a florentine fifteenth century print

The President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeHarvard Art Museum

A Florentine Fifteenth Century PrintAuthor(s): Laura Howland DudleySource: Notes (Fogg Art Museum), Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jun., 1929), pp. 135-139Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College on behalf of Harvard Art MuseumStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4300850 .

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A FLORENTINE FIFTEENTH CENTURY PRINT

THE acquisition of the Crucifixion (Figure i) by an anonymous Florentine engraver of the fifteenth century adds a very important and beautiful print to the necessarily small but distinguished group of Florentine engravings in the Print Collection.

As a work of art it is worthy to be attributed to a great master. The story of the Crucifixion is told reverently and sympathetically and the grief of the group at the foot of the cross is expressed with dignity and restraint.

The centre of interest is in the figure of Christ on the cross between the two thieves, encircled by a group of weeping and adoring angels together with the sun and moon. The eye is led to the Christ by the gestures of the figures, the slanting spears held by the soldiers, and by the postures of the figures kneeling in the foreground at either side of the swooning Virgin. The crucified thieves, the sun and moon, the angels, and the foreground figures are arranged to balance one another,making of the whole a well-balanced composition.

The figures are beautifully drawn. The sweeping folds of drapery are expressed by simple but signi- ficant lines, and such details as the hands are rendered carefully and faithfully. The throng of soldiers is made up of figures interesting individu- ally with a variety in the heads and expressions of

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Figure i

FLORENTINE SCHOOL, XV CENTURY CRUCIFIXION



the faces. Our engraving is priLted in the grayish ink characteristic of the earliest and best impres- sions of the fifteenth-century Florentine prints. It is from the first state of the plate before certain rework was added. It is therefore an early impression and shows the plate in its original freshness and beauty. It is in perfect condition with a good margin which is unusual for a print of this early period.

This Crucifixion is one of a series of fifteen subjects picturing the life of the Virgin and Christ, the most important series of prints engraved in the " broad-manner" technique. All of the anonymous fifteenth-century Florentine prints are engraved in either the "fine-manner" or the "broad-manner." The "fine-manner" technique resembles the work of the goldsmith and probably grew out of the goldsmith's art. The lines of shading are close, parallel lines, crossed in the shadows by other similar lines, fine and straight, laid with no regard to the form. The Otto print, of which a unique impression is in the Fogg Museum, is a characteristic example of this technique. The " broad-manner," on the other hand, resembles the pen line of the painter. The lines are laid farther apart than in the " fine- manner." They are parallel and slanting and there is no cross-hatching. There are other differences also. The " fine-manner " prints, the work of en- gravers trained in the goldsmiths' shops, are en- riched by a wealth of ornamental detail just as are the objects of gold and silver made by the goldsmiths, while the "broad-manner" prints, like a painter's pen drawings, are much more simple.

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These two styles of technique, differing radically from each other as they do, must have been prac- ticed in two different workshops in Florence. It seems very probable that Maso Finiguerra, the goldsmith, was at the head of the "fine-manner" workshop, but the identity of the man who was at the head of the workshop which produced the "broad-manner" prints, such as the Crucifixion, is still a subject for research. The " broad-manner" prints are undoubtedly a little later than those engraved in the "fine-manner," and date probably from the last quarter of the fifteenth century.

The designer of the series of the Life of the Virgin and Christ has caused much discussion. Some of the subjects show the influence of Filippo Lippi, others a close relation to Alessio Baldovinetti. A drawing of the Crucifixion in the Uffizi, Florence (Figure 2), strengthens the latter attribution. This drawing, which differs but very slightly from our engraving, was attributed formerly to Baldo- vinetti. It is placed in the School of Baldovinetti by Berenson, who says it "probably goes back to an original by Baldovinetti." There is unquestion- ably a very close connection between drawing and engraving. That the engraving was made from the drawing is not probable. If it were, it would naturally be in reverse of the drawing. On the contrary, drawing and engraving are in the same direction. lt is possible that the drawing is a copy of the engraving. The possibility is strengthened by an impression of the engraving in the British Museum which has been lined off for copying. It is not impossible that the Uffizi drawing is that copy.

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In some of the European print rooms engravings of this series have been framed with ornamental borders, of which several variations exist. They have been mounted on linen or panel and coloured by hand. Prints so mounted were probably in- tended to be used as altar fronts. This was one of the practical purposes for which the earliest engravings and woodcuts were made.

LAURA HOWLAND DUDLEY

]Figure 2

SCHOOL OF BALDOVINETTI? CRUCIFIXION UFFIZI GALLERY

(Bollentino d'drte. October, 1909, page 375)



a florentine fifteenth century print

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