JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 200.5
I just wanted to note that the outline-drawing of Crockett Johnson’s Barnaby (from yesterday's post) has some long history. In just a few minutes I was able to draw on two sources for similar approaches to his art. The first is from Commentaria..,.(and in the colophon) Impressa mira diligentia Venetiis per Augustinium de Zannis de Portesio….and printed in 1517), and shows a scene from Caesar’s Gallic Wars above the Roman letter text. The funny thing here is that even these figures are done in very severe outline (and also with a perfectly blank sky), they are surrounded by a very elaborate arabesque floriated border. (Most of the other woodcuts in this work have shading and other detail work—the blank drawings such as this are certainly outnumbered by them.)
The second example is a battle scene from La gran Guerra & rotta del Scapigliato (printed in Bressa by Damianum and Jacobum in 1532). The drawings in the gothic letter text have only brief detail, but the incision is not as clean and crisp as in the earlier work, and simply not as compelling. There are other earlier examples to be sure, but I just cannot think of them right now. Suffice to say that the outline drawing has a long history. The outline drawings themselves are not what I’m referring to in my Blank History, as they are far from being blank, what with the characters having faces and all; I’m just bringing up some corollary stuff on a bit of the background of outline drawing techniques.
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