SCVLPTVRA IN ÆS. Sculptor nova arte, bracteata in lamina Sculpti figuras, atque prelis imprimit.

"COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING - By a new art the sculptor carves figures on beaten sheets and reproduces them on a press."

Legendary and iconic engraving by Philip Galle of the invention of copperplate printing, after a drawing by Jan van der Straet (Stradanus). The image illustrates the process of copper engraving — a pivotal development in the art of printmaking during that era.

The drawing became widely known in early modern Europe through the famous print offered here, where it was used by the Antwerp engravers Theodore and Philippe Galle in collaboration with Jan Collaert as one of the images in their Nova Reperta, or New Discoveries, a portfolio of twenty prints first published around 1591. The prints documented a series of discoveries and inventions, such as gunpowder, the printing press (this one here), olive oil pressing and eyeglasses.

Stradanus's Engraving Shop

Engraving was developed by Florentine goldsmiths in the 1400s as a means of decorating surfaces by cutting lines into metal surfaces and darkening them. This process was extended in the next century to permit paper to be pressed on the surfaces of metal plates upon which ink had been forced into the engraved lines. In the above engraved picture the engraver is shown at the right, burin in hand, cutting lines upon the metal surface. In the center, plates are being warmed and polished; on the left, the press rolls the paper over the plate. Pulled papers are hung to dry.

(Burnby Library)

The last image to be produced for the Nova Reperta (New Discoveries), Sculptura in Aes is both a meta-engraving, illustrating how engravings are made, and the first image to publicize the mise-en-scene of early modern engraving. Didactic in its effort to offer the viewer a clear understanding of the varied activities that led to the creation of an engraved image, the representation has been read as an uncompleted mirror of Florentine or Italian printmaking.

(Viljoen)

"Sculptura in Aes" offers a comprehensive depiction of an engraving workshop, capturing various stages of the copper engraving process:

Foreground (Right Side): An engraver is depicted meticulously carving a design onto a copper plate, demonstrating the precision required in this art form.​ Note the use of a mirror to project the image that the boy is holding onto the copperplate.

Center: Two workers are engaged in preparing the inked plates. One holds a plate over a brazier to warm it, facilitating the application of ink, while the other wipes the plate to remove excess ink, ensuring that only the incised lines retain the ink.​

Left Side: A printer operates a large roller press, using significant effort to pull the press arm, indicating the physical demands of the process.​

Background: Freshly printed sheets are hung on lines to dry, showcasing the final products of the engraving process.

Nova Reperta

The print series »Nova reperta« (New inventions), which Stradanus drew in the third quarter of the 16th century, is a rich source for cultural history in general as well as for the history of technology in particular. The discoveries and inventions depicted here extend throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance epoch, but the workshops and the people in them generally belong to the artist's time.

The major technical developments of the high Middle Ages include the widespread expansion of the water wheel, which was already known in antiquity, and the introduction of the windmill in Europe. The author commemorates both engines (water wheel, wind wheel) his picture series. Together with the now also better-used animal force they helped to establish a civilization in the Middle Ages that no longer mainly used human muscle as it did in classical antiquity, but that learned more and more to make use of other forces with technical means. The mechanical clock and the spectacles, two inventions of the 13th century, which influenced the bourgeois life substantially, are shown to us in two particularly attractive pictures. The great inventions of the late Middle Ages, gunpowder and book printing, are also treated, but oil painting and the art of copper engraving are not forgotten either. In the fields of chemistry and chemical technology, the images include distillation, sugar and oil paint. The art of distillation had made significant progress since the high Middle Ages. The artist also devotes some quite compelling images to the geographical discoveries and their technical requirements. From a technical-historical point of view, the draftsman has really chosen the most essential inventions of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as a theme.

The illustrator of the sheets is Bruges-born Jan van der Straet (1523-1605), who in Latin was called Stradanus and in Italian Stradano (or della Strada). Stradanus, painter and draftsman, worked mainly in Florence, where he belonged to the circle of the artist and art writer Giorgio Vasari. Like Vasari, Stradanus moved in the path of late Renaissance mannerism. Characteristic of the mannerism of Stradanus is the abundance of juxtaposed details, the extensive joy, the fragmentation of the space, the narrowness and compression of the images (for example the distillation print), the use of the picture in picture (for example the guaiac wood print) and the contortion of the figures (for example the copper engraving print).

