The Chiaroscuro Woodcut

"Chiaroscuro"--from the Italian chiaro, light, and scuro, dark–refers to representation solely in terms of light and shade. In painting, "chiaroscuro" implies deep shadows, strong contrasts, and a resulting sense of three-dimensional form. In printmaking, the term indicates a special kind of woodcut in which two or more blocks are printed in sequence, from palest ink over the largest area of the sheet, to darkest ink over the smallest area, leaving the uninked paper as highlights. When their tones are close in value and carefully coordinated, such prints can suggest the palette and modeling of finished drawings or even paintings. When the tones are more distinct and the colors bold, the works can appear more arbitrary and ornamental. The technique is demanding: its representational effects difficult to arrange, its colored inks often inconsistent, and its intricate blocks quick to wear.

The technique was developed in the early sixteenth century, first in Germany as a convenient way of adding color to a normal woodcut, then in Italy as a means of reproducing brush-and-wash drawings. It flourished in relation to the deliberately artificial and virtuoso style of Parmigianino and such later masters as Hendrick Goltzius, becoming an important expression of the style known as Mannerism. Ill

suited to the naturalistic concerns of the Baroque, the technique faded in the seventeenth century. Only in the eighteenth century, amid growing enthusiasm for collecting earlier drawings, was the chiaroscuro revived for reproducing their appearance. This revival culminated in John Baptist Jackson's remarkably complicated reproductions of paintings. Their sequel, and the legacy of the chiaroscuro woodcut, is illustrated wallpaper, which would dominate interior decoration for the next century-and-a-half.