The Apostle Saint James
Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder Italian
After Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) Italian
Not on view
Zanetti has here described the pose and drapery of Saint James through layers of colored ink, avoiding printmakers’ traditional reliance on outlines and linear shading. The artist employed a technique known as chiaroscuro woodcut, in which he formed an image by successively printing three woodblocks, each in its own color. He reserved passages of bare paper in order to create the bright highlights seen on the figure’s right arm and shoulder, which contrast with the shadows around his legs and backside. Due to the difficulty of printing chiaroscuro woodcuts, Zanetti was one of only a few eighteenth-century printmakers to practice the technique.
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