From his Flemish motherland Stradanus brought with him the strong inclination for the powerful and the realistic depiction. Vasari praised Stradanus’ great drawing skills, his excellent ideas and his ingenuity. In the extensive work of Stradanus comes out a variety of pasteboards, which he delivered to the wall carpet manufacturer for the Medici family in Florence. Especially his hunting scenes made Stradanus famous. We encounter his paintings and frescoes mainly in Florence, such as in Palazzo Vecchio, where we also admire, among other things, his 1570 created painting of a distillation laboratory of Grand Duke Francesco I de 'Medici. The picture resembles the sheet "Distillatio”.

The drawings for the series "Nova reperta" were created by Stradanus in the third quarter of the 16th century. At the end of the 16th century, the Amsterdam draftsman, engraver and engraver Philipp Galle had nine of these drawings and a title page engraved in copper by his son Theodor Galle. It was soon followed by another ten leaves that were engraved by Theodor Galle and Jan Collaert. On all engravings Stradanus is a draftsman (Inventor), indicated with »Ioan. Stradanus invent«. The engravers Theodor Galle and Jan Collaert (Inscribed "Theodor Galle sculp.", "loan Collaert sculp.") are only mentioned on some of the engravings.

(Klemm)

Of exceptional rarity, lacking in nearly all collections.

Stradanus' iconic masterprint of the invention of copperplate printing is the first detailed image of this subject.

It depicts the workshop of an engraving artist. The print illustrates the step-by-step process of creating an engraving, from the initial carving of the design on a copper plate to the final drying of the printed sheets. Key stages include:

- Carving the plate, where the artist engraves the design, note the use of a mirror to assist in this work.
- Inking and wiping the plate to prepare it for printing.
- The etching process, shown by a plate being pulled from an acid bath.
- Printing using a large roller press.
- Drying the finished prints.

The print is not only a technical illustration but also a celebration of the art of engraving, which was a relatively new and sophisticated method during the Renaissance.

Johannes Stradanus, or Giovanni Stradano, or Jan van der Straet or van der Straat, or Stradanus or Stratensis (Bruges 1523 – Florence 2 November 1605) was a Flanders-born mannerist artist active mainly in 16th century Florence, Italy. Born in Bruges, he began his training in the shop of his father, then in Antwerp with Pieter Aertsen.

By 1545, he had joined the Antwerp guild of Saint Luke or painters' guild, the equivalent of the Roman (Accademia San Luca). He reached Florence in 1550, where he entered in the service of the Medici Dukes and Giorgio Vasari. The Medici court was his main patron, and he designed a number of scenes for tapestries and frescoes to decorate the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, and providing illustrations for the Arazzeria Medicea. He also worked for the Pazzi Family in their estates in Montemurlo.

Many of his drawings became so popular they were translated into prints. Stradanus collaborated with printmakers Hieronymus Cock and the Galle family in Antwerp to produce hundreds of prints on a variety of subjects. He also worked with Francesco Salviati in the decoration of the Vatican Belvedere. He was one of the artists involved in the Studiolo of Francesco I (1567-1577), to which he contributed two paintings including "The Alchemist's Studio".

Karel van Mander wrote about Stradanus in his Schilder-boeck (book of famous painters), mentioning that he was 74 in 1603 and still a member of the Florence drawing academy. He also mentioned his pupil Antonio Tempesta, who painted ships and Amazon battle scenes (bataljes), mainly in 16th century Florence, Italy.

Johannes Stradanus is one of the most well-known unknown artists in history. Even though the Bruges-born painter (1523-1605) had a more than successful career in the highly competitive city of Florence in the second half of the 16th century, his name long remained a well-hidden secret for specialists only. Many of his works, though, are very well known.

Around 1570, Stradanus – who began as designer of tapestries and fresco painter in service of the Medici – started a second career as draughtsman and designer of hundreds of prints. These were engraved, published and distributed all over the then-known world by Antwerp publishers in huge numbers. It are these works – widely collected, copied and used – which secured Stradanus’s place in art history as an inventive and influential artist.

Johannes Stradanus died in Florence in 1605.

Literature

New Hollstein (Dutch and Flemish) 342-345 (Johannes Stradanus).
Stevens & Tooley: Map Collector 2, p.22-24, "One of the Rarest Picture Atlases".
van Mander: Schilder-boeck, 1604.
Sellink: Stradanus (1523-1605), Court Artist of the Medici, 2008.
Markey: Renaissance Invention - Stradanus's Nova Reperta, 2020.

Old Master Prints
Antique maps of Italy
Antique maps of the Netherlands
Old books, maps and prints by Johannes Stradanus