Saints Mark and Luke (after Georges Lallemand)

The German painter and printmaker Ludolph Büsinck helped to stimulate interest in chiaroscuro woodcuts in early seventeenth-century France. While living in Paris from 1623 to 1630, he produced works almost exclusively in this dramatic technique, usually after drawings by the French artist Georges Lallemand, who was Nicolas Poussin’s teacher. Chiaroscuro woodcut transcends the essentially linear nature of engraving, etching, and standard woodcut. Separate elements of the design can be carved into two or more woodblocks inked in different colors, imparting sculptural volume and bold chromatic distinctions. In this print, the darkest color is used to indicate the principal contours and essential shading, while the lighter tones furnish highlights and flat planes of color. Chiaroscuro technique, besides requiring printmakers to work on a larger scale than the minuscule engravings of the Little Masters, produced a radically different visual effect.