Tag: woodcut

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer, “The Men’s Bath”, Date Unknown (1490-1528), Woodcut on Paper, 38.7 x 27.9 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

A printmaker and painter from Nuremberg, Albrecht Dürer is considered one of the most prolific and inventive artists in the German Renaissance. Dürer worked and traveled frequently to Italy during his studies of visual arts and spent time with a lifelong partner, Willibald Prickheimer, a German lawyer and humanist author.

Albrecht Dürer’s depiction of men relaxing in a public bath house was unusual in the early 1500s because it showed nudity without an accompanying mythological or biblical narrative. The print showcases Dürer’s ability to depict the male figure in various inventive poses and may feature portraits of some of his friends. Meant to be studied closely, the image includes visual puns such as the faucet placed near the man’s groin at left. The popularity of the print during Dürer’s lifetime may relate to the 1496 closure of the public bath in his hometown of Nuremberg to prevent a syphilis outbreak.

Notes: The “Ideas Made of Light” blog has an excellent article by its author, artist and UI designer Scott M.McDaniel, on Albecht Dürer’s “The Men’s Bathhouse” at: http://www.scottmcd.net/artanalysis/?p=702

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Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Takagi Toranosuke Capturing a Kappa Underwater in the Tamura River”, No Date, Edo Period

Takagi Toranosuke appears in at least one other print by Kuniyoshi and one by Kuniyoshi’s pupil Yoshitoshi: both in the Lyon Collection of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. Both have short texts describing him as a samurai originally from Hyūga Province who wandered through Japan and fought various monsters. It seems likely that he is a fictional character, possibly inspired by the historical figures Takagi Oriemon Shigetoshi, who founded the Hontai Hōshin Ryū school of martial arts in the seventeenth century, and his successor as head of the school, Takagi Umanosuke Shigesada.

Takagi Toranosuke, a native of Hyūga and an expert in the martial arts, is seen struggling with a kappa or kawatarō (also known as a suiko (waterbaby)). A kappa is a composite amphibious creature said to be a native of Kyushu. It has the shell of a tortoise, scaly legs, webbed feet and most mystifying of all, an ape-like head with a hollow depression in its crown that contains a strange fluid that provides the kappa with its strength. It tends to be harmless, but if one remembers to bow to the kappa it is forced to return the bow, thus losing its potent fluid and becoming powerless. Even as late as the 19th century, it was still widely believed that kappa actually existed.

Source: drakontomalloi

M. C. Escher

M. C. Escher, “Snakes”, 1969, Woodcut Print, 49.8 x 44.7 cm,

“Snakes” is a woodcut print by the Dutch artist Maurits Cornelia Escher. First printed in July of 1969, the print was Escher’s last before his death on March 27, 1972.

Maurits Cornelia Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. In 1918, he studied at the Technical College of Delft. Escher then attended Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts from 1919 to 1922, studying drawing and the art of woodcut printing.

Escher’s work is inescapably mathematical. This has caused a disconnect between his full-on popular fame and the lack of esteem with which he has been viewed in the art world. His originality and mastery of graphic techniques are respected, but his works have been thought too intellectual and insufficiently lyrical by critics. However, Escher’s narrative themes and his use of perspective have made his work highly attractive to the public.

M. C. Eschers woodcut “Snakes” depicts a disc made up of interlocking circles that grow progressively smaller towards the center and towards the edge. There are three snakes laced through the edge of the disc. The image is printed in three colours: green, brown and black. The use of snakes and the color palette of this composition recalls an earlier 1960 woodcut by the artist,”Möbius Strip I”.

The print haa rotational symmetry based on the number three, comprising a single wedge-shaped image repeated three times in a circle. This means that it was printed from three blocks that were rotated on a pin to make three impressions each. Close inspection of the print reveals the central mark left by the pin.

In several of his earlier works, Escher explored the limits of infinitesimal size and infinite number by actually carrying through the rendering of smaller and smaller figures to the smallest possible sizes. In “Snakes”, the infinite diminution of size and infinite increase in number is only suggested in the finished work.

Swedish pianist Fredrik Ullén used the “Snakes” print for the cover art of his 1998 album entitled “György Ligeti: Complete Piano Music, Volume 2”.