Art Eyewitness Book Review: Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer

 By Christof Metzger and Julia Zaunbauer

Prestel/488 pages/$75

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and Europe's leading art collector, ordered his agents to purchase one of the greatest paintings in Italy, Feast of the Rose Garlands, and bring it to his palace in Prague. The large oil on wood painting, measuring 5.3 ft x 6.3 ft., was duly transported - at one point, hand-carried along a footpath across the Alps - to Prague Castle. 

The year was 1606. Rudolf's prize acquisition was not a contemporary work by Caravaggio nor a classic painting from the studio of a High Renaissance master like Raphael. Indeed, Feast of the Rose Garlands, had not been painted by an Italian at all. It was the masterpiece of the greatest of German artists, Albrecht Dürer.

Albrecht Dürer, The Feast of the Rose Garlands, 1506 

Rudolf was obsessed with Dürer's art. The emperor, who was slightly mad to begin with, spared no expense to purchase Dürer's works of art. In 1588, he had spent a princely sum to buy a large bound volume known as the Kunstbuch, which contained 100 original drawings and watercolors by Dürer. The nature study, The Great Piece of Turf (1503), was just one of the works of Dürer's genius which were carefully preserved in the Kunstbuch. 

No art book today - or ever - can match the Kunstbuch. However, Albrecht Dürer, the catalog of the recent exhibition at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, comes close. 

Published by Prestel, Albrecht Dürer surveys the Renaissance artist's entire career. The quality of the illustrations makes descriptive words like "lavish" or "magnificent" seem trite. The scholarship which informs the accompanying essays by Christof Metzger and Julia Zaunbauer is of the highest quality, as well. This, truly, is an outstanding book about one of the greatest artists in European - and world - history. 
                                  .
The Albrecht Dürer catalog essays, which include an excellent short biography, establish the salient features of Dürer the artist: "skill" and "versatility."  

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) succeeded not by virtue of raw talent - though he had plenty - but by study, experiment, application and discipline. His first work, a self-portrait drawn in silverpoint "when I was still a child" (as he noted on the sheet), was an audacious achievement. But the level of drawing testifies to the rigorous training he received from his father, a master goldsmith and a superb draftsman in his own right.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait at Thirteen, 1484

Dürer's skill extended to many artistic media: drawing, painting, etching and woodcarving. This last is a somewhat contentious point but important to consider from the standpoint of Dürer's versatility. Most of the woodcuts for Dürer's marvelous prints were created by master carvers based on his designs. But enough indications remain to show that Dürer was adept at this patient, meticulous form of artistry. 

Such mastery of woodcarving would have informed Dürer's relationship with the professional carvers he employed. When Dürer handed the design of a picture to a woodcarver or formschneider like Hieronymus Andreä, he could do so, secure in the knowledge that both he and Andreä were "on the same page" to use a modern expression.  

This ability to both delegate and to task-manage points to another of Dürer's great achievements. He succeeded brilliantly in organizing and operating a successful workshop. In this, he can be compared to Verrocchio, whose studio in Florence was the training ground for Leonardo, Ghirlandaio and, most likely, Botticelli. 

Dürer is often called the "Leonardo of the North" because he wrote major books on aesthetics later in life. Unlike, Leonardo, Dürer had the drive to see the job in hand through to completion. Dürer's output was staggering and there was little unfinished work in his studio when he died in 1528.

                                                       Albrecht Dürer,                                                       Detail of The Rape of Europa, Three Studies of a Lion's Head,

 Apollo and an Oriental Figure, 1494/1495

Dürer sketched and drew with relentless enthusiasm. A single page in the Kunstbuch preserved a mythological scene, with a typical south German town in the background,  figure studies of Apollo and a Hamlet-like philosopher and three views of a tired old lion, who would appear and reappear in Dürer's many depictions of St. Jerome and his faithful feline friend.

Albrecht Dürer, St. Jerome in His Study, 1514

The Prestel volume displays a generous selection of Dürer's drawings, ranging from delightful doodles on letters to friends and sketches for later reference to supremely finished works. These were often done on carefully prepared colored paper, executed with watercolor and body color and brilliant touches of white for contrast. The celebrated Praying Hands (1503), masterfully demonstrates Dürer's drawing technique.

It should be noted that Dürer "drew" with a paint brush, as well as charcoal, pen and ink, and the pointed stylus for silverpoint, one of the most exacting and unforgiving artistic techniques imaginable, as noted in the 2015 exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Graphite pencils had not yet been invented.

