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| Cliff on a Seashore. | ||||
| Chiaroscuro woodcut, Signed in the block with monogram “HG” 11.3 x 14.4 cm trimmed around the borderline. Circa 1597-1600. Bartsch 245, Hollstein 381, Strauss (Chiaroscuro) 131, Strauss (Goltzius) 412. 3(III), Bialler (Chiaroscuro woodcuts) 52. 2(II). |
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| Excellent impression and good condition. Printed in black (keyblock) and two tone blocks; ochre and (olive)green. Even the earliest impressions known to us have already a gap in the upper margin and the two diagonal cracks. The colors described in Bialler differ, but the illustration shows the same. |
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| The technique of the chiaroscuro woodcut, printed with different toneblocks, was first used in the early 16th century. Baldung Grien, Burgkmair and Cranach but also Italian artists as Ugo da Carpi used the chiaroscuro woodcut as expression. The most important artist at the end of the century was Hendrick Goltzius in the Netherlands. In the 17th century the technique was not much used. Artists preferred etching. As a rule chiaroscuro woodcuts are rare, maybe because they were hung as decoration. Goltzius made a series of four small landscapes. They were a step in the forming of landscape as an independent genre. |
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