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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case EDUC, Shelf 9, Box E

Christ Healing the Lepers

Print
1540-1550 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The technique of chiaroscuro developed from the woodcut process, but where woodcuts printed outline and imitated shadows through lined shading, chiaroscuro prints reflected light and dark tone through the use of shapes of colour. The technique was developed at around the same time in Germany and Italy in the early 16th century to imitate pen and coloured wash drawings heightened with white pigment that were fashionable with collectors. In Northern Europe the tendency was to use a key outline block along with the colour blocks, but in Italy, the preference was to build up the image in colours only. Vicentino’s workshop issued such prints in different colour options on a commercial scale. The block cutter made a separate block for each colour, combining shapes in two shades of green with densely packed masses of black line, leaving the white of the paper to form the highlights.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleChrist Healing the Lepers (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Chiaroscuro woodcut printed from three blocks
Brief description
Niccolo Vicentino after Parmigianino, Christ Healing the Lepers, chiaroscuro woodcut. Italian, c.1540s.
Physical description
Christ Healing the Lepers, printed in green from three blocks.
Dimensions
  • Height: 39.8cm
  • Width: 28.6cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
IOSEPH NICOLAVS/ VICENTINI (Present in the light tone block.)
Gallery label
In Italy, the chiaroscuro woodcut method imitated the pen, wash and highlight drawings on coloured papers that were fashionable with collectors. Vicentino’s workshop issued such prints in different colour options on a commercial scale. The block cutter made a separate block for each colour, combining shapes in two shades of green with densely packed masses of black line, leaving the white of the paper to form the highlights.(August 2019)
Production
Printed from three blocks in lime, green and black. First state of two.
According to the catalogue entry by Linda Stiber Morenus in The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy, Los Angeles, 2018, the lime and green inks used to print two of the blocks were made of different ratios of indigo blue, orpiment yellow and lead white pigments.
Summary
The technique of chiaroscuro developed from the woodcut process, but where woodcuts printed outline and imitated shadows through lined shading, chiaroscuro prints reflected light and dark tone through the use of shapes of colour. The technique was developed at around the same time in Germany and Italy in the early 16th century to imitate pen and coloured wash drawings heightened with white pigment that were fashionable with collectors. In Northern Europe the tendency was to use a key outline block along with the colour blocks, but in Italy, the preference was to build up the image in colours only. Vicentino’s workshop issued such prints in different colour options on a commercial scale. The block cutter made a separate block for each colour, combining shapes in two shades of green with densely packed masses of black line, leaving the white of the paper to form the highlights.
Bibliographic references
  • Naoko Takahatake; Jonathan Bober; Jamie Gabbarelli; Antony Griffiths; Peter Parshall; Linda Stiber Morenus The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2018.
  • B. Price et al. 'A Technical Study of Sixteenth-Century Italian Chiaroscuro Woodcuts', in A. Stijnman and E. Savage (eds.), Printing in Colour 1400-1700: History, Techniques, Functions and Receptions, (Leiden, Brill, 2015), p.144
Collection
Accession number
E.288-1890

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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