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Fairfield Univeristy Art Museum

Fairfield University 
DigitalCommons@Fairfield 
Ephemera Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection 
Fall 2024 
Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall 
labels 6x7 
Fairfield Univeristy Art Museum 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera 
Recommended Citation 
Fairfield Univeristy Art Museum, "Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall labels 
6x7" (2024). Ephemera. 14. 
https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera/14 
This item has been accepted for inclusion in DigitalCommons@Fairfield by an authorized administrator of 
DigitalCommons@Fairfield. It is brought to you by DigitalCommons@Fairfield with permission from the rights-
holder(s) and is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is 
permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses, you need to obtain 
permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license 
in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@fairfield.edu. 
Johann Theodor de Bry (Franco-Flemish,  
1561-1623) 
after Titian (Italian, ca. 1488-1576)
The Triumph of Christ, ca. 1600
Engraving
This engraving is based on a monumental 
woodcut designed by the Venetian artist Titian 
early in the 16th century. Johann Theodor de Bry 
(:Ioan / Theo / dore / de / bry / ex[cudit], at upper 
left) managed to compress a design originally 
spanning more than eight feet in length into a 
matter of inches without sacrificing the flow of its 
carefully-choreographed figures, all of whom are 
identified by Latin inscriptions. 
Titian’s woodcut had already been reprinted in 
several different formats before this engraving 
appeared. Such unauthorized reproductions were 
common for prints with broad popular appeal, 
and would later give rise to the system of privilegio, 
an early form of copyright for artists seeking to 
protect their designs. 
Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553)
Saint Christopher, 1509
Chiaroscuro woodcut
The linear quality of woodcuts made it difficult to 
capture the range of light and shadow (chiaroscuro 
in Italian) that artists produced in their drawings. 
Around 1509, the Italian artist Ugo da Carpi 
developed a technique for dividing a design into 
multiple woodblocks that could be printed in a 
range of tones, mimicking the effect of a drawing 
with wash, or diluted ink. 
Cranach needed two woodblocks to produce this 
print. One block carried the lines we see printed 
in black ink, while the second block carried all of 
the areas printed in ochre. The lightest areas, like 
the horizon, represent the unmarked paper, as 
both blocks were carved away in this area to hold 
no ink. In some later printings, Cranach added 
the date “1506” to the tablet hanging from the 
tree – evidently in an effort to take credit for the 
technique’s invention. 
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)
Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, 1496
Engraving
In an engraving made nearly two decades before 
the one to your left, Dürer depicts Jerome as an 
ascetic in the wilderness with his lion companion. 
The background, with its craggy, upthrusting 
rocks and fir trees, hearkens back to the 
landscape settings popular among 16th-century 
German artists (but perhaps Jerome is not too 
far from civilization after all, as the roofline of a 
church is just visible beyond the rocky pass).
This print is one of several in the Wetmore 
Collection with a stamp on the reverse of the 
sheet indicating it was deaccessioned from the 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presumably in 
favor of an additional, finer impression in their 
collection. Eventually the print wound up in the 
collection of the Manhattan print dealer F. Meder, 
from whom Fanny Wetmore purchased many of 
her prints in the first years of the 20th century. 
Lucas van Leyden (Netherlandish, ca. 1494-1533)
Saint John the Baptist, 1513
Engraving
Lucas van Leyden (Netherlandish, ca. 1494-1533)
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, 1527
Engraving
All of these saints are readily identifiable by 
traditional attributes: John gestures toward the 
Lamb, and beyond it, the banner signifying his 
role as messenger; Peter holds his oversize key, 
symbolizing the authority given him by Jesus; and 
Paul’s sword, the instrument of his martyrdom, lies 
on the ground beneath his foot.
These engravings, dated fourteen years apart, 
suggest the evolution of van Leyden’s style. 
The hint of awkwardness that can be detected 
in John the Baptist’s bare arm in the earlier 
engraving is not reflected in the more confident 
depictions of Peter and Paul, and the lines of their 
draperies have attained much greater fluidity and 
naturalism. 
Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615-1673)
Jason and the Dragon, ca. 1663-1664
Etching and drypoint
One of the more eccentric artists of the Italian 
Baroque, Rosa frequently chose subjects drawn 
from ancient history and classical mythology for 
both his paintings and his etchings. Here, the 
Greek hero Jason defeats the dragon who guards 
the Golden Fleece by using a potion given to him 
by Medea. 
“Jason, successful, sprinkled on his crest
Lethean juices of a magic herb,
and then recited thrice the words which bring
deep slumber, potent words which would becalm
the storm-tossed ocean, and would stop the flow
of the most rapid rivers of our earth:
and slowly slumber sealed the dragon’s eyes.”
- Ovid, Metamorphoses Book VII.152-155, trans. 
Brookes More (Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co., 
1922), Perseus Digital Library


