DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52444#0048
INTRODUCTION.
pointed out by the present writer in the introduction to the catalogue
of the Diirer exhibition held in Boston in the year 1888. The bur
thrown up by the point projects above the surface of the copper, so that,
in a dry-point plate in good condition and with the bur unscraped,
there are two kinds of lines, the sunken lines or furrows which hold the
ink below the surface of the plate, and the raised, relief lines of the bur,
which hold it upon the surface. If the printer wipes with sufficient force,
and the bur lines are not too minute, the ink is removed from the back
of the bur. The result in the impression is a series of embossed black
lines, produced by the furrows in the plate, accompanied by a series of
very fine white lines, pressed into the paper, caused by the relief lines
of the bur. The plate may have been so wiped that the back of the
bur is still covered with ink, in which case no white lines are seen. But
wherever the depressed white lines appear alongside of the embossed
black lines, the existence of dry-point work is proven. In the mag-
nificent impression of “The Holy Family” here shown (see No. 66a)
careful inspection will disclose some of these sunken white lines, and in
the impression from the original plate of the “ St. Jerome by the Willow
Tree” (No. 65d) even the jagged outline of the bur can easily be seen
in the strong dry-pointing of the monogram. It may be well to add
that “ dry-point work ” is here used in its broadest sense, that is to say,
any process which, by the use of some suitable instrument, produces a
bur capable of catching the ink.
That Diirer should have dry-pointed only these four plates, and then
abandoned the process in disgust, is no cause for wonder. All these
things have their philosophy. Diirer had no care for chiaroscuro, and,
therefore, really had no use for dry-pointing. It needed the advent of
Rembrandt, the great chiaroscurist, to produce the first really great dry-
pointer. The “ Master of 1480 ” or “ of the Amsterdam Cabinet,” in spite
of the many dry-points which he produced, does not gainsay this asser-
tion. In the first place, he is an isolated phenomenon; and in the second
place, he used the dry-point merely as a handy substitute for the graver,
xxx
pointed out by the present writer in the introduction to the catalogue
of the Diirer exhibition held in Boston in the year 1888. The bur
thrown up by the point projects above the surface of the copper, so that,
in a dry-point plate in good condition and with the bur unscraped,
there are two kinds of lines, the sunken lines or furrows which hold the
ink below the surface of the plate, and the raised, relief lines of the bur,
which hold it upon the surface. If the printer wipes with sufficient force,
and the bur lines are not too minute, the ink is removed from the back
of the bur. The result in the impression is a series of embossed black
lines, produced by the furrows in the plate, accompanied by a series of
very fine white lines, pressed into the paper, caused by the relief lines
of the bur. The plate may have been so wiped that the back of the
bur is still covered with ink, in which case no white lines are seen. But
wherever the depressed white lines appear alongside of the embossed
black lines, the existence of dry-point work is proven. In the mag-
nificent impression of “The Holy Family” here shown (see No. 66a)
careful inspection will disclose some of these sunken white lines, and in
the impression from the original plate of the “ St. Jerome by the Willow
Tree” (No. 65d) even the jagged outline of the bur can easily be seen
in the strong dry-pointing of the monogram. It may be well to add
that “ dry-point work ” is here used in its broadest sense, that is to say,
any process which, by the use of some suitable instrument, produces a
bur capable of catching the ink.
That Diirer should have dry-pointed only these four plates, and then
abandoned the process in disgust, is no cause for wonder. All these
things have their philosophy. Diirer had no care for chiaroscuro, and,
therefore, really had no use for dry-pointing. It needed the advent of
Rembrandt, the great chiaroscurist, to produce the first really great dry-
pointer. The “ Master of 1480 ” or “ of the Amsterdam Cabinet,” in spite
of the many dry-points which he produced, does not gainsay this asser-
tion. In the first place, he is an isolated phenomenon; and in the second
place, he used the dry-point merely as a handy substitute for the graver,
xxx