In their most accomplished state, Dürer's drawings must be considered as Exempla. While such an expertly executed drawing might serve as part of the preparatory stage for a painting, it was also a work of art in its own right. On a higher, even more profound level, Dürer's exempla were a means of communicating ideas and ideals, the very essence of Renaissance humanism. 

                                                      Albrecht Dürer,                                                          A Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing a Viola & Panpipes, 1496/1497

One of Dürer's greatest friends was Willibald Pirckheimer (1470-1530), a pioneer of the "New Learning" in Germany. Dürer created a special illustration for Pirckheimer's copy of the first print edition of the classical Greek philosopher, Theocritus. Executed in watercolor and gouache heightened with pen and ink and gold, Durer's image of musician-shepherds surrounds the opening page of Theocritus' Idylls. Dürer drew this charming, one-of-a-kind illustration much as medieval artists created elaborate initials to mark the beginning of hand-copied prayer books and bibles. 

Although Pirckheimer's copy of Theocritus is a printed volume, its status is of supreme importance. It was printed in 1496 by Aldus Manutius in Venice. It was Manutius who established the first truly successful publishing company in Europe. The classical texts of the Aldine editions transformed scholarship because they were modestly priced and carefully edited. If one wanted to mark the moment when the Renaissance became a pan-European movement, Dürer's illustration for his friend's copy of Theocritus admirably performs that service.

Viewing Dürer's drawings as a totality, Cristof Metzger notes that Dürer's exempla "are ultimately conversation pieces, physical manifestations of the master's consummate artistic abilities whose purpose is to demonstrate this capacity to every visitor to the artists's workshop."

This is beautifully stated, but I would take it a stage-further. Dürer's drawings and prints are a means of dialogue between his time and our era - and those to come. And, when we look and reflect upon The Great Piece of Turf, we join with Dürer in a form of communication with the cosmic spirit, in short with God.

Albrecht Dürer, The Great Piece of Turf, 1503

Here, in this stunning depiction of a small plot of soil and plant life, we can feel and partake of the life force of the universe. A two-dimensional picture, 16 x 12 3/8 in., created half of millennium ago, takes us to dimensions of time and the spirit almost beyond our ability to grasp.

Dürer's drawings enable us to probe another realm of the infinite, namely the character of humanity. 

Albrecht Dürer, Head of an African, 1508

In a drawing dating to 1508, Dürer depicted the likeness of an African man of unknown origin. Dürer may have seen him in Venice during his recent trip or perhaps the man was a servant of an Imperial official visiting Nuremberg. We don't know the details, but we are given a higher degree of insight, straight into the heart and soul of this fellow human being, long dead and very much alive to us still.

Thanks to the exceptional quality of the illustrations of this Prestel book, viewing Dürer's art works on its pages is almost as rewarding as a visit to the Albertina Museum in Vienna!
If I have one criticism of this magnificent book, it is the abrupt, jarring manner in which the text comes to an abrupt halt. 

In the final section, "Dürer the Storyteller", Christof Metzger discusses a number of late works, pen and ink depictions of incidents in the life and death of Jesus. We read how these remarkable drawings were not "preliminary drawings for a specific work but rather experiments for the workshop stock."

We turn the page, expecting more, only to confront the book's section of notes. It struck me as quite a jolt to suddenly be deprived of Albrecht Dürer's company after page-upon-page of stunning illustrations and spirited, compelling commentary. This book is an exhibition catalog, rather than a formal biography, so this word of censure is undeserved.

All the same, it was with a real sense of loss, that I finished this wonderful book. Was this how Dürer's family, friends and colleagues felt when they received word that he had died on April 6, 1528? I suspect so.

Fortunately, a heartfelt valedictory of Dürer is available in Paul Johnson's Art: a New History (2003). Commenting on the large trove of Dürer's letters, travel diaries and other documents which have survived the centuries, Johnson notes how these personal writings:

 ... reveal the enthusiasm with which the boy, then the man, embraced a career in art; the assiduity with which he studied its techniques and absorbed any knowledge relevant to its practice; the humility with which, despite his obvious and overwhelming gifts, he approached art, and the generosity with which he helped others who shared his love of it.

"Dürer was the archetypal man of art," Johnson affirms. "He loved the world and nature, and sought to reduce it to orderly truth by his skill at putting real things and creatures in two dimensions."

