Saint Mark Saving a Slave from Torture, from Opera Selectiora
Medium
Chiaroscuro woodcut printed in buff, warm gray, brown, and dark brown on off-white paper
Dimensions
Image/block: 56.6 × 44.5 cm (22 5/16 × 17 9/16 in.); Sheet: 62.2 × 46.4 cm (24 1/2 × 18 5/16 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
84337
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The British expatriate artist and wallpaper maker John Baptist Jackson took it upon himself to revive the art of chiaroscuro woodcut carving, which he believed had declined since its heyday in the 16th century. He published a monumental portfolio of complex color woodblock prints after 17 Italian Renaissance paintings in 1745, including several in multiple-sheet diptychs and triptychs. Each includes at least four blocks in a variety of overlapping browns and grays. The prints comes from a book, ...