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Platemark: Prints and the Printmaking Ecosystem


Platemark is a podcast about art and ideas. Hosted by Ann Shafer and Ben Levy, formerly colleagues at the Baltimore Museum of Art, conversations focus on museums, curating, critiques, value (market/conceptual), the Western canon, and prints and printmaking.

Feb 15, 2022

In s2e13, Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig talk about reproductive engravings and how they helped spread Italian art and style to Northern European countries. Italian Giorgio Ghisi worked for Antwerp publisher Hieronymous Cock and did much of the heavy lifting. The episode concludes with Federico Barocci and two of the loveliest etching and engravings yet discussed.

Episode image: Federico Barocci (Italian, 1528–1612). The Annunciation, c. 1585. Etching and engraving. Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 17 3/8 × 12 5/16 in. (441 × 312 mm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Domenico Campagnola (Italian, 1500–1564), possibly after a drawing by Titian (Italian, c. 1485/90–1575). Battle of the Nude Men, 1517. Engraving. Sheet (trimmed to platemark): 8 3/4 × 8 15/16 in. (222 × 227 mm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Antonio Pollaiuolo (Italian, c. 1432–1498). Battle of the Ten Nude Men, c. 1490. Engraving. Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 384 x 589 mm. (15 1/8 x 23 3/16 in.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Master of the Die (Italian, active c. 1530–c. 1560), after Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520). Transfiguration, c. 1530. Engraving on blue paper. Sheet (trimmed to platemark): 404 × 322 mm. (15 7/8 × 12 11/16 in.). Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore.


Master of the Die (Italian, active c. 1530–c. 1560), after Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520). Transfiguration, c. 1530. Engraving. Sheet (trimmed to platemark): 395 × 305 mm. (15 9/16 × 12 in.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Niccolò della Casa (French, active Italy, c. 1543–48). Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici in full armor, 1544. Engraving. Sheet: 17 1/8 in. × 12 in. (435 × 305 mm.); plate: 16 13/16 × 11 9/16 in. (427 × 294 mm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Niccolò della Casa (French, active Italy, c. 1543–48), after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). The Last Judgment, 1548. Eleven engravings joined. 60 inches tall. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


[DETAIL] Niccolò della Casa (French, active Italy, c. 1543–48), after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). The Last Judgment, 1548. Eleven engravings joined. 60 inches tall. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


[DETAIL] Niccolò della Casa (French, active Italy, c. 1543–48), after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). The Last Judgment, 1548. Eleven engravings joined. 60 inches tall. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


[DETAIL] Niccolò della Casa (French, active Italy, c. 1543–48), after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). The Last Judgment, 1548. Eleven engravings joined. 60 inches tall. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). The Last Judgment, 1536–41. Fresco. 13.7 m × 12 m (45 × 39 ft.). Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.


Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572). Cosimo de Medici in Armour, c. 1545. Oil on panel. 76.5 x 59 cm. (30 1/8 x 23 ¼ in.). Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.


Abraham Bosse (French, 1602–1676). The Workshop of a Printer, 1642. Etching. Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 256 x 323 mm. (10 x 12 ¾ in.). British Museum, London.


Georg Pencz (German, c. 1500–1550). The Hunter Caught by the Hares, c. 1535–50. Woodcut and letterpress [text by Hans Sachs (German, 1494–1576]). Borderline: 25.5 x 39.3 cm. (10 1/16 x 15 1/2 in.); sheet: 54.5 x 39.5 cm. (21 7/17 x 15 9/16 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.


Anton von Maron (German, 1733–1808). Portrait of Johann Joachim Winkelmann, 1767. Oil on canvas. 136 x 99 cm. (53 ½ x 38 7/8 in.). Collection of Schloss Weimar, Weimar, Germany.


Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520–1582), after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). The Last Judgment, c. 1545–1565. Engraving. Sheet: 1202 x 1055 mm. (47 3/8 x 41 ½ in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary.


Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520–1582), after Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520). The School of Athens, 1550. Engraving. Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 513 x 810 mm. (20 3/8 x 31 7/8 in.). British Museum, London.


Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520–1582), after Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572). The Nativity, 1553. Engraving. Sheet (joined, and trimmed to platemark): 65.2 × 44.2 cm. (25 11/16 × 17 3/8 in.). Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.


Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503–1572). Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time (The Exposure of Luxury), c. 1545. Oil on wood. 146.1 x 116.2 cm (57 ½ × 45 ¾ in.). National Gallery, London.


Tru Ludwig (American, born 1959). The Exposure of Luxury, 2012. Woodcut. Sheet: 48 x 33 in.


Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520–1582), after Giovanni Battista Bertani (Italian, 1516–1576). Hercules Victorious Over the Hydra, c. 1558. Engraving. Plate: 35 x 20.8 cm. (13 3/4 x 8 3/16 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.


Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1508–12. Fresco. 133 x 46 feet. Sistine Chapel, The Vatican.


Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520–1582), after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564). The Prophet Jeremiah, from the series of Prophets and Sibyls in the Sistine Chapel, 1570–75. Engraving. Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 22 1/4 in. × 17 in. (56.5 × 43.2 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Federico Barocci (Italian, 1528–1612). The Stigmatization of St. Francis, after the painting at the Church of the Capuccines, Urbino, c. 1575. Etching, engraving, and drypoint. Plate: 228 x 145 mm. (9 x 5 ¾ in.). Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.


Federico Barocci (Italian, 1528–1612). The Annunciation, c. 1585. Etching and engraving. Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 17 3/8 × 12 5/16 in. (441 × 312 mm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.


Federico Barocci (Italian, 1528–1612). The Annunciation, c. 1585. Oil on wood transferred to canvas. 248 x 170 cm. (97 1/5 x 66 in.). Vatican Art Pinacoteca, Vatican City.


Tru Ludwig (American, born 1959). Prima Veritas, 2000. Woodcut. Image: 36 x 48 in. Private Collection.