In s3e28, Platemark host Ann Shafer speaks with Linda Hults, retired professor of art history from the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio. Linda wrote THE textbook on the history of Western prints, which any student of the topic will undoubtedly still have on their shelves. At nearly 1,000 pages, the book offers up more than 800 illustrations and covers print history from Gutenberg through the early 1980s. It also includes incredibly thorough notes, bibliography, glossary, and index. It is indispensable.

Since retirement, Linda continues to contribute to the field essays and articles ranging in subjects from the devil and witchcraft to masculinity.

Episode image by Linda Hults.

Parmigianino (Italian, 1503–1540). Madonna and Child with Angels (Madonna with the Long Neck), c. 1534–40. Oil on panel. 216.5 x 132.5 cm. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675). Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid, c. 1670. Oil on canvas. 71.1 x 60.5 cm. National gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558–1617). The Great Hercules, 1589. Engraving. Sheet (trimmed to platemark): 21 7/8 x 15 7/8 in. (555 x 404 mm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Thomas Rowlandson (British, 1557–1827). The Devil’s Darling, March 12, 1814. Etching with hand coloring. Plate: 13 3/4 × 9 3/4 in. (34.9 × 24.8 cm.); sheet: 14 3/4 × 10 7/16 in. (37.4 × 26.5 cm.). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Félicien Rops (Belgian, 1833–1898). The Sacrifice, drawing for Plate 1 of Les Sataniques, c. 1882. Tempera, colored pencil, black crayon, gouache, and gold on Pellée paper. 30 x 19.1 cm. (11 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.). Galerie Patrick Derom, Brussels (sold).

Frans Francken the Younger (Flemish, 1581–1642). Witches’ Sabbath, 1606. Oil on oak panel. 62 x 51 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615–1673). Scenes of Witchcraft: Day, c. 1645–49. Oil on canvas. 54.5 cm. (21 7/16 in.) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland.

Hieronymus Bosch (Netherlandish, 1450–1516). The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490–1500. Oil on wood (triptych). Overall: 328.2 x 185.8 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). The Fall of Man or Adam and Eve, 1504. Engraving. 25.1 x 20 cm (9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883). Le Déjenuer sur l’herbe, 1863. Oil on canvas. 208 x 264.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay. Paris.

 

USEFUL LINKS

Linda C. Hults. The Print in the Western World: An Introductory History. Madison. University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.

Hyatt Mayor. Prints and People: A Social History of Printed Pictures. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1971.

Arthur M. Hind. A History of Engraving and Etching from the 15th Century to the Year 1914. London: Constable and Company Ltd., 1923. (Available from Dover Publications in a 3rd edition, 1963.)

William M. Ivins, Jr. Prints and Visual Communication. Boston, The MIT Press, 1969.

Linda C. Hults. “Van Mander’s Protean Artist: Hendrick Goltzius, Mythic Masculinity and Embodiment.” Art History, Vol. 44, No. 2 (April 2021), pp. 372–402.

James Watrous. A Century of American Printmaking: 1880–1980. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.

Per Faxneld. Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Linda C. Hults. The Witch as Muse: Art, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Europe. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

Laurinda S. Dixon. Alchemical Imagery in Bosch’s Garden of Delights. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Research Press, 1981.

Todd W. Reeser. Masculinities in Theory: An Introduction. 2nd edition. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell Press, 2023.

Jun Nakamura. Macho Men: Hypermasculinity in Dutch & American Prints. Philadelphia Museum of Art, August 27, 2022–March 20, 2023.