Jost de Negker
Jost de Negker (c. 1485–1544) was a cutter of
Born in
In 1512 de Negker wrote a long letter to the Emperor, in itself an indication of his status, which among other things makes it clear that he had been working on Maximilian's projects for some time, and had two assistants, paid via himself.
On Maximilian's death in 1519, the large teams assembled for his projects dispersed, and de Negker became as much a publisher as a cutter,[8] retaining many blocks by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz and others,[9] and infringing many works such as the Dance of Death by Holbein, Lützelburger's masterpiece as a cutter. Negker's edition of this was published in 1544, and is his last known work.
The cutters of most "single-leaf" woodcuts (prints) produced at the period are unknown, as they were usually only credited on the printed piece if they also acted as publisher, or at least printer. If the original block has survived these may be marked or signed, as they normally were in the case of Maximilian's projects, to ensure the right cutter was paid from the large teams.
In the absence of other evidence, it is not usually worthwhile to speculate on the identity of a cutter based on style or quality,[10] so many single prints cut by Negker during these years probably remain untraceable in the large production of the period. With books there is more evidence, from title-pages. He is attributed with the cutting of the German chiaroscuro woodcut with the largest number of different colour blocks, a seven-block coat of arms by Hans Weiditz (1520) used as a book frontispiece.[11]
Jost de Negker's business was continued until at least the mid 1560s by his son David de Negker, who inherited his blocks and after leaving Augsburg also worked in Leipzig and Vienna. Another (presumed) son, Samson, also cut blocks.[12]
Notes
- ^ Parshall, 200, see also Von der Osten & Vey. On block-cutting in general, and de Negker in particular, drawing on Landau & Parshall, see Woods, 216-218
- ^ Triumph of the Emperor Maximilian I,
ISBN 978-0-554-43458-2
- ^ McDonald illustrates two prints "by" Negker in this sense (pp. 60 and 228) and suggested that Negker "filled in" the extensive landscape background to the second, which has obvious failings of perspective.
- ^ Landau and Parshall, 200-202 & passim. See also Bartrum, No.s 132-137 & others. For full details of the states, search Dodgson's British Museum printed catalogue, available online. For St George, Negker's name first appears on state IV/VI, for Maximilian, III/VII.
- ^ Online translation in Woods, see also Landau and Parshall, 207-209, and also 216 and Hieronymus Andreae for Maximilian's visits to Andeae's workshop.
- ^ Landau and Parshall, 207-209
- ^ Bartrum, 130
- ^ Landau and Parshall, 212 & Bartrum, 10-11
- ^ McDonald, 174 for a Weiditz portrait of Charles V of 1519.
- ^ Of the prints, that is - a study by Laschitzer of the Maximilian blocks found that differences between individual cutters' techniques were much more evident on the blocks than in the prints.
- ^ Bartrum, 162
- ^ Bartrum, 154, and Landau and Parshall, 212 (& n. 93)
References
- ISBN 0-7141-2604-7
- David Landau & Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2
- Mark McDonald, Ferdinand Columbus, Renaissance Collector, 2005, British Museum Press, ISBN 978-0-7141-2644-9.
- Gert von der Osten & Horst Vey 'Painting and Sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands' 1969.
- Thieme-Becker Kunstler Lexicon.
- Woods, Kim, Making Renaissance Art: Renaissance Art Reconsidered, Yale University Press, 2007, (summary of Landau & Parshall, available online)