Pieter de Jode II’s etching with engraving, “Portrait of Jan Snellincx”, after Van Dyck, 1630

Pieter de Jode II (aka Pieter de Iode; Petrus iunior de Jode; Pieter de Jonge Jode) (1606–70/74)

“Portrait of Jan Snellincx” or “Ioannes Snellincx”, 1630 (published in 1645), after Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), from the series “Icones Principum Virorum.”

Etching and engraving (the BM advise that there are “traces of oxidisation on the plate”) on laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 26.3 x 17.9 cm; (plate) 23.4 x 15.3 cm; (image borderline) 20.9 x 14.9 cm

Lettered below the image borderline: (centre) "IOANNES SNELLINCX / PICTOR HVMANARVM FIGVRANRVM ANTVERPIÆ. / IN AVLÆIS ET TAPETIBVS."

Inscribed below the image borderline: (left) "Ant. van Dyck pinxit. / Pet. de Iode Sculp."; (right) "Cum priuilegio."

State vii (of vii with the initials of Gillis Hendricx burnished)

Hollstein 157 (Jode); Mauquoy-Hendrickx 1991 37.VII; New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 9 (Van Dyck; copy); New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) 91.VII (Van Dyck)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Portrait of Jan Snellincx, half-length, turned slightly to the right but facing the left; with moustache and goatee, wearing a scullcap, a heavily draped doublet and a sash around his waist, his left hand resting on his abdomen, clouds in the background; seventh state with the initials of Gillis Hendricx burnished; after Anthony van Dyck Etching and engraving with traces of oxidisation on the plate” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1427290&partId=1&searchText=R,1b.5.&page=1)

Condition: richly inked, crisp and beautifully printed impression with good margins of approximately 1.5 cm in excellent condition for its age and only a tiny closed tear at the upper-right corner. There are remnants of mounting and previous collector’s notes verso.

I am selling this museum-quality print for the total cost of AU$206 (currently US$158.28/EUR138.62/GBP122.10 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this absolutely beautiful etching (with engraving), please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This portrait of the Flemish painter, Jan Snellincx (1544–1638), is arguably best remembered for his battle scenes and, as the Fritzwilliam Museum points out, the “rising smoke in the background” of this portrait is perhaps an allusion to such battle scenes (http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/vandyck/biographies/jansnellinck.1.html).

Although the print was inscribed by Pieter de Jode II, to my eyes the original compositional arrangement crafted by Van Dyck—the preliminary drawing for this print is now in the Duke of Devonshire’s collection at Chatsworth—is what makes this print so engaging to contemplate. From my reading of the composition, I see Snellincx responding jovially to someone, or some incident, lying outside of the borderline of the image and I feel drawn into trying to determine what he is thinking.

Beyond this marvellous portrait, Van Dyck had a much grander vision. According to the curator of the British Museum, he envisaged creating:

“… a print publication containing portraits of the most prominent men during his lifetime, divided into three categories: princes, politicians and soldiers (16), statesmen and scholars (12), artists and art connoisseurs (52). The initial idea could have been that Van Dyck would etch the faces (a process possibly learnt from Vorsterman) while others would finish the plates in engraving. Designs were needed for the plates and several drawings and oil sketches (grisailles, sometimes in different versions) have survived. Van Dyck only etched 17 plates himself, while he commissioned others to complete the set, overseen by Lucas Vorsterman I (especially after Van Dyck settled in England in the Spring of 1632). Although this project was started by Van Dyck around 1630, he never saw it completed.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1422752&partId=1&people=101862&peoA=101862-1-6&page=1) 

Adolph Schrödter’s etching “Don Quixote's Adventure with the Herd of Sheep”, 1837

Adolph Schrödter (aka Adolph Schroedter) (1805–75)

“Don Quixote's Adventure with the Herd of Sheep” (“Don Quixote's Abentheuer mit der Schaafheerde [sic]”), 1839, from Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote De La Mancha” (Part 1, Chapter 18), published in Düsseldorf by Julius Buddeus (fl.1830s–1852), printed by Schulgen-Bettendorf (1822–1943)

Etching on chine collé with full margins and with the publisher’s octagonal blind-stamp at the lower-right corner: “Julius Buddeus Editeur Düsseldorf” (not in Lugt).

