COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING – “THE TRIBUTE-MONEY” from the original painting by Titian, and engraved by Schultheis, 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 7 ¼” x 5 5/8”, and is matted to 16” x 20” for easy framing. 

     Tiziano Vecellio is the chief of the Venetian school of painting.  His long life of almost one hundred years is also the acme of its fame.  Titian was enabled by his highly gifted mind to carry out, what Giorgione had attempted.  He has not the same grandeur and energy of style as Giorgione, it is true; but in his striving for effect of colour, he always shows a deep appreciation of a pure and noble outline.  He and Giorgione are the first who, in the course of the history of art, endeavour to advance the art of colouring, and to study and display the power of colouring as carefully, as that of the so-called poetical conception.  More than Giorgione, Titian succeeded in obtaining a complete mastery over the materials of colour, and in blending its different hues according to the laws of nature, as so to produce an almost magic effect, without ever going so far in his striving for effect of colour, as to allow it to be the one exclusive and all-important consideration.  Titian’s colour, however elaborate and magic it may be, is always clear and transparent: that which in Giorgione’s pictures strikes us as the effect of an unsubdued power (says Kugler), in Titian is softened down, and assumes the character of refined and qualified beauty of human nature, ennobled and purified by culture.

       One of Titian’s most famous pictures is that of The Tribute-Money, called by the Venetians, ‘Cristo della moneta’.  According the Vasari, Titian painted it while in Ferrara, for the Duke Alphonso of Este, in the year 1514.  Vasari says that Titian painted this wonderful half-length picture of Christ, to whom a wicked Hebrew shows the coin of the Emperor, on the door of a cupboard.  This head, together with the other pictures in the same small room in the palace of the Duke, is admitted by the best artists to be the most excellent, the most perfect that Titian ever achieved.  They are precious, indeed; and he well deserved to be richly rewarded by the Duke Alphonso.  This opinion, expressed 300 years ago, is still shared by all those who, in our days, behold this picture.  After the death of Duke Alphonso II, the last duke of the house of Este, it was transferred to the picture-gallery of the Duke of Modena, from whence it came to Dresden in the year 1746.  The subject of the picture is quite intelligible.  It is taken from the passage in the Gospel of St. Matthew which tells, how the Pharisees came to Jesus to entangle him in his talk asking him: ‘it is lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?’ and how Christ answered them: ‘Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s’.  Titian has wonderfully succeeded in performing the difficult task, involved in the artistic treatment of this question, and the rebuke of the Pharisees, by pointing out the marked and striking contrast between the two faces.  Titian’s characters, however grand their conception may be, seldom appear to be treated in conformity with the style of painting of sacred history.  A rationalistic tendency peculiar to all painters of the Venetian school, prevails also his conception of biblical subjects, a tendency which conceives and represents the striking characters of the bible merely as superior human beings, devoid of any thing miraculous, as instruments in working out everlasting truths.  Also in his Tribute-Money, Titian deviates from the traditional type, transforming and remodeling the ideal of Christ, according to this rationalistic bent of his mind, in a very thoughtful, noble and dignified manner.  Christ is brought nearer to us, and proves his divine nature only by the highest veracity and purity of his character.  The searching brutality of Pharisaism is paralyzed by the clear, penetrating look of his eye.  The unapproachable majesty, expressed in the face of Christ, so noble, so earnest, and at the same time so benevolent, made paler still and sadder by his dark hair, forms a most striking contrast with the expression of the cunning villany lurking in the red face of the Pharisee, ploughed up, wrinkled and distorted by passion, a contrast which is most skillfully worked out, not only in the different features of the two heads, but also in the whole bearing of the two persons, in their dresses, and even in their hands.  These contrasts are toned down with such artistic skill, that in their combination they produce a most harmonious effect as a whole.  Both colour and outline bear witness of the most minute and elaborate treatment and finish, such as are but seldom seen in Titian’s pictures. It is not without some reason that in the delineation of the Tribute-Money the influence of Durer has been traced, who was in Venice in the year 1506, and was highly esteemed by Titian and the other Venetian artists.  The work is signed in full by the artist on the seam of the Pharisee’s dress, close to the neck.

                                                                               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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