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SURPRISING THE EYE AND FIRING THE IMAGINATION

Durer: original 1515 woodcut with tone block in green on paper, the tone block was added by Willem Jansz when printing original woodcut in 1620. Georg Baselitz Collection

Georg Baselitz has spent more than sixty years assembling one of the world’s most important collections of Mannerist prints, driven by a personal fascination for distortion, emotional tension and technical experimentation.

The Budapest exhibition allows visitors to see how his eye as a contemporary artist resonates with the same “inquiet” spirit that animated 16th‑century printmakers.

In the same way a contemporary artist can move freely and enthusiastically through five centuries of earlier art, a viewer of early photography can try to build a similar kind of connection across time.

Durer: original 1522 woodcut with tone blocks in brown and ochre on paper, the tone blocks added by Willem Jansz when printing in 1620. Georg Baselitz Collection

By comparing the bold experiments of Mannerist printmakers with the patient work of the pioneers of monochrome photography, it becomes easier to see the energy, persistence, and inventiveness needed to use a single color to surprise the eye and spark the imagination.

Chiaroscuro woodcut from two blocks in brown and black on paper, ca. 1527. Antonio da Trento after Parmigiano (Georg Baselitz collection)

Some authors have compared this seated nude seen from behind to another major theme in chiaroscuro woodcuts: Diogenes reading in front of his barrel, popularized by Ugo da Carpi, which gave rise to the idea that the pose invented by Parmigianino could be reinterpreted as a cynical philosopher withdrawn from the world.

In this interpretation, the figure is no longer contemplating himself in the water (which is absent) but is meditating, with his back turned to the viewer, which would make the engraving a kind of anti-Narcissus, focused on asceticism rather than vanity.

Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in brick red, eggshell white, and brown on paper, Hendrick Goltzius, Hercules Killing Cacus, 1588. Georg Baselitz Collection

Even within the limits of a single “monochrome” ink, printmakers and photographers discovered just how far one color could go in surprising the eye and firing the imagination. By subtly shifting paper tone, ink density, and contrast, they turned supposedly simple one‑color images into magical spaces of light and shadow that feel almost vibrantly colored.

Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in green, yellow, and black on paper, Hendrick Goltzius, Hercules Killing Cacus, 1588. Georg Baselitz Collection

With the recent invention of printing, advances in woodcut and later copperplate engraving for book illustration opened up unprecedented possibilities for German, Italian, and, gradually, other European artists.

Woodcut, only black on paper, Hendrick Goltzius, Hercules Killing Cacus, 1588. Georg Baselitz Collection

Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in ochre, light brown, and black on paper. Hendrick Goltzius, Portrait of Gillis van Breen, ca. 1588. Georg Baselitz Collection,

Chiaroscuro woodcut from two blocks in reddish brown and black on paper. Erasmus Loy, Fantastical Square, ca. 1550. Georg Baselitz Collection,

This image drops us into an imaginary city that feels both Central European and strangely far away in time. The strict perspective, checkerboard floor, and arched loggias could belong to a Renaissance stage set, yet the heavy blocks of brown and black ink pull it toward something closer to modern graphic design. The result is a space that could be a church courtyard in Budapest, a colonial plaza in Mexico, or a fragment from a forgotten Cornelis Escher painting—nowhere specific, and therefore everywhere at once.

What gives the scene its quiet intensity is the chromatic restraint: just a few tones, carefully layered, are enough to create depth, architecture, and atmosphere. That limited palette generates a creative tension, as if the print were constantly shifting between centuries and continents, reminding us how a “simple” two‑color image can resonate across eras and cultures.

Woodcut on red-prepared paper, hand-coloured with blue ink and heightened with white. Hans Schaufelein the Elder, Couple, ca. 1530. Georg Baselitz Collection,

Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in light and dark ochre and black. Niccolo Vicentino after Raphael, Miraculous Fishes, 1609 reprint. Georg Baselitz Collection,

Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in yellow, green, and black on paper. Niccolo Vicentino after Raphael, Miraculous Fishes, ca. 1540. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Often what is most beautiful in a composition is precisely what is absent. In this “Miracle of the Fishes,” there is not a single fish to be seen, and yet the biblical story echoes in our minds. We think of Christ’s greatest miracle, the multiplication of the fishes, and as we look at these two different color impressions, we go on searching for the missing fish in the shifting tones and outlines.

Engraving on paper. Sharecropping, after Arcimboldo, Venice, 1568, Georg Baselitz collection

HUMANI VICTUS INSTRUMENTA

“No ve smaravegie s’a sto me cao,
Che se attacò ogni cao de massaria,
Che saì pur, che al mondo el no ghe cao,
Che no habbi dentro la so fantasia ;
Per questo el mondo è bello, inchina in cao,
Ognon tegna la soa, questa è la mia ;
Mi no vuò andar in prestio da negun,
Ch’i hò con mi quel che ghe ha insieme agnun.