Size: (sheet) 22.9 x 30.8 cm; (plate) 19 x 21 cm; (chine collé) 17.8 x 20 cm

Dated on plate; lettered with artist's name and publication detail.

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Ornamental scrollwork consisting of thorny tendrils; in the centre, Don Quijote on horseback with a lance; shepherd whose dog is biting into the horse's tail to left; flock of sheep to right.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1448230&partId=1&searchText=Schrodter&page=1)

For a description and analysis of this scene see http://www.litcharts.com/lit/don-quixote/part-1-chapter-18

Condition: crisp and beautifully printed impression with generous margins in excellent condition apart from minor age toning at the edges of the sheet.

I am selling this superb example of book illustration for the total cost of AU$93 (currently US$71.34/EUR62.53/GBP55.02 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this marvellous etching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Some book illustrations portray scenes with very little creative invention, but this image showing Don Quixote attacking a herd of sheep in the mistaken belief that they are enemy soldiers is far from prosaic; it is a subtle and small masterpiece of illustration art.

My enthusiasm for this print is not just that it captures the essence of Don Quixote’s delusion that the cloud of swirling dust kicked up by the sheep is in fact the dust from armies of foes needing to be vanquished, but that it excites an almost full emotional response from me. For example, I sense Don Quixote’s experience of riding into an explosive vortex of energy where he doesn’t see the individual sheep but rather spiralling chaos of an imagined enemy. Going further, the motif of the thistle vine with all its sharp thorns entwined around Don Quixote excites feelings of prickliness, violence and even—but here I may be pushing credibility—the choking smell and taste of churned up dust.

Francesco Bartolozzi’s stipple etching, “Lord Vaux”, after Hans Holbein, 1792

Francesco Bartolozzi (1728–1815)

“Lord Vaux”, 1792, after Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8–1543), from the famous series of 86 plates, “Persons of the Court of Henry VII”, published by John Chamberlaine (1745–1812) and printed by William Bulmer (1757–1830).

For details about the book from which this print was extracted, see the description of the copy held by Heritage Book Shop: http://www.heritagebookshop.com/details.php?id=65216

Original colour (a la poupée) stipple etching on light pink wove paper, trimmed within the platemark, on watermarked paper.

Size: (sheet) 31 x 30.5 cm; (image borderline) 27 x 28.4 cm

Lettered within the image: (upper left) “The Lord Vaux.”

Lettered below the image borderline: (left) "From the Original Drawing by Hans Holbein”; (centre) "IN HIS MAJESTY’S COLLECTION. / Published as the Act directs by I Chamberlaine March 1792”; (right) "F. Bartolozzi Sculpt”.

The British Museum holds many prints from this series; for example, see “The Lady Ratclif”: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3222774&partId=1&searchText=BARTOLOZZI+Hans+Holbein+&page=1   

Condition: extraordinarily delicate and beautifully printed impression trimmed within the platemark. The sheet is in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, abrasions, stains or foxing), but with light bumps to the lower corners and a pinhole below the beard There are ink stamps featuring a crown and text (verso).

I am selling this museum quality example of colour stipple etching for the total cost of AU$287 (currently US$217.86/EUR191.57/GBP169.85 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this superb print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

According to Gordon Norton Ray (1976) in “The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914”, this print (and the others in the series, “Persons of the Court of Henry VII”) represents a milestone in colour printing and Ray advises that it "is surely the finest early example of English color printing” (p. 20). The technique is intaglio in the sense that the stippled dots on the printing plate are etched but the fascinating part of the process is that the colours are applied with balls of rag (a la poupée—trans. "with a doll") directly onto the printing plate before it is rolled through the press (i.e. the colour is not the result of watercolour washes applied to the print AFTER printing).

