Printmaking In The Sixteenth Century

Printmaking was an effective way in the sixteenth century to convey images through time and space. Many artists reproduced a painting by making it a print. In the Renaissance period, the replication culture, meaning artists copied the works of others, prevailed. Many printmakers copied the works of masters in painting for various purposes. As Lisa Pon wrote in her book: “If the Renaissance was a culture devoted to finding new ways and orders, it was also a culture inclined to find the roots of that originality.” She illustrated the influence and independence of each artwork: Though printmakers chose the painting and reproduced it into another medium, the work itself was a creation of that artist. Therefore, it was crucial for artists to decide which prints they chose, and how they chose them.

In the first two decades of the sixteenth century, when Michelangelo was already famous in Florence and Rome, some of his works were really popular for printmakers. Some of the artists were inspired by The Battle of Cascina, but only fragments were replicated. That was because the copies were used for other purposes rather than documenting Michelangelo’s accomplishment at that time.

The engravings of Michelangelo’s work

He engraved The Climbers. The Climbers reflected a distinctive style of how Michelangelo presented human anatomy. In that print, Marcantonio put two more figures in the print: one reaching down to the ‘river’, and one pointing to the left. The choice of three different figures suggested that Marcantonio was trying to practice human anatomy instead of artistic appreciation. This engraving was created later and better than Man Climbing On The Bank Of a River. Marcantonio improved in cross hatching and depicting the muscle areas. The figures in the print were more natural and