Above: Lucas Cranach the Elder. The Third Tournament. 1509. woodcut
The earliest woodblock printed fragments to survive are from China and are of silk, printed with flowers in three colours from the Han dynasty (before AD 220). [3] It is clear that woodblock printing developed in Asia several centuries before Europe. The Chinese were the first to use the process to print solid text, and equally that, much later, in Europe the printing of images on cloth developed into the printing of images on paper (woodcuts). It is also now established that the use in Europe of the same process to print substantial amounts of text together with images in block-books only, came about four hundred years after the development of movable type by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Northern Song Dynasty of China.
In Europe during the 15th century, people had started using woodcut to print multiples of texts and images. The process of carving out every letter of a book from a block of wood was a specialized task, so only popular works, such as the Bible and Buddhist sutras, were chosen for this type of reproduction. While the woodcut technique first became popular for its practical uses, such as printing books and decorating textiles, it eventually became an art form of its own. Woodcuts are a subset of relief printmaking—where you carve out negative space from a surface, leaving only the lines and shapes that you want to appear in the print.
In Europe during the 15th century, people had started using woodcut to print multiples of texts and images. The process of carving out every letter of a book from a block of wood was a specialized task, so only popular works, such as the Bible and Buddhist sutras, were chosen for this type of reproduction. While the woodcut technique first became popular for its practical uses, such as printing books and decorating textiles, it eventually became an art form of its own. Woodcuts are a subset of relief printmaking—where you carve out negative space from a surface, leaving only the lines and shapes that you want to appear in the print.
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WOODCUT ARTISTS + PRINTS
Many more Black/White and Color examples can be found on the Inky Fingernails Pinterest Boards!
Many more Black/White and Color examples can be found on the Inky Fingernails Pinterest Boards!
OLD MASTERS
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CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
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References (still in progress)