Getting to know the alchemical art of engraving through the old masters

Getting to know the alchemical art of engraving through the old masters

Not always were the great painters also great engravers. Engraving, the oldest artistic expression of man, is an art that does not allow rethinking, that requires great discipline, and in which the sign of the master is “revealed” under the effect of alchemical phases.

The artist who has always been considered a prodigy in the field of graphic art was Rembrandt (1606-1669). It was he who valorised etching as an autonomous expressive technique, and who freed it from the imitation of burin engraving.

He had no masters. He did not take a tour of the Italian peninsula like every young artist used to do. He had no interest in the Renaissance artworks that fascinated all his contemporaries. He generally did not travel much, and never left his home. He found inspiration in talking to his neighbour, his first wife Saskia and then his second wife Hendrickje, and in turning to the Holy Scriptures. Rembrandt never fell into the temptation of celebrating his land, the rich Holland of the great ports that harboured sailors and merchants of the Far East. He left it to other Dutch masters.

He was interested in the intimate aspects of life, in the gaze of men and in the tragedies befalling them. He was also a victim of many losses and all kinds of difficulties: ominous coincidences which “sharpened” his talent. He became a philanthropic artist, very sensitive to suffering, old age and loneliness. His “pages written on copper” telling the story of Christ and the Apostles are more real, human and empathic than any word proclaimed from any pulpit. He managed to do that with his brilliant hand trained in the hard art of engraving: etching and drypoint, through strong and moving biblical images, with compositions governed by great freedom but also great energy, as well as by a superb attention to chiaroscuro. For this reason Claude Roger-Marx named him “the Elected”, the engraver out of time, an enchanter, a giant of graphic art, great and solitary.

The same land that fed Rembrandt’s genius was an open-air forge in which engravers such as Rubens, van Dyck, Vermeer, Hals were born. The greatest of them was undoubtedly Adriaen Van ostade of Harleem (1610-85), who left about fifty beautiful etchings of daily, familiar and rustic life. With the aim of telling his story, he engraved “The Painter in His Studio”, where he lets the observer enter his studio and watch him painting, sitting uncomfortably but attentive to every detail. Like all arts, engraving went through a rise and fall – that is, it followed the “swinging of taste and market” and – after the great masterpieces by the masters Schongauer, Mantegna, Dürer e Rembrandt – it started showing signs of weariness. Lately, its prestige would be restored by the great Francisco Goya (1746-1828) and by the Venetian engravers, who particularly loved the etching technique.

One of the most talented Venetian engravers was Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), who created artworks, such as Capricci and Scherzi di fantasia, characterised by indefinite contours, hardly-crossing lines, and exquisite style.

Another Venetian view painter contemporary to Tiepolo, Antonio Canal known as Canaletto (1697-1768), condensed all his life experiences and studies in his etchings during a period of only four years. Today we are still charmed by his slightly clouded skies and by the light giving shape to his Views of Dolo, in which he reveals himself as a great scenographer and perspective master. In these three wonderful views you can feel the breeze and the pleasantness of the promenade along the river in front of the church.

But the Venetian artist who had the monopoly of the view painting market and was also a bold experimenter of etching was Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78). “From Tiepolo he took the brightness, from Canaletto the parallel lines of his skies, from Callot and Castiglione the figures in the foreground” (Salamon, Il conoscitore di stampe, Einaudi, Torino, 1960, p. 80).

He distanced himself from the refined, delicate Venetian models to portrait the Eternal City in all its splendour, by pushing the etching technique to its limits: no one before him had ever used such large moulds. His printings are at the same time obsessive (if looked too closely) and harmonious, majestic and plastic. With an impressive production of almost a thousand branches, his genius explodes in his Capricci and Carceri d’invenzione, juvenile creations of outstanding originality. These large panels portraying Dante’s circles and labyrinthine, claustrophobic spaces would influence whole generations of artists, not least Escher and his impossible perspectives.

With iron discipline Piranesi closes the thirty-year collections of Antiquities of Rome, Views of Rome, Antiquities of Albano and Ruins of Pesto, visual encyclopaedias of “places worthy of note”. Already famous and “popular”, he engraves Vases and Candelabra, a sort of catalogue of neoclassic furnishings that would rule in the wealthy European parlours: each sheet is dedicated to nobles, patrons, or lovers of antiquities and English fine arts.

In the Old Masters section you will admire the varied Wallector offer, with rare pieces of very fresh impression and great compositional and technical skills of the great artists' hands. Our curators will be glad to explore all aspects of your interest, please write to us at [email protected] for any doubts and suggestions.