Printed Renaissance: Image Reproduction and the History of Art

Plate 19 of "New Inventions of Modern Times [Nova Reperta], The Invention of Copper Engraving," circa 1600, by Jan Collaert I after Jan van der Straet (Stradanus). Engraving. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Public Domain

A small exhibition of early modern Italian books and prints has opened at The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It explores the familiar story of Renaissance art through an important but often overlooked medium—printed works on paper.

Between 1500 and 1800, engravings after famous artworks along with treatises discussing the theory and history of art-making, proliferated in Italian society and beyond. Those books and prints enabled a wide circulation of canonical images and facilitated a pan-European discussion of Italian art—crucially shaping the way we have understood that vigorous flowering of the arts known as the Renaissance.

The Beginning of Reproductive Prints

Printmaking was a way of producing multiple images. During the Renaissance, the technique of copperplate engraving became increasingly popular for its capability to render fine, subtle details.