Exhibitions

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480–1650

April 9–June 20, 2010
Main Gallery

Grégoire Huret, Neptune and Thetis Carrying the Riches of the Empire to Cardinal Richelieu, ca. 1626–42. Collection of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Walter H. Kimball Fund.

The Brilliant Line explores a single printmaking technique — engraving — and its proliferation between the years 1480 and 1650.

The first of the intaglio processes to flourish in Europe, engraving conveys distinctly brilliant marks, lines full of energy and tension, and passages verging on abstraction. Focusing on the formation and dissemination of the intricate visual language of this graphic medium, The Brilliant Line will exhibit engravings by artists working in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France. Through juxtapositions and comparisons among the works of such masters as Martin Schongauer, Marcantonio Raimondi, Hendrik Goltzius, and Claude Mellan, the exhibition will visually recreate the exchange of ideas and techniques in print workshops, and the dispersal of the knowledge of engraving as artists and prints traveled throughout Europe.

The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480–1650 is organized by the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

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