European Prints and Drawings
April 26 – October 5, 2008
Raphael Invenit
More than any artist, Raphael was responsible for the creation of a new classical style in the High Renaissance, in turn the foundation of later European style. Until the twentieth century, and the triumph of the avant–garde over the academy, Raphael was the most revered painter in the world. He is still the most widely admired draftsman. This exhibition brings together nearly fifty prints and drawings that interpret the master's designs and demonstrate their profound influence. The works range from an exceptional group of engravings by his collaborator Marcantonio Raimondi, to virtuoso reproductive prints of the eighteenth century, all the way to contemporary American examples.
Marcantonio Raimondi
Lo Stregozzo [The Witches' Procession], after Raphael, 1520s
Engraving
11 13/16 x 24 13/16 in.
The Leo Steinberg Collection, 2002
The Baroque in Central Europe
Between the early seventeenth and mid–eighteenth century, Central Europe – modern Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic – saw a dazzling interpretation of Baroque style. Artists like Karel Skréta, Paul Troger and Franz Anton Maulbertsch, are remarkable for their vigor, extravagance and gift as grand–scale decorators. Their works, however, are scarce in this country, and they remain little known. The Suida–Manning Collection includes an important group of drawings of the period, while Leo Steinberg's collection offers a comparably rich representation of the period's printmakers. This exhibition unites their finest examples, along with some choice recent acquisitions, for the first time.
Karel Skréta
Risen Christ with Fourteen Saints, 17th century
Black chalk with pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash
11 7/8 x 8 1/16 in.
Jack S. Blanton Curatorial Fund, 2006
Masters of the Etching Revival
The second in a series of three exhibitions featuring selections from the Blanton's substantial collection of etchings, this presentation focuses on nineteenth–century artists' rediscovery of the medium through earlier masters, such as Jacques Callot and Rembrandt, and the divergent approaches they took to the material. With the invention of lithography in the 1790s and photography in 1835, etching suffered a decline in popularity among artists and connoisseurs. But by the 1850s, artists in England and in France, including Seymour Haden, J.A.M. Whistler, Camille Corot, Charles Daubigny, Charles Meryon and Maxime Lalanne began to experiment with etching as a means of original artistic expression independent of book illustration. This exhibition charts the course of that visual dialogue as it progressed through the efforts of Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt and Camille Pissarro and into the early years of the twentieth century.
James Abbott McNeil Whistler
Rotherhithe, from The Thanes Set, 1860
Etching and drypoint
14 3/8 x 9 5/16 in.
The Teaching Collection of Marvin Vexler, '48, with a matching contribution from Jill Wilkinson, 2000