Burnished aquatint. A view towards the cemetery island of San Michele from the Fondamente Nove, with a barge tethered to mooring poles in the central foreground.
Etching has been added to many areas of the plate so as to counteract the bleached appearance of the first state. The etched hatching and cross-hatching provide definition and modelling to the details and give the image overall a darker tone.
More burnishing has been applied to the details of the barge.
Many of the aquatinted areas have been further lightened through burnishing; these include the foreground embankment, the water, the mooring poles at left and right, and the cemetery walls in the distance.
Loosely etched lines and squiggles have been added to the pavement in the foreground, etched lines of modelling have been added to the barge, and etched ruffled waves have been added to the water. A small scratch, revealing the white of the paper, appears at the centre of the barge. There are two variant impressions of this state.
The foreground pavement and the sky have been burnished, as have the water at the lower left and some of the horizontal edges of the barge. There are two variant impressions of this state.
According to Amor, he burnished back the plate in 2010. However, due to the dark plate tone used in printing the previous state, it has been impossible to observe the differences between the last two states in order to determine where such burnishing was done.
- Catalogue Number
- E.150
- Title and Date
- Barge and San Michele
2007; reworked 2010
- Description of Featured Image
- A view towards the cemetery island of San Michele from the Fondamente Nove, with a barge tethered to mooring poles in the central foreground.
- Series/Book Title
- Venice Series
- Series/Illustration Number
- No. 13
- Where Made
- Venice. Alphington, Melbourne
- Medium Category and Technique
- Intaglio Print: Burnished aquatint and etching on copper
- Support
- Wove paper. Identified papers: Fabriano paper with partial watermark: ‘Artistico + Fabriano’; Velin Arches paper; BFK Rives paper.
- Dimensions
-
Image size: 260 x 178 mm
Matrix size: 260 x 179 mm - Artist’s Record Number
- RAE.177 (2007), RAE.194 (2010)
- Printer(s) and Workshop(s)
- States I through VII printed by Martin King at the Venice Printmaking Studio, Venice. First edition printed by Rosalind Atkins at the Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne). State VIII, and second edition, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio.
- Summary Edition Information
- Eight states. Two editions. First edition: edition of ten numbered impressions, 2007. Second edition: edition of five numbered impressions, 2010.
- Exhibitions
- Australian Print Workshop 2007–08: Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne), Fondamenti Nove, 21 November 2007 – 2 February 2008, no. 2.
- Collections
- State Library of Victoria, Melbourne: eight state impressions, numbered 1-1 through 1-8, all dated 2007; ed. 6/10, dated 2007; ed. 1/5, dated 2010.
- Series
- Venice Series: Click for a full account of the Venice Series (cat. nos E.138–E.150).
- Comment
This print is closely based on a pencil drawing, done on the spot in the Venice Sketchbook and dated 10 June 2007. In both print and drawing, the view is oriented in the same direction. The chief difference between the two works lies in the vegetation: in the print the cypresses are taller and their disposition has been changed in order to establish a closer connection between foreground and distance.
The Isola di San Michele is the island cemetery of Venice. While the barge depicted in E.150 was not a funerary vessel, Amor appreciates the mortuary associations the image summons up, and likes the suggestion that the boat could be a funerary barge that takes the deceased to the island of the dead.
Together with Portal (cat. no. E.138), Corte Berlendis (E.142), Street at night, Venice (E.147) and Corte Berlendis II (E.148), E.150 is fundamentally a burnished aquatint, and thus almost entirely tonal in its conception and execution. However, Amor had technical difficulties in representing the water in the image using tonal means alone (that is, working solely with a burnishing tool); this explains why, in the sixth state of the print, he added line etching to indicate ripples on the water’s surface.
Barge and San Michele is the thirteenth and last of the prints in the Venice Series.
- Keywords
- Barge, Mooring posts, Sea, Venice
- URL
- https://catalogue.rickamor.com.au/works/intaglio/barge-and-san-michele/
Record last updated 17/02/2021