Thursday, August 16, 2018

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken on August 22, 2009. Mattie was home and on that particular night one of his teeth fell out. You can see that Mattie was holding his little tooth fairy box. He always put a tooth in this box and placed it near his pillow for the tooth fairy. Mattie did not want money from the fairy! On the contrary, he always wrote a note asking for something specific. The asks ranged from a hotwheel car to a even a necklace made out of pasta! I remember buying this fairy box with Mattie (pre-cancer) on one of our trips to Florida. 




Quote of the day: I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. ~ Edward Everett Hale

My parents and I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Outside the museum is a wonderful artistic display of LA light poles. I can't tell you how much attention these lights get. You can always find people taking photos here. So we joined in and took a selfie. 

One of the exhibits we saw today was entitled, Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy. Displaying exquisite designs, technical virtuosity, and sumptuous color, chiaroscuro woodcuts are among the most striking prints of the Renaissance. First introduced in Italy around 1516, the chiaroscuro woodcut, which involves printing an image from two or more woodblocks inked in different hues, was one of the most successful early forays into color printing in Europe. Taking its name from the Italian for “light” (chiaro) and “shade” (scuro), the technique creates the illusion of depth through tonal contrasts.

Over the course of the century, the chiaroscuro woodcut underwent sophisticated technical advancements in the hands of talented printmakers such as Ugo da Carpi, Antonio da Trento, Niccolò Vicentino, Nicolò Boldrini, and Andrea Andreani, and engaged some of the most celebrated painters of the time, including Titian, Raphael, and Parmigianino.

We lucked out because as we were entering the exhibit a docent was starting a tour. Thank goodness we bumped into Lois, because she helped this exhibit come alive for us. She started her tour by a glass enclosed cabinet. The cabinet visually walked its viewer through the woodcut process. The process involves a specially hand crafted paper and pigments mixed in oil. 

Here you can see a block of wood that has been carved by these tools. The round thing at the top was used to blot ink onto the wooden block. 

These are examples of pieces created from the wood blocks. Understand though that one wooden block is carved for each color that you see here. So in order to produce the final product (on the far right of this row), four other wood blocks had to be created to capture each of the colors you see from left to right. Can you imagine how difficult it was to create this small print? It involved carving four wood blocks that are exactly the same. Multiple wood blocks were needed because each block represented a different color. The way I think about this is from my experience using rubber stamps.

Picture a butterfly ink stamp. You stamp the butterfly on a piece of paper, using black ink. Then you grab a second butterfly stamp (that is the same size and shape) and drip it in red ink and stamp it directly over the black stamp. Certainly we all know that it is very hard to accurately restamp the same shape you made on a piece of paper. But this is in essence what these artists did. They did multiple strikes of the image on the SAME place on a piece of paper. That alone took an incredibly gifted eye and hand. It was only be doing multiple strikes that the right color balance was achieved to illuminate the subject matter. 

Aeneas and Anchises (Ugo da Carpi, 1518)

This woodcut used two different blocks. One for each color. It depicts a scene in Troy..... as the Greeks ventured to rescue their Helen. In this woodcut, you see a man. The man was carrying his disabled father and his son was trailing alongside. Notice the father was carrying a statue. Apparently this was a statue of a Greek god that the family identified with. In this case, he was carrying Athena (the goddess of war). 

Sibyl Reading (Ugo da Carpi, 1517-1518)

The dark interior of this subject matter set the perfect stage to display the light and dark talents of this woodcut. It is hard to see it in this photo, but the flame from this little boy's torch (YES a boy), illuminates this woman's book and skirt beautifully. It was hard to believe this was done with a carved wood block and ink.

This is the most copied Italian chiaroscuro woodcut design.

This is three different versions of Sibyl. The two on the left were done by Ugo and the one on the right is a copy of Ugo's work (again this photo doesn't do it justice, but the details and illumination in the copy are poor). 

Venus and Cupid (Nicolo Boldrini, 1566)

Unlike typical Venus paintings or prints, this Venus was portrayed in a more maternal role. As she was depicted cradling cupid in her arms. 

Ugo da Carpi, "Hercules and the Nemean Lion," circa 1517-18 

Ugo was indeed prolific: 19 prints of 12 subjects are here, several showing different interpretations of the same image. One of the most arresting is “Hercules and the Nemean Lion,” based on either Raphael or Giulio Romano. An indigo-blue ink casts a twilight spell over an exquisitely refined drawing of the grappling man and beast. Hercules prevailed by choking the lion in his powerful arms — a scene that Ugo makes simultaneously ferocious and oddly tender.

Ugo da Carpi, "Diogenes," circa 1527-30, four-block chiaroscuro woodcut 

Diogenes, the contrarian beggar-philosopher, is seated before the big storage barrel that he lived in. The figure, wrapped in a swirl of billowing cloak, is powerfully muscled. Next to him dances an ungainly plucked chicken. The juxtaposition — robust muscleman and gawky fowl — is a wonderfully sarcastic rebuke to Plato’s description of humans as featherless bipeds.

Hercules and the Nemean Lion (Nicolo Boldrini, 1560)

There was a bird and two squirrels carved into this woodcut. It is hard to see in this photo, but the details were so intricate and fine. 

Massacre of the Innocents (Marcantonio Raimondi, 1513-1515)

Raphael collaborated with Marcantonio on a number of engravings to circulate his designs beyond the confines of Roman churches and palaces. These woodcuts demonstrated to an international audience Raphael's command of design and Marcantonio's technical skills.