlights.
The
difference in technique between the Northern
and Italian methods is subtle and distinguishing
them separately is somewhat of a simplification.
Today both techniques are equally described
by the single term 'chiaroscuro'.
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John
Baptist Jackson (1701–1780):
"Dives and Lazarus". Chiaroscuro
woodcut, 1743, after a now lost
work by Jacopo Bassano. Printed
from four blocks.
(562 x 383 mm) |
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Chiaroscuro
virtually died out in the later 17th century
but enjoyed a final flowering in the 18th
century in the work of Zanetti, J B Jackson
and John Skippe. It was revived in a small
way at the very end of the 19th century
by Charles Shannon, but most 20th century
relief colour prints employ much brighter
colours (of either emotive, decorative
or naturalistic intent) and use no cut-away
highlights; Japan, rather than 16th century
Europe, suggesting a new approach.
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