Ray (1976) also points out that Holbein's portraits were "drawn with chalk, upon paper stained of a flesh colour” (ibid).  To simulate Holbein’s flesh-coloured paper, Bartolozzi has matched the colour of Holbein’s paper with the colour of the paper chosen for this print. Small details like this reveal Bartolozzo’s dedication to his role as a reproductive printmaker of the highest order.

Francesco Villamena’s engraving (1603) after Michelangelo’s fresco, “The Last Judgement” (1535–41)

Francesco Villamena (1564–1624)

“The Last Judgement”, 1603, after Michelangelo’s (1475–1564) fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

Engraving on laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 27.4 x 22.3 cm; (plate) 22.4 x 17.3 cm

Inscribed within the image borderline at lower left: “Mich.Ang. / bonarota inué.”

Lettered below the image borderline: “Videbύt filium hominis uenientem in nubibus cœli cύ uirtute multa et maiestate. Matth.xxiiij.” (See the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Matthew [24:30])

Nagler 48 (G K Nagler 1858, “Die Monogrammisten”, 5 vols, Munich)

Condition: strong impression and based on the crisp quality of the lines it is most likely a lifetime impression with relatively wide margins varying in size from 1.7 cm on the left to 3.5 cm on the right side. The image area is almost perfect with only minor (i.e. nearly invisible) stains and the margins show only light signs of handling and two small worm holes (at lower left) that are well away from the image.

I am selling this remarkable document of how Michelangelo’s masterpiece was perceived by a well-known engraver in 1603 for AU$252 (currently US$190.09/EUR170.30/GBP150.17 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this very early graphic translation of the famous fresco in the Sistine Chapel, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This is the second interpretative print of Michelangelo’s famous painting that I am showing (see my earlier discussion of Léonard Gaultier’s print: http://www.printsandprinciples.com/2016/10/leonard-gaultiers-17th-century.html) and in my next listing I will show a third version. What I find fascinating about each artist’s attempt to use only black lines to reproduce the huge colour fresco is not just that the painting looks very different in the copies—I would be very disappointed if they all looked identical!—but rather that the mindset of each artist is so accessible by studying their interpretations.

In Villamena’s copy, for example, the comparatively wide gaps between lines and the insensitivity in the modelling of the figures—a value judgement based solely on my personal opinion—suggests that this artist was geared to create his plate in a hurry for the ready market of folk interested in Michelangelo’s painting at the time. My reading of the artist’s mindset to use the print for monetary gain is arguably supported by the decorative frame of egg-and-dart ornamentation that Villamena has added to the image to make Michelangelo’s painting more attractive—at least to Villamena’s way of thinking.

Of course, just because an artist may have the mission to make money out of a print does not mean that the artwork is handled in a completely perfunctory way. Certainly, in the case of this print the aesthetic mindset that crafted the image is clear. Note, for example, how Villamena understood Michelangelo’s notion of compositional flow so that the groupings of figures create interlocking rhythms giving visual coherence to the image—a clarity in Villamena’s articulation of rhythms that is not so apparent in Léonard Gaultier’s version. Note also how Villamena has consciously used light and shade to simplify what may otherwise have been a complicated seething mass of figures into groups modelled with tone like a bas-relief.

Xavier de Dananche’s etching, “Paysage Antique”, c.1870

Xavier de Dananche (1828–94)

“Paysage Antique”, c.1870, most likely published by Cadart (see note below) for the Société des Aquafortistes and printed by Auguste Delâtre (1822–1907). Note: my proposal of who published and printed this etching is based on the artist’s usual practice and his membership with the Société des Aquafortistes.

