E.152 IX Circle (Nimrod) 2008

• I. 1st state of 6

  

  Etching. A naked male figure stands on a step at the right, supporting himself on his proper right knee. His bent head is shrouded in darkness, as though weighed down by the coffered ceiling, from which is suspended a chain that binds him. At the left is a tall and thin square column, and to its right a doorway, in which stands an upright, ambiguous shape. Beneath this scene is a ruled etched line with a blank band below. The image is rendered with close cross-hatching. Foul biting is present.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-1’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.

• II. 2nd state of 6

  Burnishing has been applied to the lower left corner of the wall, to lighten it, and to the area of the central doorway.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-2’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.

• III. 3rd state of 6

  

  Drypoint has been added to many areas of the plate, principally in order to better define the architectural features and the giant’s body. Drypoint has also been added to the two shapes in the doorway. The inner left line of the column at left has been prominently strengthened with drypoint, as has the area in darkness at the upper right.

  Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-3’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.

• IV. 4th state of 6

  Several more strokes of drypoint hatching have been added to the burnished area at the upper left, above the curved architectural details.

  Selectively wiped impression with light plate tone, on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-4’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.

• V. 5th state of 6

  More burnishing has been applied to areas on the left of the column at left. There are four variant impressions of this state.

  1. Selectively wiped impression, with light plate tone, on wove BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-5’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.
  2. Impression with plate tone, on wove Arches paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP I’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.
  3. Very dark impression with much plate tone, on wove BFK Rives paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.
  4. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘Bon à tirer’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’. Although inscribed ‘Bon à tirer’, this is an impression of the fifth state.

• V.d. 5th state of 6

  

  More burnishing has been applied to areas on the left of the column at left. There are four variant impressions of this state.

• VI. 6th and final state

  Several drypoint strokes have been added to the upper section of the curved architectural detail at the upper left, to tone down its highlight; irregular drypoint scratches have been added intermittently to the strip of wall immediately to the left of the door. There are four variant impressions of this state.

  1. Impression with light plate tone, on wove Hahnemühle paper with watermark, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP III’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.
  2. Cleanly wiped impression on wove Hahnemühle paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP IV’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.
  3. Dark impression with much plate tone but wiped cleanly in the empty strip below the image, on wove Hahnemühle paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP V’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.
  4. Selectively wiped impression on wove Hahnemühle paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP VI’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle Nimrod’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’.

• VI.a. Artist’s proof of 6th and final state

  

  Several drypoint strokes have been added to the upper section of the curved architectural detail at the upper left, to tone down its highlight; irregular drypoint scratches have been added intermittently to the strip of wall immediately to the left of the door. There are four variant impressions of this state.

• Edition, 2008

  Edition of ten numbered impressions, on wove Velin Arches paper, printed by Rosalind Atkins at the Australian Print Workshop, Fitzroy (Melbourne), July 2008. The edition included a bon à tirer impression, an artist’s proof and two APW workshop proofs. Each impression is inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘[status of impression]’ [or] ‘[1 through 10]/10’; lower centre: ‘IX Circle (Nimrod)’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor 08’. Chop mark embossed in lower right corner: ‘APW [within horizontal rectangle]’.

  Edition sheet size: 383 x 483 mm

• Edition impression, 2008 (Featured Image)

  

• Comment

  This etching is based on an oil with a similar title, painted in 2007 and exhibited in the following year at Niagara Galleries (Niagara Galleries 2008). The print, in turn, became the model for a small painting (subsequently destroyed by the artist). The figure of the giant Nimrod is based on a three metre sculpture in concrete, made in 1992 by Amor’s friend the sculptor Peter Corlett (b. 1944); titled Mondo, it is one of four works by Corlett located at the corner of Queen and Franklin Streets in Melbourne’s CBD.

  Nimrod – who supposedly built the Tower of Babel – is one of three giants inhabiting the penultimate circle of Dante’s Inferno: the circle of traitors, who are described in Canto XXXI as standing waist-deep in a pit. Nimrod is a figure of colossal proportions – ‘His visage seem’d / In length and bulk, as doth the pine, that tops / Saint Peter’s Roman fane; and th’other bones / Of like proportion’ (XXXI, 52–55; transl. Cary 1814).

  Amor’s etching does not follow Dante’s account literally. Instead, Amor evokes the general atmosphere of darkness in the narrative – a darkness so intense that it could deceive the senses (XXXI, 19–24). For the belt around the neck of the giant, he has substituted a chain.

  Amor has been familiar with Dante’s Divine Comedy since childhood, his father having owned a copy of an edition of the Henry Cary translation (1814), with illustrations by Gustave Doré; Amor still has this volume. Like many artists before him, he has been especially drawn to the Inferno and he has read the text in several translations. During the 1970s, responding to the surreal aspect of Dante’s imagination, he painted subjects from the book, using John Ciardi’s translation of the Inferno (1954), but later destroyed these works. More recently, he has greatly admired Clive James’s translation of the Divine Comedy (2013).