Albrecht Dürer, Young Hare, 1502

In doing go, Dürer reached beyond tangible, visible reality to a higher level of creation. Here physical nature was infused with spirituality; transcendental themes took the shape of earthly creatures, birds, animals, human beings, which somehow - even now, five centuries after Dürer's death - do not seem out-of-place in heaven.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                                                           
Images courtesy of the Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Book cover ©  Prestel Publishing Company

Introductory Image:
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Praying Hands, 1508. Brush and gray wash heightened with white on blue prepared paper: 29.1 x 19.7 cm (11 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.), Albertina Museum, Vienna

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Feast of the Rose Garlands (Rosenkranzfest), 1506. Oil on panel:162 x 194.5 cm (64 x 76.5 inches or 5.3 ft x 6.3 ft.) National Gallery in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Self-Portrait at Thirteen, 1484. Silverpoint on prepared paper, 27.3 x 19.5 cm (10 3/4 x 7 5/8 in.) Albertina Museum, Vienna 

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Rape of Europa, Three Studies of a Lion's Head, Apollo and an Oriental Figure (detail), 1494/1495. Pen and brown and black/brown ink. Albertina Museum, Vienna 

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528)  St. Jerome in His Study, 1514. Engraving on laid paper: 25.4 x 19 cm (10 x 7 1/2 in.). National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Gift of R. Horace Gallatin. 1949.1.11

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) A Pastoral Landscape with Shepherds Playing a Viola & Panpipes, 1496/1497. Watercolor and gouache heightened with pen and ink and gold, pasted back onto page 1 of Aldus Manutius' first edition of Theocritus' Idylls and other texts (Venice, 1496): page size: 31 x 20.3 cm (12 3/16 x 8 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Woodner Collection. 2005.1.1.a

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) The Great Piece of Turf, 1503. Watercolor, pen and ink: 40.3 cm × 31.1 cm (​15 7⁄8 in × ​12 1⁄4 in). Albertina Museum, Vienna

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Head of an African, 1508. Black chalk: 31.8 x 21.7 cm (12 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.), Albertina Museum, Vienna 


Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Young Hare, 1502. Watercolor and body color: 25.1 cm × 22.6 cm (9.9 in × 8.9 in). Albertina Museum, Vienna

Drawing in Silver and Gold at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns 

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

May 3 – July 26, 2015

Reviewed by Ed Voves

If you look at metalpoint drawing in the context of Western art,  you might easily see it as a fascinating sidebar to the famous rivalry of drawing vs. the primacy of painting.

For artists during the Renaissance, the technique of drawing with a silver-tipped stylus was an invaluable means of creative expression. Metalpoint drawing enabled artists like Hans Holbein the Elder to produce accurate and life-life sketches as preliminary drafts or as source records for their major works.

Hans Holbein the Elder, Portrait of a Woman, c.1508

Metalpoint's heyday did not outlive the Renaissance. The growing use of graphite pencils, pastel crayons and sophisticated methods for preserving charcoal sketches pushed metalpoint drawing toward the brink of oblivion by the 1700's.

The fascinating exhibit, Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., presents a badly needed reappraisal of metalpoint drawing. Silverpoint, the most prevalent form of metalpoint, did fall from favor due to the invention of the wood-encased lead (actually graphite) pencil. The story of metalpoint, however, is also one of revival.  Metalpoint came back into favor during the Victorian era and is in continued use today.

Amazingly, the National Gallery exhibition is the first full-scale museum display of metalpoint drawing ever mounted. Drawing in Silver and Gold was prepared with the collaboration of the British Museum, where it will later appear.

Preparation of Drawing in Silver and Gold began in 2008.  Hundreds of metalpoint works were examined in collections around the world. Every detail, artistic and technical, of metalpoint drawing was exhaustively studied. 

Special attention was given to the types of prepared paper used in metalpoint drawings. To ensure that a mark is produced by the artist's stylus, the paper must be coated with a solution containing abrasive substances - bone dust, white lead, and water mixed with glue was a popular recipe in Renaissance Italy.  The "grit" of the paper causes traces of the silver or gold-tipped stylus to remain behind and the nearly indelible line of metalpoint is produced. 

Metalpoint drawing actually dates to the the Middle Ages, as we will discuss. But when you  behold Leonardo's silverpoint Bust of A Warrior, it is easy to see why the exhibit's       curators make so much of this sensational work.