Etching on cream chine collé with full margins as published (presumably by either Cadart & Luquet or more likely Cadart & Luce as the partnership between Alfred Cadart and Jules Luquet ended in 1867 and Luquet was replaced with Léandre Luce c.1870)

Size: (sheet) 35.5 x 25.6 cm; (plate) 20 x 12.6 cm

Lettered below the image borderline at (left) “XAVIER DANA … [“N” in reverse]CHE SC.”; (partly erased and very faint at centre) “PAYSAGE ANTIQUE”; (right in script) “Xavier de Dananche”

Condition: richly inked impression in near faultless condition with generous margins.

I am selling this very poetic and beautiful etching by a pupil of the legendary Corot for AU$182 (currently US$125.22/EUR112.36/GBP99.02 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this print inspired by a classical past, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Although this etching leans heavily towards the classical tradition with regard to the portrayed pair of figures in the foreground presented as bare breasted followed in the distance by what I assume to be a satyr (also bare breasted), the free handling of the drawing is far from academic. Indeed, I see much more of Corot— Xavier de Dananche’s distinguished teacher—in the breadth of the approach used to draw the scene.

What I mean here by “breadth” is the way that the artist has captured an overall effect of what can be seen rather than representing each landscape feature as being visually distinct and separate to the next. In short, I have a strong suspicion that this etching was inscribed on the plate out-of-doors rather than in the studio in accordance with Corot’s approach of direct observation when creating an image.

Not all of the line-work shown in this print, however, is stylistically well-integrated and it is certainly not as integrated as may be seen in Corot drawings or one of his rare etchings or cliché verre prints (see for example the superb cliché verre by Corot that I have listed earlier: http://www.printsandprinciples.com/2017/01/corots-cliche-verre-print-little-sister.html). For instance, I see the very close attention to detail shown in the rendering of the far distant trees as being quite different in mindset to the hand that executed the rest of the composition—a case of stylistic inconsistency where I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the distant features in the print were drawn in the studio. 

This print has been sold

Early woodblock print, “Pilgrim’s map of Nunobiki waterfall(s) in Kobe”, c.1868

六溪写之 [Roku Kei Utsushi No] (late Edo Period)

“Pilgrim’s map of Nunobiki waterfall(s) in Kobe”, c.1868

Woodcut print on fine washi paper lined onto a conservator’s support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 49.5 x 35 cm

Stamped with a collection seal (transl. “Big West’s Book Collection”) and inscribed with cardinal orientation notes, temple sites, the height of the waterfall (18 zhang?), the title of the map (transl. “Ban [broad] Temple, Sheng Long [Winning Dragon] Mountain Distribution [Map]”) and lines of descriptive text.

Condition: a large woodblock print on exceptionally fine paper that was once folded and repaired and is now flattened and laid upon a conservator’s support sheet. The early repairs to corners of the folds are still visible and there are repairs to early wormholes.

I am selling this early, VERY RARE and large woodblock pilgrim’s map for AU$93 (currently US$70.86/EUR63.51/GBP55.78 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this spectacular print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

My knowledge about this woodcut map of a mountainous region with waterfalls in Japan is very thin. Nevertheless, rather than offering no thoughts at all about what can be seen—mindful that I have been unable to find any reference to this map—I have decided to attempt the crazy idea of proposing what it shows. 

I suspect—and again I need to say clearly that I really don’t know for certain—that this is a temple map designed for pilgrims travelling to the sacred Nunobiki waterfall(s) in Kobe. Certainly, the main waterfall portrayed in this print looks like the Nunobiki waterfall (see http://www.world-of-waterfalls.com/asia-nunobiki-waterfall.html) which I understand means “draped white cloth”, but there are other waterfalls that have a similar appearance (e.g. the Nachi waterfalls). 

One feature of the map that should be an important key site is the lower cartouche/text-box that my Chinese mate tells me is an inscription about “female turtle”. This reference fits well with my idea that the region encouraged female pilgrims, but I understand that only the Nachi falls has an ancient temple dedicated to the turtle (I hope my term “dedicated” is not too inappropriate) revered for longevity, support and good fortune. If my idea is correct, my friend also mentioned that the cartouche near the top of the waterfall signifies “male dragon”. For me this relationship between turtle and dragon fits perfectly with the legend of the fisherman, Urashima, who set up home in the Dragon Kingdom but becomes homesick for the seaside. On leaving to return to the sea, Urashima was given a chest but is told by the Dragon folk not to open it on his trip. When he arrives at his seaside hometown he is amazed to find that everything has changed and centuries have passed. In a fit of depression and with Pandora’s curiosity he opens the chest only to be turned into a two-centuries-old man.

