Chiaroscuro: Renaissance Woodcuts from the Collections of Georg Baselitz and The Alertina, Vienna

During the 16th century, a revolutionary printing process was developed in Northern Europe, allowing artists to produce color effects never before seen in printed media. The chiaroscuro woodcut added tonal blocks to the black line block to create an interplay of light and dark. This beautiful volume brings together 120 masterpieces of the chiaroscuro woodcut technique, examining the fascinating history of the medium and showing its spread to Italy and the Netherlands. Drawn from the collections of the renowned painter Georg Baselitz and the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the book includes masterpieces from Cranach, Burgkmair, Baldung Grien, and Wechtlin from the Du]rer circle of artists; Albrecht Altdorfer; the Sienese artist Beccafumi; and the undisputed Italian master of the genre, Ugo da Carpi.

Achim Gnann is curator of 14th- to 19th-century Italian art at the Albertina Museum, Vienna. Georg Baselitz (b. 1938) is one of Germany’s most distinguished artists. David Ekserdjian is professor of history of art and film at the University of Leicester, England.