CHIAROSCURO: Renaissance Woodcuts

A Royal Academy of Arts publication on the Renaissance Woodcuts from the Collections of Georg Baselitz and The Albertina, Vienna. The chiaroscuro woodcut developed in Germany in the early 16th century. By printing from one or more colour blocks in addition to the customary line block, artists found they could create a dramatic interplay of light and shade - chiaroscuro, the word that came to define the genre. They used its painterly qualities to create both independent works of art and reproductions of drawings and paintings by others. This handsome publication reproduces more than 130 woodcuts from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, the Golden Age, in this fascinating history of the technique. It includes masterpieces by such well-known artists as Cranach, Beccafumi and Golzius, Ugo da Carpi, alongside other specialists and chapters cover Cremona and Bologna and developments in Italy. Today chiaroscuro woodcuts have once again become prestigious collectors' items and this tome is a rare opportunity to enjoy the creativity and technical brilliance of the artist and printmakers involved in this revolutionary printing technique. The story begins with the printer Erhard Ratdolt of Augsburg who played a key role in colour printing and who from 1476-1486 was active in Venice where he produced an edition of Euclid with a preface printed in gold. In his 1485 edition he used as many as three colours for the astronomical diagrams. 230 large glamorous pages with 120 masterpieces reproduced. 24.1 x 28cm, 2014 rare exhibition publication.