Leaving aside the correct assignation of the site for this map, it is clearly a map as the encircled inscriptions towards each corner are cardinal orientations to west (upper left), north (upper right), south (lower left), and east (lower right). The title shown at the lower edge also clarifies the role of the print as I am told that the inscription reads “Ban (broad) Temple, Sheng Long (Winning Dragon) Mountain Distribution (Map).”

Regarding the artist responsible for this early woodblock map, 六溪写之,I am advised that it is executed by the artist “Roku Kei Utsushi No” (literal transl. “Six streams written”). Sadly, I can find no reference to this artist.

Engraving after Jacob Matham and Abraham Bloemaert, “Parable of the Demon Who, While the Workers Slept, Sowed Weeds among the Wheat”, c.1652

Unidentified engraver from the circle of Jacob Matham

“Parable of the Demon Who, While the Workers Slept, Sowed Weeds among the Wheat” (Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-40), c.1652, from the series of 130 engravings (plus title-page). “Historiae Sacrae Veteris et Novi Testamenti” (a Picture Bible), in reverse after Jacob Matham (1571–1631) (TIB 4[3].75[150]), after a drawing by Abraham Bloemaert (aka Abraham Bloemaart) (1564–1651), published by Nicolaes Visscher I (aka Claes Claesz Visscher) (1618–79).

Engraving on laid paper, watermarked with "Great Coat of Arms Crowned", lined onto a conservator’s support sheet.

Size: (sheet trimmed unevenly) 46.5 x 62.5 cm; (plate) 41 x 53.5 cm; (image borderline) 36.5 x 52.5 cm

Lettered with production details, in lower left and right of the image: "Abraham Bloemaert inventor" and "CIViβcher Excu.". Lettered in the lower margin with biblical verse in Latin: "DUM DORMIUNT HOMINES INIMICUS ZIZANIA INTERSERIT TRITICO. Math. 13. 24."

Hollstein 488 (after A. Bloemaert); Roethlisberger 1993 84; Hollstein undescribed (Visscher)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“The Parable of the Tares among the Wheat (Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-40 - while the farmers sleep, the devil sows weeds among the wheat); large trees in the central foreground with three sleeping figures in the shade at right; beyond some farm buildings and at left a horned figure sowing …” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3465957&partId=1&searchText=ABRAHAM+BLOEMAERT+devil&page=1)

Condition: strong impression of this large engraving. The sheet has generous margins and the original centre fold is visible but flattened as the sheet has been laid onto a conservator’s support sheet of millennium quality washi paper.  The margins show signs of use as there are marks and small tears (addressed by the support sheet).

I am selling exceptionally large and very beautiful—perhaps even magnificent—engraving in reverse after Jacob Matham for AU$403 (currently US$306.28/EUR273.56/GBP239.26 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this spectacular print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

For those (like me) who may be unfamiliar with the growing of wheat during Biblical times, the plant called “tares” that the devil—note his horns and tail—is shown sowing in the ploughed field “is an injurious weed resembling corn when young.” Specifically, it is “Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds of which are a strong soporific poison. It bears the closest resemblance to wheat till the ear appears, and only then the difference is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine.” (see http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/tares/).

The significance of the devil sowing tares in this illustration of the parable, Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-40, is that this deadly weed “if eaten, produce[s] convulsions, and even death” (op.cit.) but the point of the parable is NOT that the farm workers should have being diligent in their duties to detect this plant and failed because they are sleeping when they should be working. Instead, I understand that farm workers should not be diligent and leave the tares in the field until it matures and extract it at that time.

