Engraving and etching - a handbook for the use of students and print collectors (1907) (14773689932)

Identifier: engravingetching00lipp (find matches)
Title: Engraving and etching : a handbook for the use of students and print collectors
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Lippmann, Friedrich, 1839-1903 Lehrs, Max, 1855-1938 Hardie, Martin, 1875-1952
Subjects: Engraving -- History Etching -- History
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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emely problematicowing to the circumstance already mentioned, that wepossess no single signed print from his hand. The freedomand softness of the line in many of the artists printshas given rise to the conjecture that Mantegna did notengrave on copper, but on a soft, ductile metal, possiblyzinc. Independently of the question as to how far theengravings of Mantegna are absolutely original, the factremains that he gave to engraving an entirely newcharacter, depending altogether on his own personal styleand influence, and thereby has deserved a place amongthe greatest of original engravers. In the school ofengravers which followed him we find no talent that ismore than mediocre. Mantegnas influence may at the first have heldsome of the North Italian engravers to the path whichhe had trodden ; but the growth of Durers mightyinfluence soon caused them to become unfaithful to theirmaster. Zoan Andrea may be regarded as a pupil of Mantegna.Documentary evidence tells of him as an engraver who
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Fig. 3S. Andrea Mantegna: The Entombment (detail). 81 6 82 ENGRAVING IN ITALY hailed from Verona and came into touch with Mantegnaat Mantua. It may be conjectured that he was anassistant, who worked under Mantegnas directions onmany of the plates ascribed to the master himself. Thedarkness in which Zoan Andreas personality is wrappedis made all the deeper by the fact that we have a record—■not indeed particularly definite—of an engraver andwoodcutter, Zoan Andrea Vavassorc, who comes to lightin Venice about 1500, and uses the signature Z. A. orI. A. (Zuan or Zoan being the Venetian form of Johannesand Giovanni). Whether this Zoan is identical withMantegnas assistant, Zoan Andrea, cannot yet be definitelydecided. The engravings, which bear a monogram repre-senting the name Zoan Andrea, or are ascribed to thisenigmatic artist, are very uneven in execution. Side byside with prints which show the immediate influenceof Mantegna we find others which in drawing and styleapproach the Ve