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JANUARY 29, 2012–April 1, 2012


copying drawings


In the eighteenth century, new printmaking techniques were developed that allowed copyists to replicate drawings more accurately than ever before. Chiaroscuro woodcuts and, later, aquatint—a process that uses acid and various acid-resistant grounds—allowed printmakers to imitate wash drawings and watercolors. Crayon-manner engraving was used to mimic the grainy lines and textures of a chalk drawing or a pastel.

Johann Gottlieb Prestel (German, 1739–1808), after Jacopo Ligozzi (Italian, 1547–1627), Allegorical Composition: Virtue Overcoming Sin, 1780. Color etching and aquatint, with gold woodcut additions, on paper. © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Acquired by the Clark, 1987, 1987.55