Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)

ANNUAL REPORT - A 2007. ÉV - ÁRPAD MIKÓ: From Mantegna to Hogarth: Virtuoso Engravers of Four Centuries. The History of Printmaking II.

his famous prints also preserve his own inventions. The work bearing the enigmatic title Allegory of Human Life was engraved in copper by Giorgio Ghisi. He was the first of those late-sixteenthcentury masters whose careers were almost entirely devoted to reproducing great artists. The exhibition's section of Netherlandish engraving constituted some fifty works. It was the richest selection with delicate prints by Lucas van Leyden and engravings mainly by artists employed in Rudolph II's court. The catalogue entries reflect the importance of the described prints

—more colourful descriptions accompany the more significant items

—and contain expressive observations of technical details as well as thorough analyses of content. The borderlines between national schools disappeared: the artists at the court in Prague was international and their work deserves as much attention collectively as the oeuvre of the individual artists. A Hungaricum was also on display at the exhibition: Aegidius Sadeler's portrait of Sigismund Báthory, made in 1607. The history of French engraving also began in the sixteenth century, though somewhat later than in the rest of Europe. Works ranged from prints by Jean Duvet, an epoch-making figure of the French Renaissance, to prints made after Watteau's paintings and some plates combining line engraving and etching. English copperplate engraving was the last to emerge with its main period being the eighteenth century and its main engraver Hogarth. By this time engraving had become a reproductive industry, serving as a source of income for artists, which they even managed to protect from pirated editions by using legal statutes.