GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA. CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA
Size of the original engraving, 5⅛ × 7¼ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA. GANYMEDE (First State)
Size of the original engraving, 6⅜ × 4⅞ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
His engravings betray markedly the influence of Giorgione, and his manner of engraving may have been an attempt to imitate the rich softness of that master’s painting. He worked out and perfected a technical system all his own. In his earliest manner he works in pure line, as in his copies of Dürer’s engravings and in such plates as the Old Shepherd and St. Jerome.
In the Young Shepherd, the Astrologer, and Christ and the Woman of Samaria, the composition is first engraved in simple, open lines, with little cross-hatching. The plate is then carried forward and completed by a system of delicate flicks, so disposed as to produce a harmonious result, obliterating substantially all trace of the preliminary line work. In the third group, to which two prints belong—Naked Woman Reclining and The Stag—no lines at all are used, and the plate is carried out, from first to last, in flick work.
Only one of Campagnola’s plates is dated—the Astrologer, of 1509. In this he shows himself ripe, both as artist and as craftsman. To an earlier period would seem to belong the Ganymede, in which the landscape is a faithful copy of Dürer’s engraving of the Virgin and Child with a Monkey. The place which, in the original engraving, was occupied by the Virgin, is now filled by a clump of trees.
St. John the Baptist is, all things considered, Campagnola’s masterpiece. The figure is unquestionably based upon a drawing by Mantegna, and has all the largeness and grandeur of style which characterizes the work of that master. The landscape background may be original with the engraver but it clearly shows the influence of Giorgione. In this superb plate Campagnola’s method of combining line work with delicate flick work can be studied at its best. The Young Shepherd, known in two states—the first in pure line, the second completed with flick work—is as charming and graceful as St. John the Baptist is monumental. It justly deserves the reputation and popularity which it enjoys among print lovers.