From its origins in ninth century China, the craft of printing images from blocks of carved stone or wood eventually spread to Europe, giving artists an affordable way to create multiple impressions for a new audience.
A current exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum demonstrates how ancient relief printmaking techniques evolved into a dazzlingly complex artform that's still changing today.
Organized by David Acton, "Printmaking Methods: Relief" offers a rich selection of more than 40 striking prints that reveal the history and methodology of an often-misunderstood art genre.
The curator of prints, drawings and photographs, he draws from the museum's collection of 20,000 prints to guide visitors through 15 centuries of European and American printmaking.
It is the last in a series of five exhibits Acton organized over the last decade to examine major printmaking techniques including woodcuts, wood engravings, linocuts, intaglio and metalcuts.
He described woodcut printmaking as "the earliest and most basic method." "It gave rise to everything else," he said. "They are all ways of refining basic techniques."
Probably invented independently in several countries, woodcut printing started by carving a design in reverse into a hard surface such as wood or later linoleum. After inking the block's surface, the design was pressed onto paper, fabric or other materials.
Acton said the earliest prints on paper in 15th century Europe were "affordable like playing cards" and often consisted of devotional images sold at pilgrimage sites and religious fairs.
While often less known than their counterparts who painted, the exhibit includes several master printmakers including Albrecht Durer, Ando Hiroshige and Winslow Homer. Viewers will also see several prints representing technical breakthroughs including German pictorial woodblocks from religious books, the first color prints and the first images made from linoleum blocks.
Even if you can't tell the difference between fingerpainting and pointillism, many of these prints are simply stunning examples of visionary art rendered through painstaking craft.
The exhibit's earliest woodcut, "The Madonna of Wisdom" made in France around 1450, depicts the Virgin and Child in a simple prayerful posture standing before an elaborate tapestry. As a sign of his advanced spirituality, young Jesus hovers above a balcony reading a book.
A decade after the Guttenberg Bible was published, German printers began making "block books" in which each page's text and images were cut from single pieces of wood. One such image, "The Creation of Eve" from Michael Wolgenut's workshop depicts in remarkable detail a serene Eve issuing from the flank of a sleeping Adam.
