Michelangelo Buonarroti, Wood Engraving by Biscombe Gardner, 1876
€ 185
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1876
Mapmaker / artist
Biscombe Gardner (wood engraver, signed in the block)
Publisher
Not named on the sheet
Technique
Wood engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14343-83
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good condition for its age. Light toning, text from the reverse showing through faintly, a small spot to the lower left margin and a pencil note to the lower right margin. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
A powerful wood engraved portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti, set within a large oval and lettered beneath in German Gothic type "Michelangelo Buonarroti, geb. 1475 in Florenz. (S. 94.)", born in 1475 in Florence, with a reference to the accompanying article on page 94. The block is signed at lower left of the oval "Biscombe Gardner", the English wood engraver William Biscombe Gardner (1847 to 1919). The page was published in 1876 in Ueber Land und Meer, the popular illustrated weekly of Stuttgart.
Michelangelo (1475 to 1564), sculptor of the David and the Pietà, painter of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment and architect of the dome of Saint Peter's, was the dominant figure of the Italian Renaissance in its later years. The four hundredth anniversary of his birth in 1875 was marked across Europe.
The likeness follows the familiar image of the artist in old age: the head turned toward the viewer, the brow deeply furrowed, the eyes searching and the beard and hair thick and curling. He wears a dark, high collared coat. Gardner's engraving is a virtuoso display of the reproductive wood engraving of its day, with the face modeled in a fine mesh of dots and short lines, the hair and beard cut in lively curling strokes and the ground of the oval in a smooth, even gray tone.
Large format wood engravings of this quality were the great achievement of the illustrated press of the 1870s, and they are collected for the skill of their engravers as much as for their subjects. This portrait will appeal to anyone who loves Michelangelo and Renaissance Italy, and it makes a striking picture for a studio, study or library.
Condition: Good condition for its age. Light toning, text from the reverse showing through faintly, a small spot to the lower left margin and a pencil note to the lower right margin. Please review the images for further condition details.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