English

Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall labels 6x7

https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera/1017/thumbnail.jp

Fairfield University 
DigitalCommons@Fairfield 
Ephemera Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection 
Fall 2024 
Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall 
labels 6x11 
Fairfield Univeristy Art Museum 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera 
Recommended Citation 
Fairfield Univeristy Art Museum, "Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall labels 
6x11" (2024). Ephemera. 18. 
https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera/18 
This item has been accepted for inclusion in DigitalCommons@Fairfield by an authorized administrator of 
DigitalCommons@Fairfield. It is brought to you by DigitalCommons@Fairfield with permission from the rights-
holder(s) and is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is 
permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses, you need to obtain 
permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license 
in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@fairfield.edu. 
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)
Adam and Eve, 1504
Engraving
Engraving is an intaglio process; the artist used a 
tool called a burin to carve (intagliare, in Italian) 
a metal plate. The plate would be balanced on 
a cushioned surface and carefully rotated as the 
engraver held his hand steady. The engraved line 
could vary in width depending on the pressure 
the artist applied. Engraving allowed artists 
much greater control and fineness of detail 
than woodcuts – see, for example, the masterful 
distinctions Dürer created between the textures of 
skin, bark, and fur.
Dürer had long been fascinated by the ideal 
proportions of the human body, a subject on 
which he would write multiple treatises. In 
the 1490s, he had traveled to Italy, where the 
idealized nude body was a more popular artistic 
subject than in his native Germany. However, 
while Adam’s pose is a quotation of the Vatican 
Apollo Belvedere, Dürer’s ideal humans are still very 
much Northern European in feature.
The artist’s signature, hanging from the tree, is 
another nod to his Italian journey. By choosing 
the Latin imperfect faciebat (“was making this”) 
instead of the perfect fecit (“made this”), Dürer was 
following a convention of implied humility once 
praised by the ancient Roman author Pliny and 
then resurrected by Italian Renaissance artists 
like Michelangelo. The inclusion of “Noricus” 
for Nuremberg, on the other hand, places his 
engraving proudly in its German context. 
Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520-1582) 
after Francesco Salviati (Italian, 1510-1563)
The Visitation, ca. 1540s
Engraving 
The inscriptions at upper right (.FRAN[cesco]. 
SALVIATI. IN[venit]:) and at lower right 
(GEORGIUS MANTUANAS F[ecit]) seem to 
represent a straightforward acknowledgement of 
shared authorship. Salviati painted a fresco in 
the Roman church of S. Giovanni Decollato in 
1538, and a few years later, Ghisi visiting from 
Mantua, reproduced it as an engraving. However, 
art historians have noted that Ghisi’s print made 
significant changes to Salviati’s composition; for 
example, while the print depicts the two men in 
contemporary clothes at lower left standing in 
front of a platform with three steps, the actual 
fresco actually shows them coming up a staircase 
to view the scene. One possible solution, suggested 
by scholar Suzanne Boorsch, is that Ghisi based 
his print on a drawing that reflected Salviati’s 
earlier idea for the composition – perhaps 
challenging our notion of the “reproductive  
print” as one that perfectly strives to perfectly 
imitate its source.
Francesco Salviati, The Visitation, 1538, fresco. 
Rome: Oratory of S. Giovanni Decollato 
(Wikimedia Commons: CC-0)
Jacques Callot (French, 1592-1635)
The Assumption of the Virgin, ca. 1620s
Etching
Despite the tiny size of this example, Callot 
occupies an outsize role in the history of 
European printmaking, as the first artist to 
make his living entirely through his printmaking 
activity. He is credited with many technical 
innovations, including developing the echoppe 
tool (which allowed etchers to produce lines of 
varied width, like engravers), and introducing a 
more durable ground. He also experimented with 
double-biting; after first submerging the plate 
in acid, the artist could “stop out,” or cover up 
with ground, certain areas of the design before 
returning the plate to the acid. The remaining 
unprotected lines would be bitten even more 
deeply into the plate, and thus hold more ink 
in the printing. In this example, look for the 
silvery-gray lines in the clouds, in comparison to 
the darkness beneath, where the lines have been 
bitten more deeply.
Callot had a lifelong partnership with his friend 
Israël Henriet (ca. 1590–1661), a printmaker and 
publisher who held the exclusive rights to publish 
Callot’s work after 1629. That relationship is 
testified here by the inscription at the bottom of 
the print: Callot fecit / Israel ex[cudit] cum privilegio 
Reg[is], or “Callot made this / Israël Henriet 
published this with the privilege of the King.” 
Henriet owned the plates for many of Callot’s 
designs, and prints were still being pulled from 
these plates long after the artist’s death. 
Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 
(Italian, 1697-1768)
Market on the Molo, ca. 1735-1746
Etching
Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 
(Italian, 1697-1768)
Imaginary View of S. Giacomo di Rialto, ca. 1735-1746
Etching
Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 
(Italian, 1697-1768)
Portico with a Lantern, ca. 1735-1746
Etching
Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 
(Italian, 1697-1768)
View of Mestre, ca. 1735-1746
Etching
Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 
(Italian, 1697-1768)
Imaginary View of Padua, ca. 1735-46
Etching
All of these etchings by Canaletto formed part 
of a series entitled Vedute, or “views,” that the 
artist dedicated to Joseph Smith (ca. 1682-1770), 
British Consul to the Republic of Venice. The 
title page of the series noted that some of the 
views were copied from existing places, while 
others were products of the artist’s imagination. 
A noted collector and connoisseur who was one of 
Canaletto’s major patrons, Smith also played a key 
role in developing the artist’s reputation among 
English Grand Tour travelers – many of whom 
returned home with paintings by Canaletto to  
add to their family collection.


Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall labels 6x11

https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera/1019/thumbnail.jp

Fairfield University 
DigitalCommons@Fairfield 
Ephemera Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection 
Fall 2024 
Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall 
labels 6x13 
Fairfield Univeristy Art Museum 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera 
Recommended Citation 
Fairfield Univeristy Art Museum, "Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall labels 
6x13" (2024). Ephemera. 20. 
https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/ink-and-time-ephemera/20 
This item has been accepted for inclusion in DigitalCommons@Fairfield by an authorized administrator of 
DigitalCommons@Fairfield. It is brought to you by DigitalCommons@Fairfield with permission from the rights-
holder(s) and is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is 
permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses, you need to obtain 
permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license 
in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@fairfield.edu. 
Giulio Bonasone (Italian, ca. 1510-after 1576) 
after Michelangelo (Italian, 1475-1564)
Antonio Salamanca (Spanish, ca. 1500-1562), 
publisher
The Last Judgment, ca. 1546-1550
Engraving
Reproductive prints could provide viewers access 
to artworks that were geographically distant or 
otherwise inaccessible. Most of Michelangelo’s 
fellow artists, for example, would never have 
been able to enter the Sistine Chapel to view 
his frescoes, so the many engravings produced 
based on them were crucial to the spread of visual 
information. 
By the end of the century, prints made after 
The Last Judgment unexpectedly took on an 
additional function. After the master’s death in 
1564, his former pupil Daniele da Volterra was 
tasked with making changes to the fresco, such 
as adding draperies to conceal visible genitalia 
among the blessed. Michelangelo’s visual choice – 
while theologically accurate – had come to seem 
inappropriate amid a new climate of reform in 
Rome. Bonasone’s engraving documents the 
fresco in its earlier, unaltered state. 
The inscription at the top, Alexandri car. Farnesii 
Liberalitate, credits Cardinal Alessandro Farnese 
with supporting the publication (his grandfather, 
Pope Paul III Farnese, had commissioned the 
fresco itself). The lengthy Latin inscription on the 
bottom identifies Bonasone and Michelangelo, 
and clarifies that the engraver drew the design in 
black chalk (nigro lapillo) and then carved it onto 
copper (a[es]). At bottom right, together with one 
of the earliest mentions of a privilegio or copyright 
(cum privilegio summi pontificis), Antonio Salamanca 
is credited as the publisher (Romae ex typ[ographia] 
/ Ant. Salamanca), though he evidently acquired 
the plate only after its first editions had been 
published. 
Angelica Kauffmann (Swiss, 1741-1807)
John Boydell (English, 1720-1804), publisher
Girl Reading, 1770, printed 1781
Etching
Kauffmann achieved an international reputation 
as a history painter in the Neoclassical style, which 
was the most respected genre of academic art at 
the time. She was also well-known for her skill in 
portraiture, and made many prints throughout 
her career. After moving to London, in 1768 she 
was among the thirty-four founding members 
of the Royal Academy (along with just one other 
woman artist, Mary Moser). The inscription at the 
bottom indicates that she designed this etching in 
1770 (Ang. K : fec[it] Lon[don] 1770), but it was not 
published by Boydell for more than a decade  
( John Boydell exc[udit] 1781), until around the time 
that Kauffmann moved to Rome, where she spent 
the rest of her life. 
Prior to this exhibition, this print underwent 
conservation to address visible staining. After 
surface cleaning, the conservator carefully 
performed solubility tests to determine how 
the paper and ink would react to commonly-
used solutions. After submerging the print in 
demineralized water 
for 90 minutes, 
the stained areas 
were treated with a 
hydrogen peroxide 
solution to reduce 
the stain. The print 
was then carefully 
flattened under 
blotting papers before 
being remounted.


Ink and Time: European Prints from the Wetmore Collection - wall labels 6x13

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