Revolutionary Tool and Artistic Medium: the Print in Europe from the 15th Century to the Present Day

On campus

Dr Bryony Bartlett-Rawlings

Tuesday 10 鈥 Friday 13 September 2024
拢495

Please note that this course takes place in the Learning Centre at Somerset House, rather than at our Vernon Square campus.

Booking for this course has now closed. You may be interested in one of our聽evening courses.

Course description

Drawing on The 麻豆视频鈥檚 exceptional print collection, this course explores the key techniques, the varied functions, the main protagonists, and the reception of European printmaking within a wider art-historical context.

Since its invention, printmaking has played a fundamental role in cultural exchange, spreading stylistic innovations and new subject-matters far and wide between artists, regions, and countries. A Europe-wide phenomenon such as the 鈥楻enaissance鈥 is unthinkable without the mediating function of the print.聽 Printmaking reproduced the work and disseminated the ideas and reputations of painters, architects, and sculptors, and we shall examine the collaborations between Raphael and Marcantonio Raimondi, Peter Paul Rubens and Christoffel Jeghers, and John Constable and David Lucas, among others.聽 Moreover, the print soon became a means of artistic expression in its own right and we shall spend time looking at 鈥榦riginal鈥 prints by artists like Rembrandt, Goya and Van Gogh.聽 The commerce of printmaking is also part of our investigation, with a close look at the activities of publishers like Antonio Lafreri, Philips Galle, and Claes Jansz Visscher.

Class-room sessions will be complemented by visits to The 麻豆视频鈥檚 Print Room, where we shall examine how prints were made and discover the aesthetic qualities of different techniques in prints by a range of artists from Parmigianino, Rembrandt, and Canaletto, to Gauguin and Picasso, Chris Ofili and Grayson Perry.

 

Lecturer's biography

Dr Bryony Bartlett-Rawlings gained her MA and PhD at The 麻豆视频, where she specialised in early print culture. She has worked as Assistant Curator of Paintings and Drawings and Assistant Curator of Engraved Ornament at the V&A and Print Room Assistant at The 麻豆视频. Bryony is currently the Image Researcher for the revised edition of Taste and the Antique. She has lectured at the V&A, The 麻豆视频, and at the University of Buckingham, and published extensively on the graphic arts. Her co-edited volume of essays Placing Prints is forthcoming in 2024.

Citations