The Rise of Print Making in the 16th Century (Essay Sample)

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The Rise of Print Making in the 16th Century
Printmaking dates back to prehistoric times. It was mainly used as a form of communication. It has evolved to be a form of art in recent times. It has become part of the world's culture. Printmaking can be done using different types of surface. One may use stone, wood or metal. The image is created on any of these surfaces, inked and the surface is pressed onto paper to make a print. The repetition of this process forms an original work of art. Printmaking has grown largely since the prehistoric period and has become a recognized form of art all over the world.
Printmaking became known in 500BC. It was common among the Sumerians and the Chinese. The Sumerians used cylinder seals to carve the images that they intended to print out, and pressed out these images on wet clay. The images that were printed out were mainly used for the identification of goods ownership. They would be used to marks animals and prisoners too, as property. Chinese, on the other hand, used carved text. They would make rubbings from paper and silk. The Chinese, particularly Buddhists, were the first people to have actual prints. The Buddhists used images and texts that were printed on paper to pass on religious ideas through the Sutra. The variety of images printed out by the Buddhists was reproduced by artisans who came up with various drawings. These drawings were crude since, by that time, printmaking had no sense of art; it was merely a form of communication. A review of those prints does not reveal any artistic interpretation. These crude prints formed the basis of the development of print.
Early European Prints
Relief technique in printing was invented in Japan. This was an improvement of the wood cut technique that the Japanese had borrowed from the Chinese. The Painting Manual, an encyclopedia on painting from the Chinese, played a key role in this development. It had instructions on painting and printing, and was inspiring for most artists. In Europe, printmaking was done using textile. It is because the paper technology had not yet been discovered. The first paper printmaking in Europe was produced at the beginning of the 15th century. Woodcut prints were also common at the time. Metal engravings were discovered after the wood-cuts. Initially, metal engravings were restricted to armorers and goldsmiths. It was later allowed among all interested parties and became the most popular form of serial reproduction. The oldest printed engraving in German was called The Flagellation (Griffiths 67).
Paper mills were introduced in the Western world for the first time during the 15th century. They were located in Germany, Italy and France. Gothic images were made from wood, inked and printed to make the gothic prints. During this time, the gothic images were still crude without any artistic interpretation. Gothic prints were used as playing card; means of entertainment. Gothic life revolved around the church. The clergymen seized the opportunity to use the gothic prints for devotional purposes. The gothic images used by the clergymen mainly composed of saints and depictions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. Some gothic images also illustrated Bible stories. As time went by, movable prints were developed, and block books became common. The illustrations of the Bible stories in these books comprised of both gothic images and text. The manufacture of good and inexpensive paper led to an improvement in quality of printing. Many books with illustrations were produced (Griffiths 90).
By mid 16th century, Renaissance prints had become very common. The use of prints had expanded, and several artists had become popular. In northern Europe, Albrecht Durer was the known to be the most illustrious artist. He was a goldsmith by profession. He had keen observation for nature, and this was translated in the prints that he made. He was versatile with engravings and woodcuts. He was admired for his success even by his contemporaries. He laid specific attention to religious prints. His most outstanding single prints were Knight, Death and the Devil. Lucas van Leyden was another contemporary artist. He was a Dutch. He was greatly influenced by Durer. His work was a depiction of the Dutch landscape and interior scenes. He was admired for his classical style of prints (Moore 119).
In the 17th century, baroque artists and prints became very popular. They focused on the emotional impact of the image. They moved from depicting reality as explored in the 16th century. Gestures became exaggerated and at times grotesque. The engravings and etchings of the 17th century are represented by two artists; Robert Nanteuil and Jacques Callot. Nanteuil produced engravings depicting court portraits. These engravings earned popularity because of the attention laid on the sculptural, molded quality and delicate strokes that were produced in the medium. Callot, on the other hand, focused on using the etching medium. He went ahead to introduce the aspect of bitings of a plate to give an image a foreground, middle ground and background. This ensured that the prints depicted intense detail. The unraveled technical proficiency enabled Callot to come up with unique imagery on a variety of subjects. He was commissioned by the Kings of France and Spain to document several historical events. He is mostly remembered for his devastating series of prints Miseries of War (Griffiths 50).
By the 18th century, prints had become very popular in Europe. There was numerous artist who had come forward. In Paris, Francois Boucher and Jean Honore Fragonard had numerous drawings and sketches on the court life. Influential publisher became interested and made these sketches and drawing into engravings. They became very popular. In Italy, graphic arts flourish. Antonio Canaletto depicted solid draftsmanship. He focused on courtyards and the Venice architecture of the 18th century. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo was famous for his economy of line and detail. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an architect by profession, dwelled on interpreting the Roman antiquities (Moore 44).
In the 19th century, there were many leading artists and a range of prints was produced. From Spain, Francisco de Goya combined etching with aquatint to come up with real visions of the foolishness of humankind and the ugly acts of war. Goya's work focuses on the levels of impunity as depicted by the clergy and the government. The main focus was on corruption, wealth and hypocrisy. The French occupation of Spain during the Peninsula War inspired Goya's series of prints Desastres de La Guerra. These prints depict the horrifying scenes of the innocent people who are caught up in a war zone. In Paris, lithography provided a cheap means of reproducing images. Most of the prints were incorporated in periodicals and illustrations in books. Honore Daumier was the household name in Paris. He focused on political satire and social commentaries. His rise was in perfect timing because of the corruption witnessed in the reign of Charles X. He delivered his messages through the Le Charivari periodical. He gave commentaries on the various observations on the government, issues surrounding the legal profession and the various aspects of the upper classes. Charles Meryon rose to fame because of his admiration of Paris. He focused on images of the old buildings in Paris that were slated for demolition (Griffiths 101).
The Japanese art and artists were highly influential in the 19th century. Edgar Degas had created lithographic scenes that represented women bathing and dressing; a depiction of the Japanese style. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec depicted the Japanese culture because he designed posters that captured the importance of charm and elegance. The poster was very influential, and color lithography became popular. This saw the birth of poster being used for advertising. The lithographs artists included Edvard Munch and Jules Cheret (Moore 45).