It is undisputed that Albrecht Dürer transformed the art of the woodcut. A current exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), “Book Arts in the Age of Dürer,” clearly demonstrates this phenomenon. The exhibit is the result of a sharing of resources among three prestigious Baltimore institutions - the BMA, the Walters Art Gallery, and the Johns Hopkins University – all of which agreed to contribute books and prints from their individual collections.
History of the Book
In the history of the book, the earliest were illuminated manuscripts, lovingly and laboriously created and decorated by hand. Understandably there were relatively few. They were for the rich. Next came books that were stamped or printed using woodcuts; each page was created with an individual woodcut wherein text and simple pictures were carved from the same block of wood. These are known as “block books.” While the pace of creating a number of similar books was now stepped up from that of hand-made books, block books were still crude and their manufacture slow.
But with the invention of the moveable-type printing press by Gutenberg in 1450, the pace of the production of books virtually exploded. Text, pieces of text, even individual characters used in the printing process could be re-used from book to book instead of created anew each time. Pictures could be carved from wood blocks and inserted along with the text. There was much more flexibility in the printing process. Books became relatively cheap and widely available to all. Indeed, just as the computer is now changing they way we interact with knowledge and information, the moveable-type printing press ushered in a new information age.
Early Dürer
The Book Arts exhibit consists of two rooms. In the first room are the early books, beginning with several illuminated manuscripts. Their pages with calligraphy and painstaking application of paint and gold leaf, even the bindings and covers, are indescribably beautiful and not to be missed. Indeed, the Walters Art Gallery has the most extensive museum collection of ancient books in the world. Next are examples of block books with their simple prints of flat figures and limited detail. In the history of the book, these ceased to be made by 1500.
Next are displayed books printed by Gutenberg’s new process and enhanced with woodcuts by various artists. Many of these artists are unknown. The early prints are of simple design with thick outlines. The cutters used some hatching lines to give depth and shadow to their work, but often the figures appear flat and stylized. In some cases they applied color to enhance landscape elements, such as green for the hills and trees. Often this was done with the use of a stencil for ease and speed. The subject matter of the early books was typically of a religious nature, meant to instruct and influence readers to a good and chaste life.
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