拍品专文
Proserpine, the daughter of the corn-goddess Ceres, was picking flowers in a meadow when she was observed by Pluto, King of the Underworld. Ovid tells of how Pluto had just been struck by Cupid's arrow, and inflamed with love he swept Proserpine away on his chariot. He caused a great chasm in the earth to open and they were carried to his Kingdom below. The myth also tells of Ceres' subsequent wanderings in search of her daughter, and Proserpine's return to earth each spring for one third of the year.
It was common in the Middle Ages to depict abduction on horseback, rather than in a chariot, as Drer did in the drawing for the print (fig. 1). In the etching he then transformed the animal into a unicorn, traditionally a symbol of chastity.
Drer produced only six etchings, all executed between 1514 and 1518. He abandoned the medium probably for stylistic reasons as well as for technical difficulties involved in using acid and an iron plate. At this later stage in his career, Drer was concerned with a more formal and abstract approach to the engraved line, apparent in his portraits of the time. He probably found that he was unable to match the freedom of handling that the etching needle allowed with his concerns for a systematic rendering of form.
The technical problems were essentially two-fold. Firstly, the iron plates used for etching tended to rust. Often, later impressions of his etchings bear the inked spots of rust marks. There was also the problem of underbiting, in other words, when the acid breaks down the parts of the plate in between the etched lines. This forced the artist to compromise his style, and he avoided the use of cross-hatching, for example.
Fig. 1: Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. I, 257D.
It was common in the Middle Ages to depict abduction on horseback, rather than in a chariot, as Drer did in the drawing for the print (fig. 1). In the etching he then transformed the animal into a unicorn, traditionally a symbol of chastity.
Drer produced only six etchings, all executed between 1514 and 1518. He abandoned the medium probably for stylistic reasons as well as for technical difficulties involved in using acid and an iron plate. At this later stage in his career, Drer was concerned with a more formal and abstract approach to the engraved line, apparent in his portraits of the time. He probably found that he was unable to match the freedom of handling that the etching needle allowed with his concerns for a systematic rendering of form.
The technical problems were essentially two-fold. Firstly, the iron plates used for etching tended to rust. Often, later impressions of his etchings bear the inked spots of rust marks. There was also the problem of underbiting, in other words, when the acid breaks down the parts of the plate in between the etched lines. This forced the artist to compromise his style, and he avoided the use of cross-hatching, for example.
Fig. 1: Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. I, 257D.