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In Episode 11, co-hosts Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig talk about chiaroscuro woodcuts before moving on to the Mannerist painter and printmaker Parmigianino. Coming off the High Renaissance and the Sack of Rome in 1527, artists were looking for ways to shake it up. Out goes the solid forms and placid emotions and in comes the twisting, off-kilter compositions and extremes in emotions. Parmigianino is the first to really take up etching in a meaningful way (it's been engraving until this point--remember, Dürer tried etching but hated it). Tru makes the case for Parmigianino as a crucial creator. Ann becomes a fan.

Recent exhibition catalogue on chiaroscuro woodcuts:
Naoko Takahatake, ed. The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Munich and New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2018.

General history of prints by Linda Hults:
Linda Hults. The Print in the Western World: An Introductory History. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.

In episode 10, Ann and Tru continue talking about Italian printmaking in the 16th century focusing on MarcAntonio Raimondi, Agostino Veneziano, Giulio Romano, and our first female artist, Diana Scultori. They take a deep dive into MarcAntonio's Judgment of Paris (after a drawing by Raphael), from which Edouard Manet extracted the figural group for Dejuener sur l'herbe. Plus, the 1527 Sack of Rome changes everything.

Platemark series two | History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond

In episode 9, Ann and Tru continue their conversation about early Italian printmaking with a strong focus on the engravings of Andrea Mantegna. They also talk about chiaroscuro woodcuts, always keeping the North within eyesight.

Platemark series two | History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond

In episode 8, Ann and Tru get back to art after a detour into techniques and materials. This time they talk about the early history of prints and books in Italy, comparing it to Northern Europe. Differences in style and materials are discussed using the example of Masaccio's The Holy Trinity with the Virgin and St. John and donors, 1425–27, the fresco painting in chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, and the Ghent Altarpiece, Jan and Hubert van Eyck's Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, 1432, an oil and tempera on wood multi-paneled altarpiece in St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. Circling back to prints, we also talk a lot about Antonio Pollaiuolo's engraving, the landmark Battle of the Ten Nude Men, c. 1490. Of course, Dürer pops back up, too.

Platemark series two | History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond

In episode 7, Ann and Tru talk about Ann's favorite, intaglio. It's an umbrella term that includes: engraving, drypoint, etching, mezzotint, aquatint.

Images below are a sampling of the kinds of intaglio prints discussed.

Platemark series two | History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond

In episode 6, Ann and Tru talk about the oldest form of printmaking, relief. That includes woodcuts, linoleum cut, wood engraving, reduction woodcuts, jigsaw woodcuts. Tru makes woodcuts, so has a special kinship with the technique.

Images below are a sampling of the kinds of relief prints discussed.

Platemark series two | History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond

In episode 5, Tru and Ann dive into the necessary preliminary information on materials, the paper and the ink. They talk about paper and printing presses and various printing inks. Without these materials, prints wouldn't exist.

Platemark series two | History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond

In episode 4, Ann and Tru finish up talking about Albrecht Dürer, including his meisterstücke Knight, Death, and the Devil (my personal favorite), St. Jerome in His Study, and Melencolia I. He had a remarkable career and changed the perception and reception of prints in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century.

Images are credited to their collection/institution and are in the public domain. They appear in the order they are discussed. 

Platemark series two | History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Ludwig
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond

In this bonus episode, Ann and Tru talk about what got them interested in art in the first place. Not when they decided to major in art history in college, but when as a child that interest was first piqued. As a child in suburban New York, Ann's mother was a painter who had a studio in the house. Ann was always welcome to play with the materials in the studio and fell in love. Her choice of art history was her attempt to feel closer to her mom, who died when Ann was twelve. Tru's childhood in Des Moines, Iowa, included an argument shelf in the dining room, which contained books available to settle disagreements: the Bible, dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia. Tru's mother was a journalist and the presence of multiple copies of the day's newspapers fostered an interest and recognition of the power of print. 

Platemark series two: History of Prints
Co-hosts: Ann Shafer and Tru Levy
Producer: Ann Shafer
Theme music: Michael Diamond