Mindful that “proper”/best farm practice is to leave tares to mature rather than early extraction fits well with Jesus’ teachings that non-believers should not be hunted down and rooted out from the field of faithful, as was the case during the dreadful times of the Inquisition, the Crusades and the reign of “Bloody Mary.” Instead, the false followers should be left for God’s will and by leaving the non-believers undisturbed with the faithful will prevent “immature and innocent believers” from being hurt during any process of extraction. (see https://www.gotquestions.org/parable-wheat-tares.html) 

(Please note that I am presently an agnostic and so my knowledge of Church scripture is superficial ... despite having been an altar boy “on the Gospel side” in my early youth.)

Alexandre Calame’s etching “Forest of fir trees with a stream to the left”, 1845

Alexandre Calame (aka Alexandre Calam; Alexandre Calamy) (1810–64)

“Forest of Fir Trees with a Stream to the Left”, 1845, plate 16 from the series “Essais de gravure à l'eau forte par Alexandre Calame, III”, 1838/1850, incorporating four sets of landscape etchings (45 in total).

Etching on chine collé on wove paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 27.5 x 39.6 cm; (plate) 11 x 16.2 cm; (image borderline) 10.5 x 15.8 cm

Inscribed within the image borderline at lower left, “A. Calame”

Inscribed below the image borderline at lower right: “Genve 1845”

Calabi & Schreiber-Favre 1937 29 (III) (Calabi, Augusto; Schreiber-Favre, Alfred, “Les Eaux-Fortes et les lithographies d'Alexandre Calame, Die Graphischen Künste” (1937): 64-77, 110-117., 1937)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Forest of fir trees with a stream to left”, 1845”

(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1635844&partId=1&searchText=calame&page=1)

See also the description of this print held by The National Gallery of Art and a scroll view of the other prints in the series:

https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-object-page.152406.html

Condition: crisp and near faultless impression in pristine condition with full margins as published. The impression is set slightly off-square on the sheet.

I am selling this spectacularly beautiful etching in perfect condition executed by one of the most important of the Swiss landscape artists of the 19th century, for AU$144 (currently US$109.67/EUR98.18/GBP85.88 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this poetic image of fir trees lining a stream that expresses the “bite” of Alpine air, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Calame’s prints are pure visual poetry and this etching is one of his finest—but, then again, I would say that about all of his prints as they are equally beautiful.

To help explain what I see as marvellous about this particular image I wish to draw attention to the use of tone and the way that Calame uses line.

One of the first things that I notice when looking at this print is the tonal “jump” from the dark foreground of tree trunks, shown on the right side of the scene, to the much lighter grey tones of distant trees beyond the stream, shown on the left. This visual device of portraying landscape features as lighter in tone towards the distance is, of course, a well-known and often applied a form of perspective (i.e. a way of achieving the illusion of spatial depth) what I wish to describe as “tonal perspective”. What makes Calame’s use of tonal perspective interesting to me is that he has combined this type of perspective with aerial perspective (i.e. a perspective where the landscape progressively diminishes in focal clarity towards the distance from “in-focus” to “out-of-focus”). What really makes Calame’s treatment of spatial depth masterful is that he combines visual phenomena of how the eye tends to perceive distance with a very special attribute: a change in tactile appearance expressed as spatial depth.

What I mean by this curious description is that Calame renders the foreground tree trunks with an insightful mixture of mimetic marks (i.e. marks that mimic surface textures) and contour marks (i.e. marks that are curved to match the portrayed subject’s form). By contrast, and through progressive evolution in the application of this very special tactile/haptic perspective (i.e. a perspective for the visual equivalents of texture and touch), Calame renders the far distant features with aligned vertical or horizontal strokes.

I would love to extend this description of the visual devices that Calame employs by suggesting that his use of line not only describes his observations but also connotes the notion of how Alpine air “bites” the nose with cold dryness … but I suspect that I may be pushing the boundaries of what is believable and can be seen easily without too much debate.