Zappe, vanghe, baul, forche e rosséggia,
Menare, menaruom e menariti,
Tinazzi, vetolar, botte e mastéggia,
Sésol, falce, scuélle e boccaliti,
Versuri, roppegàr, chiudi e marteggia,
Tanagge, subbie, seghe e ceffiliti,
Ste cose, e de le altre vu havéri,
S’allegramente vu me comprerì.”

Don’t be surprised to see me with this head,
Where all kinds of farmers heads are attached.
Know that there is no head in the world
That does not have its own fantasy.
That is why the world is beautiful, leaning toward heads:
Let everyone keep theirs, this one is mine.
I don’t want to borrow from anyone,
Because I have with me what no one else has all together

Hoes, spades, shovels, forks, and rakes.
Whipping, wielding sledgehammers and mallets.
Vats, buckets, barrels, and tubs.
Buckets, sickles, shovels, and small jugs.
Augers, levers, hooks, and hammers.
Pincers, awls, saws, and chisels.
All these things, and others you may want,
You shall have if you pay me willingly.

Woodcut with tone block in reddish brown on paper. Hans Weiditz. Ecce Home, 1522. Georg Baselitz Collection

While initially adhering to subjects prescribed by the Church, these artists progressively claimed greater imaginative freedom, producing increasingly striking compositions and refining their visual language.

Chiaroscuro woodcut from four blocks in various shades of grey on paper. Andrea Andreani, Woman with fire, ca, 1599. Georg Baselitz Collection,

Above all, they systematically explored the potential of color in print, developing polychrome processes—most notably the chiaroscuro woodcut, achieved by the successive printing of multiple blocks inked in different tones.

Woodcut with tone block in ochre on paper. Unidentified printer after Sebald Beham, Adam, Eve and Death, ca. 1525. Georg Baselitz Collection,

This article traces that exploration of color in printmaking and examines the structuring role of chiaroscuro printing in the history of the European printed image.

Chiaroscuro woodcut from six blocks in pink, light, middle, and dark reddish brown, olive green, and black on paper. Andrea Andreani, Woman with Skull, 1591. Georg Baselitz Collection

From the invention of printing onward, new techniques in woodcut and later copperplate engraving for illustrated books gave the first generations of European artists an unprecedented freedom to experiment. Building on these tools, German, Italian, and other European printmakers learned how far they could push a supposedly “monochrome” medium, using one ink but varying line, pressure, and paper tone to create images that felt rich, surprising, and often emotionally intense.

Chiaroscuro woodcut from two blocks in reddish brown and black on paper. Cremonese printer after Antonio Campi, ca. 1547. Georg Baselitz collection

In the same way a contemporary artist can move freely and enthusiastically through five centuries of earlier art, a viewer of early photography can try to build a similar kind of connection across time. By comparing the bold experiments of Mannerist printmakers with the patient work of the pioneers of monochrome photography, it becomes easier to see the energy, persistence, and inventiveness needed to use a single color to surprise the eye and spark the imagination.

Etching on paper later coloured yellow. Parmigianino, The Entombment of Christ (facing left), ca. 1527. Georg Baselitz Collection.

The colored paper in this print is itself a mystery. It seems to have been tinted before the plate was printed, but no one knows whether this was done in the sixteenth century or added later. Because such warm, toned papers feel so familiar from the Romantic era, it would be easy to suspect a later intervention meant to please modern taste. Yet at least one other Renaissance impression on similarly colored paper suggests that, until a carbon‑14 test tells us otherwise, this sheet may belong to the original cycle of bold experiments carried out by that remarkably adventurous generation of artists.

Woodcut on paper. Brueghel the Elder, The Wild Man or the Masquerade of Orson and Valentine, 1566. Georg Baselitz collection

Engraving on paper. Giovanni Maria Pomedelli, Deianeira and the Centaur Nessus, 1534. Georg Baselitz Collection

Etching on paper. Initialed D.H., Death and the Devil with Two Women, ca. 1515. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Engraving on paper. Caraglio, Fury, ca. 1524. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Representation and power of the Palladium with be subject of am article to come

Georg Basélitz in his printing atelier, 2017

Lot 542

The English catalogue is outstanding: an exemplary work of research and description, and also a model of editorial care in its layout, printing quality, and the generous spacing of the prints, whose chosen dimensions preserve a harmonious sense of the real scale of the objects.

The Mannerist Mind catalogue, both amazing and remarkable, was prepared by Eszter Kardos with the support of Kinga Bodi and Daniel Blau.

And if you go to Budapest, don’t forget to visit Attila Pocze’s gallery, seen here from the square Kàrolyi Kert !

La Fotografia è la più bella delle collezioni …

Senigallia, città della fotografia, ospitera nuovi spazi dedicato alla ricerca e promozione della fotografia.

Atelier 41 si trova 41 via fratelli Bandiera.

Senigallia diventerà la Città delle collezioni.

Any question : consigned

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