DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52444#0045
INTRODUCTION.
dated 1512 (No. 64); “St. Jerome by the Willow Tree,” also dated 1512
(No. 65); and “The Holy Family,” undated (No. 66). Of etchings
there are six: “The Man of Sorrows seated,” dated 1515 (No. 81);
“ Christ in the Garden,” of the same year (No. 82); “ The Sudarium dis-
played by one Angel,” dated 1516 (No. 83); “The Rape of a Young
Woman,” of the same year (No. 84); “The Man in Despair,” undated
(No. 85); and “The Cannon,” dated 1518 (No. 89). All the rest of his
plates are pure graver work.
The dry-point plates would offer no difficulty whatever, if Bartsch had
not been curiously loose in his statements about them,—a fact all the
more to be wondered at as he was himself a very skilled engraver,—
and if Thausing had not beclouded the matter still further by groundless
technical speculations. Bartsch speaks of three of these plates as “grave
a leau-forte sur une planche de fer,” i. e., engraved with acid on an iron
plate. Only one of them, the “ St. Veronica,” he describes as a dry-
point. Naturally enough he was followed in this by any number of
writers, most of whom are content to sail in the wake of “ authority,”
although Von Retberg and Hausmann long ago pointed out the true
nature of these plates. Thausing (II, p. 69, 2d ed.), originally misled,
perhaps, by Bartsch’s statement, declares them to be etched plates, i. e.,
plates bitten with acid, which Diirer was compelled to work over with
the dry-point, because he did not know how to manage the acid, and
therefore underbit them. The fallacy of the argument is obvious, but in
order to be able to make this clear, it will be necessary to consider the
technic of dry-pointing, and as this technic has never as yet been cor-
rectly illustrated, such a discussion will be of special interest to those
who care for these matters. It need hardly be said that “dry-pointing”
is neither more nor less than scratching on a bare metal plate with a
sharp metal point. In etching, a point is also used, but its office in this
case is to remove the “ ground,” that is to say, the thin coating of wax,
etc., which protects the plate, and the lines thus laid bare are then bitten
in, or, in other words, hollowed out in the plate, by the corrosive action
xxvii
dated 1512 (No. 64); “St. Jerome by the Willow Tree,” also dated 1512
(No. 65); and “The Holy Family,” undated (No. 66). Of etchings
there are six: “The Man of Sorrows seated,” dated 1515 (No. 81);
“ Christ in the Garden,” of the same year (No. 82); “ The Sudarium dis-
played by one Angel,” dated 1516 (No. 83); “The Rape of a Young
Woman,” of the same year (No. 84); “The Man in Despair,” undated
(No. 85); and “The Cannon,” dated 1518 (No. 89). All the rest of his
plates are pure graver work.
The dry-point plates would offer no difficulty whatever, if Bartsch had
not been curiously loose in his statements about them,—a fact all the
more to be wondered at as he was himself a very skilled engraver,—
and if Thausing had not beclouded the matter still further by groundless
technical speculations. Bartsch speaks of three of these plates as “grave
a leau-forte sur une planche de fer,” i. e., engraved with acid on an iron
plate. Only one of them, the “ St. Veronica,” he describes as a dry-
point. Naturally enough he was followed in this by any number of
writers, most of whom are content to sail in the wake of “ authority,”
although Von Retberg and Hausmann long ago pointed out the true
nature of these plates. Thausing (II, p. 69, 2d ed.), originally misled,
perhaps, by Bartsch’s statement, declares them to be etched plates, i. e.,
plates bitten with acid, which Diirer was compelled to work over with
the dry-point, because he did not know how to manage the acid, and
therefore underbit them. The fallacy of the argument is obvious, but in
order to be able to make this clear, it will be necessary to consider the
technic of dry-pointing, and as this technic has never as yet been cor-
rectly illustrated, such a discussion will be of special interest to those
who care for these matters. It need hardly be said that “dry-pointing”
is neither more nor less than scratching on a bare metal plate with a
sharp metal point. In etching, a point is also used, but its office in this
case is to remove the “ ground,” that is to say, the thin coating of wax,
etc., which protects the plate, and the lines thus laid bare are then bitten
in, or, in other words, hollowed out in the plate, by the corrosive action
xxvii