Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

The Year 2002

THE HISTORY OF GRAPHIC ARTS I. THE WOODCUT GALLERY OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS JULY 4, 2002 - JANUARY 5, 2003 CURATORS OF THE EXHIBITION! THE COLLEAGUES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS The exhibition, which was the first in the series representing the history of techniques, came into being through the co-operation of Teréz Gerszi, Szilvia Bodnár, Judit Geskó, Zsuzsa Gonda, Loránd Zentai, Eszter Seres and the graphic restorers. The Museum of Fine Arts has launched a series of exhibitions on the history of the graphic-arts techniques. The intention of the series is to offer an introduction to and an overview of woodcut, engraving, etching, mezzotinto, aquatinta, litography and the development of 20th-century graphic techniques on the basis of the most valuable pieces in the collection of the Museum (fig. 72). The first exhibition in the series, which was opened on 4 July 2002 in the Gallery of Prints and Drawings, presented the development of the earliest graphic technique applied in Europe, by means of 213 woodcuts and 26 illustrated books from the beginnings of this technique in the 15th century to the 1970s. The exhibition also documented the 19th-century revival of woodcuts, which led to the composition of new masterpieces of this technique in the 20th century. The exhibition opened with a very rare series of cards of Italian origin. The rich 16th-century German collection was represented by the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baidung Grien, Hans Burgkmair, Albrecht Altdorfer, Wolf Huber, Lucas Cranach, Urs Graf and Hans Holbein the Younger. Among Italian artists, the compositions of Tiziano and his circle, of Ugo da Carpi, mastering the coloured woodcut technique (chiaroscuro) in the reproduction of drawings, and of Andrea Andriani figured on the exhibition. The woodcuts by the Netherlander Lucas van Leyden and Jan Wellensz de