Woodcuts
History of Woodcut Printmaking.
Visual Arts

Woodcuts: Type of Printmaking

Woodcut, the oldest technique used in fine art printmaking, is a form of relief printing. Invented in Chinese art during the 5th century, it appeared in Europe during the early Renaissance period, the earliest dated example being Madonna with Four Virgin Saints in a Garden (1418). The artist's design or drawing is made on a piece of wood (usually beechwood), and the untouched areas are then cut away with gouges, leaving the raised image which is then inked. Woodcut prints are produced by pressing the selected medium (usually paper) onto the inked image. If colour is used, separate wood blocks are required. Woodcut printing is sometimes referred to as xylography or a xylographic process (from the Greek words 'xulon' for wood and 'graphikos for writing/drawing), although these terms are commonly reserved for text prints.

Simple Process

Woodcut or woodblock printing is a much simpler process than either intaglio or surface printing like lithography, and in comparison with etching and engraving, only low pressure is needed to make a print. Moreover, it can be used together with movable type text-printing as both use the relief method - one reason why it remained the primary printing technique for book illustrations until the late-sixteenth century. The final woodcut print was obtained in three different ways.

(1) Stamping. This method was employed for most of the early Renaissance woodcuts (1400-50). The ground medium (paper or fabric) was placed on a flat surface; the wood block was placed over it with the inked surface in contact with the medium; the back of the woodblock was then pressed down onto the medium to form the impression and produce the printed image.

(2) Rubbing. This method was used widely in China and Japan, but became popular in Europe only after 1450. It involved placing the block on a table, with the inked surface uppermost.

Paper or fabric is then placed onto the surface, and the back of it is rubbed with a hard pad, a piece of wood, or a piece of leather known as a frotton (from the French word 'frotter' to rub). Modern printmakers use a tool called a baren.

(3) Presses. Initially simple weighted presses were used, before more complex versions were introduced towards the end of the 15th century, following the development of the Johann Gutenberg printing press.

Printmakers

Until the advent of machine-based technology, the entire process was relatively labour intensive. Typically, the artist only designed the woodcut - either by drawing directly on the wood, or by first drawing it on paper then tracing or gluing it onto the wood. Specialist craftsmen known as 'formschneider' then performed the actual wood carving of the design, after which the block was given to specialist printers.

Developments in European Woodcut Printing

15th century Germany was an early centre of both fine art and text printing. The book illustrators Michael Wolgemut and Erhard Reuwich were early pioneers (the latter introduced cross-hatching, more problemmatical in woodcuts than etching or engraving). They were followed by the Northern Renaissance master artist and printmaker Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) whose skills remain unsurpassed. In 1508, chiaroscuro woodcuts were invented by the German Hans Burgkmair. Later in the sixteenth century, the Swiss painter and printmaker Urs Graf developed white-line woodcut, in which the image is carved in thin lines, similar to engraving. White-line woodcut was revived in the nineteenth and twentieth century, in the hands of Felix Vallotton, a process which coincided with the 'Japonisme' fashion for prints which hit Europe in the 1860s. This trend was especially instrumental in reviving woodcut, which was taken up by the German Expressionists in the early twentieth century and by artist like Edvard Munch and Franz Masereel. A recent development in this art-form is the blasting method - used to distinguish printed areas on the maxtrix from non-printing areas. The former are covered with a metallic or rubber cement shield, and then the whole surface is blasted with ink.

• For more about woodcuts, etching, lithography and screen printing in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide

• How to Update This Mini Review of Woodcuts

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