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

were often made because the originals were so inaccessible to the public. The Battle of Cascina was meant for a wall in the Hall of the Great Council in the Palazzo Della Signoria in Florence. However, Michelangelo was summoned to Rome before he could finish it. As a result, most of the time the painting was dismembered and dispersed. Therefore, the pieces copied by the artists were treasured as “something sacred” by the public. This might be one of the reasons why The Battle of Cascina was so popular in the replication culture of the Renaissance: mystery made it sacred. Besides, people would pay more to see a replication of a painting that was no longer existed.

Most printmakers made their works not just for their own fulfillment. They also needed the support from the public. Because Michelangelo was a true master in art, most of his paintings were kept by the nobilities. Since the paintings were not accessible to the public, people were seeking for the copies. Those would be a lot cheaper than the original ones done by Michelangelo. Therefore, normal people would be able to afford the “true art,” which they could never have in the past. Thus, the more copies artists made, the more they could profit. In some circumstances, some collectors just wanted to brag about their appreciation of Michelangelo’s art. They bought tons of the copies even though some of those were the reverse versions of the originals. They never knew how the originals were, but buying the copies gave them fulfillment.

The Battle of Cascina represented a battle in which a group of Florentine soldiers was surprised by an attack by the Pisan army while bathing in the Arno River. This background gave Michelangelo a pretext for painting a large group of nudes with varied positions. The drawing was considered an “a school for artists,” because artists could choose any figures from the painting to replicate. By copying some of the figures in different poses, artists were able to sell their prints as well as learn the knowledge of human anatomy.

The Man Climbing On The Bank Of The River is one of Marcantonio’s prints that he reproduced from Michelangelo. In this engraving, the male nude stands on his right foot and lifts his left knee onto the bank. He puts his right hand on the bank of the river, bends over, and looks to his left. His body is full of hatching and contrasting white and black in order to show the sculptural effect. Marcantonio copied several figures in the Cascina cartoon to study different techniques to present nude figures. However, it was the anatomical human structure that attracted Marcantonio the most. The Man Climbing on the Bank of a River is one of the examples that show the nude figures from different angles. Marcantonio learned the ways to depict human activity by copying some nude figures created by Michelangelo. In the print, Marcantonio signed “IV MI AG FL, ” meaning it was created by Michelangelo while engraved by Marcantonio. By leaving this signature, Marcantonio was trying to establish a collaboration with Michelangelo. Then he could “officially” get help from Michelangelo as well as profit by his fame.

Marcantonio must have realized that there was a demand for a knowledge of anatomy, so he created a large amount of prints that could serve as models for artists to learn. In the early sixteenth century, anatomy was not easily available to artists. On the other hand, Michelangelo had done the dissection, so he was an authoritative figure in anatomy. Marcantonio seized this opportunity and reproduced the prints by Michelangelo. Then it wasn’t just normal people would buy those prints, many artists would buy the prints to learn the anatomy knowledge too. What's more, Michelangelo was not interested in publicizing the knowledge through engraving, Marcantonio, an entrepreneur, would take the printing task.

Perhaps the desire to create a collaborative relationship with Michelangelo motivated Marcantonio to create his most sophisticated and successful print after the Cascina cartoon.

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

vivid.

Marcantonio tried his best to demonstrating his ability to reproduce to Michelangelo by showing his highly refined technique. However, he probably failed because there was no signature in this print, indicating that the collaboration was never achieved. On the other hand, this method was effective between Marcantonio and Raphael. Marcantonio and Raphael collaborated frequently from 1512. He became famous and made a fortune during the collaboration.

Fifteen years after Marcantonio produced these prints, another artist, Agostino Veneziano, created a complete version of The Battle of Cascina. What’s more, the Man Pulling on His Breeches in that print was engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi. Early scholars had always suspected that Agostino was one of the students of Marcantonio Raimondi. Marcantonio’s talent attracted many students, of whom the most distinguished ones were Marco Dante and Agostino Veneziano. Ater he got famous, Marcantonio later opened a workshop to help young artists to learn the technique of printing, because the workshop would bring him fame and lots of fortune: His workshop would become famous and make a lot of fortune if his students were good at recreating the paintings of masters.

Marcantonio recognized a demand of knowledge of anatomy at that period and seized the opportunity: He reproduced the nude figures originally done by the master like Michelangelo to get famous. Then His prints got popular due to the subjects matter. As a result, his prints were sold really well. Marcantonio was quite an entrepreneur at that time. He succeeded in establishing his identities of an artist as well as a businessman in the Renaissance period.