Bust of A Warrior is an indisputable masterpiece. It dates to the years 1475 to 1480, when the young Leonardo (1452-1519)  was still trying to make  a name for himself. The drawing of a scowling, armor-clad condottiere is believed to be a demonstration piece. 

Bust of A Warrior recalls the profile portraits, based on Roman coins and medallions, that were so popular during the early Renaissance. These profiles were already going out of style, replaced by three-quarters view portraits, pioneered by Antonello da Messina in Italy and Jan van Eyck in the Netherlands. But for Leonardo's purposes, the profile view enabled him to show the hard-edged precision of silverpoint in the sharply drawn, dragon-winged helmet and the lion's head mounted on the warrior's breastplate.

As amazing as these details of armor accoutrements may be, the more subtle shading-effects in Leonardo's portrait are truly great. Shades or shadows in metalpoint are not produced by rapidly-made strokes. Rather, closely-spaced parallel lines are drawn with varying degrees of pressure on the point of the stylus. A similarly exacting procedure of drawing cross-hatching lines is also used.

In the case of Bust of A Warrior, Leonardo created shadows from minute parallel lines with a degree of skill that is astonishing. Leonardo described his technique as taking "care that the shadows and lights be united, or lost in each other: without any hard strokes or lines."

Leonardo's advice was not easy to follow. This may partly account for the reason that metalpoint drawings in Renaissance Italy were never accepted as finished works of art. 

Raphael, The Heads of the Virgin and Child, c.1509

Even in the accomplished hand of Raphael, silverpoint remained a preparatory technique. To our eyes, the breathtakingly beautiful The Heads of the Virgin and Child, dating to around 1509, is a masterpiece. For Raphael, metalpoint drawing was "step one."

In Northern Europe, metalpoint drawing followed a similar course to that of Italy, developing further in the 1500's after interest in it had waned in Italy. 

Metalpoint evolved from the illustrations in Medieval manuscripts. It is believed that monk artists used the stylus to press the outline of the image onto vellum, which was painted over with color pigments to created the finished picture. At some point, it was discovered that treating or coating the pages would produce a texture that retained a visible line in the shape of metallic particles from the silver point of the stylus.

Very few early metalpoint sketches have survived but some of the drawings that were created to record the details of major paintings still exist. 

Circle of Rogier van der Weyden, Saint Mary Magdalene, c.1455/1465

On display in the National Gallery exhibition is Saint Mary Magdalene by Rogier van Weyden (1399-1464), created in silverpoint around 1455. It most likely was drawn by an assistant of the great Dutch painter, though there is a similar work on view definitely done by van der Weyden himself. This silverpoint is a direct copy of St. Mary Magdalene as she appears on the right-hand panel of the Braque Triptych, painted by van der Weyden in 1452 and now one of the great treasures of the Louvre.

Interestingly, this magnificent silverpoint depiction of St. Mary Magdalene was owned by Richard Payne Knight, a member of the 18th century Society of Dilettanti, and bequeathed to the British Museum in 1824. This shows how metalpoint drawings created by great artists came to be cherished in Northern Europe even when not originally intended as formal works of art. 

Albrecht Durer was one of the supreme metalpoint artists of all time. Durer's works, whether paintings, prints or silverpoint drawings like the wonderful A Dog Resting, were prized  during his lifetime and have never gone out of favor. 

Albrecht Dürer, A Dog Resting,1520

A Dog Resting is believed to have been looted  from the Albertina Museum in Vienna by by one of Napoleon's officials, Baron Dominque-Vivant Denon. It was later owned during the nineteenth century by William Thomas Beckford, whose vast wealth from sugar plantations in Jamaica enabled him to buy whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it. A Dog Resting was one of his more intelligent and tasteful purchases.

One of the early collectors of Durer's drawings during the 1500's was Arnold van Berestyn, from Haarlem in the Netherlands. Van Berestyn's portrait was painted by Hendrik Goltzius, who shortly thereafter took up silverpoint drawing. By this time, metalpoint drawing had all but died out in the Netherlands. In an excellent essay in the companion volume to Drawing in Silver and Gold, An Van Camp, curator of Dutch and Flemish prints and drawings at the British Museum, speculates that it "is not unthinkable that the German artist's work inspired the Dutchman..."

Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617) is one of the protagonists of Drawing in Silver and Gold. His silverpoint drawings can stand up to Leonardo's and Durer's, which is high-praise indeed. With one hundred silverpoint drawings to his credit, Goltzius triggered the first revival of metalpoint drawing after its Renaissance golden age.  Among others, he influenced Jacques de Gheyn II and (indirectly) Rembrandt to become skillful practitioners of metalpoint. 

Hendrick Goltzius, Three Studies of a Man's Head,1587

Goltzius is a fascinating figure. His right hand was maimed in a fire during his childhood, but this did not stop him from becoming an artist and printmaker. His silverpoints are small in size and drawn on tafeletten, stiff paper boards, normally used as notebooks and commercial registers and intended to be wiped clean and reused. 

Hendrick Goltzius, Young Woman Reading a Book, 1591

While some of  the silverpoints created by Goltzius were clearly intended as studies, others like the portrait of his sister reading was a splendid portrait in its own right. 
Goltizius was an artist with a flair for capturing the character and individuality of the people he portrayed in his drawings.  His empathy and insight into humanity is notably apparent in the portrait of his thirteen-year old stepson, Jacob Matham. 

Hendrick Goltzius, Portrait of Jacob Matham, 1584

I was truly moved by Goltzius' works in the exhibition.  Goltzius painted works in a florid Mannerist style, very much of the late 1500's in spirit and giving little indication of the artistic glory soon to shower upon Holland. But his metalpoint drawings are a different story. When one views these remarkable portrait sketches, it is truly remarkable that Goltzius worked decades before Frans Hals, Rembrandt and the other great Dutch portrait painters. It is no exaggeration to claim a place for Goltzius among the trailblazers of the Dutch Golden Age.

The Dutch-inspired revival of metalpoint drawing, however, faded away by the beginning of the 1700's. During the eighteenth century, the term "artist's pencil" was used, for the most part, in reference to small brushes for watercolor painting or oil sketching. It most certainly did not refer to  the silverpoint stylus.

Shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, interest revived in metalpoint drawing. Artists in Britain had been prevented from traveling to continental Europe for over two decades, except for a brief truce in 1802. After the battle of Waterloo, 1815, the glories of European art were once again available for study and reflection. This led to three major developments in the arts over the course of the nineteenth century: the fascination with Medieval culture in the form of the Gothic Revival, a rediscovery of the art of the early Renaissance in Italy and the "hands on" Arts and Crafts movement.

Awakened interest in metalpoint drawing was a factor in all three of these revivals. Major artists, beginning with William Dyce (1806-1864), went from studying Raphael's silverpoint drawing to creating their own.  

Over the course of the nineteenth century, a veritable "Who's Who" of British artists engaged in metalpoint drawing. William Holman Hunt, Edward Burne-Jones and Alphonse Legros used this medium with distinction, chiefly in studies for major works. But Joseph Edward Southall, little remembered today, created a finished work in 1899, Head of a Girl, which is a metalpoint masterpiece.

Joseph Edward Southall, Head of a Girl, 1899

The nineteenth century metalpoint revival is brilliantly covered in the companion book to Drawing in Silver and Gold. Interest in metalpoint extended to the art loving public. The art supply company, Winsor and Newton, sold metalpoint kits aimed at the mass market from 1896 to 1910. The kits included a silverpoint stylus and a sketchbook with prepared pages. 

Why silverpoint should have appealed to the public at a time when its exacting standards were constantly being discussed in art journals is an interesting point. Perhaps the very difficulty of using metalpoint was a factor. With so much of art seeming to get easier - the Eastman Kodak "Brownie" camera was introduced in 1900 - perhaps people were looking for a creative challenge!

Around this time, experimentation was made with the goldpoint stylus. Oddly enough, silverpoint drawings turn a gold or russet brown color through oxidation. Goldpoint produces a delicate silvery color which never tarnishes. 

Metalpoint waxed and waned in popularity. But it never again faced extinction as it did during the 1700's. During the twentieth century,  Joseph Stella declared "my ardent wish to draw with all the precision possible, using the inflexible media of silverpoint and
goldpoint that reveal instantly the clearest graphic eloquence." 

Joseph Stella, Self-Portrait, c. 1925

Stella's powerful self-portrait did exactly that, exploring the full-range of metalpoint's toolkit just as Leonardo's Bust of a Warrior had done centuries before.

