chiaroscuro woodcut

chiaroscuro woodcut. A type of woodcut in which tonal effects are created by printing successively onto the same sheet from different blocks of varying tone. Two or more tones of a single colour are used, or of two closely related colours, one of which is darker than the other. It is usual to make a key block with the design in outline, and to cut this first so that the main lines can be transferred to the other blocks to ensure correct registration. The technique was invented in the first decade of the 16th century and initially it was chiefly used for the reproduction of drawings. It developed more or less simultaneously in Germany and Italy, though there is an interesting difference of approach in the work of the two schools. In Germany great importance was given to the key block, which was to all intents and purposes a complete design in itself, the resulting print being a richly worked woodcut with the addition of background tints. In Italy the medium was handled with much greater breadth, the design being visualized in large areas of tone punctuated by dark accents.

One of the earliest dated examples of a chiaroscuro woodcut is The Emperor Maximilian on Horseback of 1508, designed by Hans Burgkmair; other notable German exponents were Cranach, Baldung Grien, and Altdorfer. In Italy, where the medium was used more extensively, Ugo da Carpi (who is sometimes credited with inventing the technique) made many prints after designs by Raphael and Parmigianino, the latter artist being a prolific designer for the process. Although in some cases an accurate facsimile was intended, in others the cutter interpreted his original with some freedom. The technique was little used after the 17th century and its later history tends to overlap with that of colour woodcut and colour wood engraving, but even today any relief print cut on several blocks with the intention of rendering light and shade as opposed to colour may be claimed as a descendant of the chiaroscuro woodcut.