Fine Prints From Six Centuries: Mantegna to Matisse

5/28/2015
ART IN REVIEW - 'Fine Prints From Six Centuries - Mantegna to Matisse' - NYTimes.com
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ART IN REVIEW
ART IN REVIEW; 'Fine Prints From Six Centuries:
Mantegna to Matisse'
By GRACE GLUECK
Published: December 19, 2003
David Tunick
46 East 65th Street, Manhattan
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Through Jan. 31
This splendid anthology of some 125 old master and modern prints,
dating from around 1465 to 1947, has prizes not easily seen
elsewhere. One is Albrecht Dürer's small but richly engraved
''Nativity'' (1504), setting the scene of Jesus' birth on the porch of a
dilapidated house remarkable for its architectural presence, variety of
textures and the distant perspective seen through an arch in the
courtyard.
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Another is an etching by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, ''The Rabbit Hunters'' (circa 1560), the
master's only known print. Depicting two hunters (one seems to be stalking the other) in a
broad valley, it seems to refer to certain proverbs, one of them being ''A hare yourself, you
hunt for prey.'' A group of Rembrandt etchings and drypoints includes his visionary
''Three Crosses'' (1653), a superb early fourth-state impression in which the artist
dramatically reinterpreted his original concept, among other things slashing lines at the
plate's lower center to indicate the shaking of the earth in horror.
''Entombment With Four Birds,'' a stunning engraving (circa 1465) uncertainly attributed
to Andrea Mantegna, depicts the burial of Jesus in a rocky cave by haloed disciples. Four
birds hover nearby over three crosses. Whether the print was made by the important
Northern Italian Renaissance artist or by others after his design is in question, but it is a
powerful tableau that brings an operatic grandeur to its subject.
A sly, erotic engraving, ''The Archer and the Milkmaid'' (circa 1610), thought to be by the
Dutch Mannerist Jacob de Gheyn II, adds lusty humor to this show. An archer points a
crossbow directly at the viewer as a milkmaid, wearing his hat, snuggles up to him from
behind. His sexual arousal is apparent, and a distant couple in a field can be seen
indulging in an amorous encounter.
A smaller selection of modern prints has its share of knockouts, with the pièce de
résistance being ''La Promenade'' (1895), a wonderful four-panel folding screen by Pierre
Bonnard with a scene of the Place de la Concorde sparely lithographed in bold, flat areas of
color. Based on a painting Bonnard made earlier, the design floats airily across the panels
in Japanese style.
Other goodies in this section include drypoints by Max Beckmann from his 10-part series
''The Annual New Year's Fair,'' a circus environment symbolizing the chaos of modern
society; ''Man on an Empty Plain'' (1917), a somberly expressive woodcut of a lone,
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/19/arts/art-in-review-fine-prints-from-six-centuries-mantegna-to-matisse.html
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5/28/2015
ART IN REVIEW - 'Fine Prints From Six Centuries - Mantegna to Matisse' - NYTimes.com
anguished figure by Erich Heckel; and a fine, lighthearted Cubist etching, ''Le Café du
Commerce'' (1913) by Jean-Émile Laboureur, a prolific engraver of the period, in which he
presents himself disguised as Toulouse-Lautrec. But this is only to hint at the feast to be
found here. Partake with pleasure. GRACE GLUECK
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Photo: ''The Rabbit Hunters,'' an etching by Pieter Bruegel the Elder dating from about
1560, in ''Fine Prints From Six Centuries: Mantegna to Matisse'' at David Tunick on East
65th Street. (Photo by David Tunick Inc.)
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