Abstract
The fifteenth century embraced reproducible multiples with a concentrated zest and variety never before seen. The processes allowed for the production of objects, sometimes hundreds or thousands of them, that were largely indistinguishable from one another: plaquettes, portrait medals, engravings, printed book and type design; cartapesta and terracotta Madonna and Child sculptures, the re-emergence of small bronzes, or, slightly later, etchings, or glazed terracottas that could be assembled in any number of arrangements (not to mention earlier traditions in woodcut prints and coins). Many of the reproducible media types had proliferated for a decade or more before Gutenberg's successful machine was introduced around 1450. It would seem that some of these media, or more precisely the multiples milieu in which they emerged and thrived, facilitated the printing press's ultimate success. What do these objects reveal about the contemporaneous dynamic between art and the ‘market’ for art, between patron and artist, between the audience and the ‘aura’ of the original?
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Notes
Coins had been in continual use in various shapes, sizes, designs and denominations since their earliest use. Striking coins followed the same basic principles that had been in use since the introduction of struck coinage in Lydia some 2000 years earlier. Upper and lower dies are cut in intaglio in hardened steel. The upper die (trussel) descends, either by hammering or by means of a press, upon the fixed lower die (pile), which holds a softer metal blank (planchet or flan), which is frequently heated, and impresses both obverse and reverse simultaneously. Other than some innovations, such as the return of portraiture on coinage or the standardized value of the gold florin, coins do not represent a new media type or a new technology.Woodblock prints also were not born of the fifteenth century, but became relatively common and inexpensive by that time throughout Europe. Especially popular in the North, the subjects of woodblock prints were frequently religious and sometimes they were produced and sold by monasteries. Playing cards were also stamped using woodblocks, and card sets were exported throughout the continent and England. Because the process of woodblock printing necessitated light pressure, the block could withstand thousands of paper impressions.
Engravings offered infinitely more subtlety in line variation and a freer translation from drawing to engraved image than woodblock prints. The plates were also far more durable than their wooden counterparts allowing larger runs. One of the immediate forerunners of moveable type printed books was the block-book, which set an entire page with text and image (since they were printed in reverse, designers had to be especially careful with text).
Nielli (or prints from niello plaques), a subclass of engravings, effectively combined plaquettes and engraved prints. The palm-sized engraved plates (often in silver) could be printed on paper any number of times, and the plates themselves, what we might call ‘originals’ in this case, also were collected. When a niello plaque was not expected to be printed any further, its incised lines were filled with a silicate which was heated, thus permanently sealing the plaque (Hind, 1936; Blum, 1950).
Variations on the basic casting process have been in use for millennia: the lost-wax process is still the method of choice for bronze casters worldwide. The process starts with a core of clay. A wax model of the desired object is built on top of it. Risers and runners, also in wax, are added to provide channels for even pouring and for gasses and impurities to escape. A layer of extremely fine sand (or a mixture of pulverized tufa, ash and a bonding agent) is added, and then further layers of increasingly coarse sand. Eventually it is encased in plaster. The mold is heated in a kiln and the wax drains out, hence the term ‘lost wax.’ A molten copper alloy (usually bronze or brass) is carefully poured into the mold. The mold cools, then is broken open. Risers and runners are cut off and filed down. The final object is finished to some degree: filed, sharpened with a cold chisel, painted or lacquered, and polished. Fine sand molds, perhaps derived from the casting of pig iron, allowed for multiple casts without destroying the molds or models. For large production runs, multiple molds from a corrected original wax model could be set up to either side of a central pouring channel (Piemontese, 1555, 206–217; Cennini, 1954; Biringuccio, 1959, 324–327; Cellini, 1967).
The artists of these early objects are unknown, and their attributions to specific artists, from Donatello to Sienese masters, continues to encourage debate and speculation. Also relevant are the small bronzes by Ghiberti's workshop affixed to the artist's second set of bronze doors in Florence.
Other experiments with the medium preceded Pisanello's invention, including the struck medals of Francesco I Carrara of Padua, commissioned in the 1390s by his son to commemorate Francesco's safe return to Padua. The struck medals of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (now lost, but apparently struck in gold and silver in 1433), Ludovico III Gonzaga of Mantua (sometime between 1433 and 1444) and the medals struck by the Sesto brothers in Venice in the 1420s also are relevant, although the latter depict Emperors Galba and Constantine, not contemporaries. Similarly, the large cast medallions of Heraclius and Constantine from the Duke of Berry's collection, from before 1402, are frequently included in lists of precursors to the medal. Struck medals were rare in the fifteenth century, but their potential for large runs far outstripped their cast counterparts. The striking process allowed for huge runs before a die would break, but it constricted the new medium's format. The results were rather coin-like: significantly lighter and smaller in diameter and thickness than cast medals. In the third decade of the sixteenth century Benvenuto Cellini introduced his screw press in Rome, an innovation in the striking process that effectively allowed coins and medals to be made in extremely large numbers with superior detail and registration.
When the term ‘roman’ is used as it pertains to type, it will remain lowercase as is standard.
The copyright restriction was removed the following year, however, on the death of Johannes. It is interesting to note that among the shareholders of Nicolas Jenson's final printing workshop were Donna Paula, Johannes da Spira's widow and his two sons.
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Flaten, A. Reproducible media in the early fifteenth century, mostly Italian. Postmedieval 3, 46–62 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/pmed.2011.26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pmed.2011.26