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The Rise of the Print in Europe, 1400-1700 - HOA00041I

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Module co-ordinator: Prof. Jeanne Nuechterlein
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

This module analyses the beginnings of European printmaking around 1400, when woodcuts were first widely circulated, and follows its dramatic expansion in formats, themes and audiences up to 1700.

Related modules

 

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

Prints played a critical role in early modern European visual culture. Comparatively inexpensive and lightweight, and ranging from cheap popular images to sophisticated artistic productions, they reached a wide range of audiences and circulated easily across geographic boundaries. This module analyses the beginnings of European printmaking around 1400, when woodcuts were first widely circulated, and follows its dramatic expansion in formats, themes and audiences up to 1700. We will address a range of issues including the technical production of prints, processes of marketing and circulation, and the subject matter that appeared in printed images, often well in advance of other artistic media.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

  • Understand the origins of European printmaking in the 15th century and its subsequent development up to 1700.
  • Distinguish between different types of prints including woodcuts, engravings and etchings, and understand how each is produced.
  • Know how prints were circulated, marketed and used.
  • Analyse the subject matter that commonly appeared in prints, and how subjects changed according to time, place and audience.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
The Rise of the Print in Europe, 1400-1700		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
The Rise of the Print in Europe, 1400-1700		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Supervisor during their Office Hours.

Indicative reading

As an introduction to the print techniques addressed in this module, you may find it helpful to watch the following online videos showing how different types of prints are made.

Simple woodcut: 3 1/2 minutes from the V&A museum (without sound) demonstrating how simple woodcut images on playing cards would have been produced.

Engraving: 7-minute video of Andrew Stein Raftery at the Rhode Island School of Design showing how a 'reproductive' engraving is produced, in this case a line engraving made after an ink and wash original drawing, which requires the printmaker to re-interpret the initial drawing in a slightly different format.

Etching with drypoint: 5 1/2-minute video by the Philadelphia Museum of Art demonstrating the combination of etching and drypoint, plus the variations in the application of ink, used by Rembrandt in creating his prints.

You might also find it useful to watch this video from the British Museum showing their process of conserving a particularly large composite woodcut print, the Triumphal Arch made by Albrecht Dürer and several collaborators. The video gives a very good sense of the material nature of the print as a physical object, which is easy to lose sight of when you see them only in reproduction.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.