Metalpoint's utility has begun to explored in abstract works like Susan Schwalb's Strata #295, created in 1998. Works like this are quite a departure from those of Raphael and Goltzius but their effect on the arts is powerful and positive. Metalpoint is here to stay.

Susan Schwalb, Strata #295, 1998

There is no last word on the study of metalpoint. There is no concluding remark to make except to acknowledge the achievements of the National Gallery curators and their colleagues at the British Museum for Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns. Thanks to this magnificent exhibition, metalpoint drawing will henceforth be viewed as a major genre in the visual arts.

But we must acknowledge, as Stacey Sell of the National Gallery remarks, "Even to curators and conservators with years of exposure to this medium, these drawings seem almost miraculous."

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 
Images courtesy of the  National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Introductory Image:                                                                                                       Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) Bust of a Warrior, c. 1475/1480, Silverpoint on cream prepared paper sheet: 28.7 × 21.1 cm (11 5/16 × 8 5/16 in.) mat: 55.9 × 40.6 cm (22 × 16 in.) On loan from The British Museum, London, © The Trustees of the British Museum

Hans Holbein the Elder (German, 1465-1524) Portrait of a Woman, c.1508, Silverpoint, brush and black and brown ink, over charcoal and leadpoint, heightened with white on white prepared paper overall (Oval): 14.4 x 10.3 cm (5 11/16 x 4 1/16 in.) mat: 14 x 11 in. National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection

Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520) The Heads of the Virgin and Child, c.1509, Silverpoint on pink prepared paper sheet: 14.2 × 11.1 cm (5 9/16 × 4 3/8 in.) mat: 55.9 × 40.6 cm (22 × 16 in.) On loan from The British Museum, London,© The Trustees of the British Museum

Circle of Rogier van der Weyden (Dutch, 1400-1464), Saint Mary Magdalene, c.1455/1465, Silverpoint on cream prepared paper sheet: 17.6 × 13 cm (6 15/16 × 5 1/8 in.) mat: 55.9 × 40.6 cm (22 × 16 in.) On loan from The British Museum, London, © The Trustees of the British Museum, Bequeathed by Richard Payne Knight, 1824

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) A Dog Resting (recto), 1520, Silverpoint over traces of carbon black on pale pink prepared paper (recto) sheet: 12.8 × 18 cm (5 1/16 × 7 1/16 in.)  On loan from The British Museum, London, © The Trustees of the British Museum

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617) Three Studies of a Man's Head (recto),1587, Silverpoint and possibly leadpoint on cream prepared vellum sheet: 14.8 × 13.2 cm (5 13/16 × 5 3/16 in.) mat: 55.9 × 40.6 cm (22 × 16 in.) On loan from The British Museum, London, © The Trustees of the British Museum

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617) Young Woman Reading a Book (Portrait of Sophia Goltzius, Sister of the Artist?), Seen from Above, 1591, Metalpoint (probably silverpoint) on yellow prepared paper or parchment sheet: 10.3 × 8.6 cm (4 1/16 × 3 3/8 in.) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617) Portrait of Jacob Matham, the Artist's Stepson, Aged Thirteen, 1584, Metalpoint (probably silverpoint) on prepared vellum sheet: 9.6 × 6.1 cm (3 3/4 × 2 3/8 in.) framed: 38.5 × 31 cm (15 3/16 × 12 3/16 in.) Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Joseph Edward Southall (English, 1861-1944) Head of a Girl, 1899, Metalpoint (probably silverpoint) with scratching on white prepared paper sheet: 20 × 17.7 cm (7 7/8 × 6 15/16 in.) framed: 33.66 × 31.75 × 3.81 cm (13 1/4 × 12 1/2 × 1 1/2 in.) The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Schweppe Art Acquisition Fun

Joseph Stella (American, 1877-1946), Self-Portrait, c. 1925, Metalpoint (probably silverpoint) and graphite on white prepared paper sheet: 76.7 × 56.4 cm (30 3/16 × 22 3/16 in.) Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, the Katharine Levin Farrell Fund, the Margaretta S. Hinchman Fund, the Joseph E. Temple Fund, and with funds contributed by Marion Boulton Stroud and Jay R. Massey, 1988

Susan Schwalb (American, 1944 -) Strata #295, 1998, Silver, gold, copper, aluminum, brass, and platinumpoint on Video Media paper sheet: 60.96 × 60.96 cm (24 × 24 in.) framed: 76.2 × 76.2 cm (30 × 30 in.) Eric and Patricia Chafe Collection