The Crucifixion (after Jacopo Tintoretto)

By the beginning of the eighteenth century, chiaroscuro woodcut had lapsed into disuse. John Baptist Jackson was among the eighteenth-century artists who revived the technique, as part of a search for new and better ways to render color and the materiality of different media. His ambitious three-part, four-color Crucifixion is based on Jacopo Tintoretto’s monumental painting of 1565 in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice. Jackson reserved the boldest contrasts for the typically Tintorettan sharp angles of the foreground. The fading out of color in the background creates a sense of distance, a formal element that presented a particular challenge to the printmaker.