Translated material
Masterpiece Pixels
Western European engravings of the 17th-18th centuries are shown in Moscow
In the halls of the Academy of Arts on Prechistenka there is an exhibition of old European engravings from the collection of the Scientific Library and Research Museum of the Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg repositories brought part of their funds to Moscow on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the academy. For the anniversary exhibition, the subject with graphic funds was not chosen by chance. The first president of the Russian Academy of Arts, Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov, laid the foundation for a collection of engravings, providing a catalog of prints (prints) with the signature: “My prints left at the academy. Ivan Shuvalov."The exhibition featured many prints by French artists specializing mainly in so-called reproduction engravings. Reproductive engraving is the primary genre in the academic system of artistic education. Most of the sheets in the exhibition date from the mid-17th century. Just in 1648, on the initiative of the gambling minister of Louis XIV, J.-B. Colbert creates the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris, which has become exemplary for all European countries of the modern era. Within its walls a set of rules of high style is formed. In accordance with the “commandments” of the first artist of the Sun King, Charles Le Brun, one can get closer to the standard by studying the forms of classical art of Italy and the work of the national genius of France, Nicolas Poussin. In fact, by translating the images of great paintings into black-and-white graphic reproductions, engravers trained the eyes of the painters studying at the academy. Skillfully mastering the technique of engraving and etching (both types are made on a metal plate: engraving by cutting a metal board, etching by scratching the acid-resistant varnish covering the metal and further etching the drawing in acid; combinations of both types are possible), artists use tiny dots to with the finest strokes and lines they created a formula for an ideal look at the famous, recognized masterpieces of Leonardo, Titian, Raphael, and Poussin. The prints of Jean Pen, Gerard Audran, Claudia Stella, Guillaume Chateau, Etienne Beauvais, scattered throughout many academies of the world with filigree black and white “images” of paintings by God-respected classicists of the painters of the past, became a kind of visual aid, perhaps an ophthalmological chart of the young artist, it is possible that illustration for a circulation newsletter, like an art newspaper. By the way, looking at the heroic effort to imitate a masterpiece by Raphael or Titian with the help of myriads of strokes frantically walking on a white sheet of paper, you are especially acutely aware: in relation to the original painting, the reproduction engraving was somewhat similar to a pixel photograph in a newspaper or the Internet. Everything seems to be the same, but the space of perception is not the same. However, the doctrines of academic programs in relation to the unimaginably complex plasticity of artistic life beyond the control of schools were also somewhat similar to newspaper editorials.
For all its meticulous education, the reproduction engraving of the era of Louis XIV was the first step towards the era of multimedia, towards the images of pop art. By the way, the exhibition in the halls of the academy can be taken as an illustration of a plot that is quite “format” for scandalous periodicals. We have in mind the severe confrontation and irreconcilable struggle in the French academy of the second half of the 17th century between the “Poussinists” and the “Rubensists”: academicians - supporters of the ideally correct composition and drawing of Poussin and academicians - supporters of the vital coloristic system of Rubens. In the halls on Prechistenka there are both reproductions of Poussin’s paintings, engraved by his admirers (Chateau, Beauvais, Audran), and prints based on Rubens’ multi-figure paintings, created by apologists of the great Fleming’s manner (Viduk, Edelink, Bolsvert). So the exhibition in the halls of the Russian Academy of Arts is also a report from the scene of hot events 3.5 centuries ago.