COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING – “CHRIST” from the original painting by Carlo Dolce, and engraved by Planer, and published in the mid 1800’s.  The means by which a copperplate is engraved gives it more detail and depth to the picture.  Copperplate engravings are seen as the most perfect means of reproducing a painting or other forms of visual art, thus giving it the most artistic value of any form of engraving.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The actual engraving measures 6 1/2” x 5 3/8”, and is matted to 16” x 20” for easy framing. 

   Carlo Dolce was born in Florence in the year 1616, and died there in 1686.  His pictures, often copied by his daughter Agnese Maria and by his pupils, were at one time very much sought after; and even now Dolce has many admirers.  He knows how to fascinate the generality of people by a certain feeling of beauty and by great technical ability, sacrificing at the same time the more sterling qualities of truthfulness and deep feeling.  Endowed with little creative power, and being of a sentimental, timid and effeminate turn of mind, he is fond of drawing mostly half-length figures in an ecstatic state of religious transport, and reveling in a foretaste of the beatitude of a better world hereafter.  This weak, sentimental turn of the artist’s mind is reflected in all his pictures.  Dolce is represented by his contemporaries, as a melancholy, gloomy despiser of temporal enjoyments, as a morose hypochondriac, who, after having indulged in extravagant religious views, became an idiot in the latter part of his life. Dolce’s portrait in the ‘Uffizi’ in Florence fully confirms the correctness of the opinion of his contemporaries.

     The picture, reproduced in our engraving, representing our Saviour as the founder of the Lord’s Supper, is indicative of the peculiar artistic tendencies of Carlo Dolce as a painter.  The mild, almost languid expression of the picture is, to some extent, justified by the circumstances of the institution of the Lord’s Supper; but it is deficient in the expression of manly earnestness commanding respect, which we look for in a representation of Christ. 

                                                                                    By Carl Clauss

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated in the auction, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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