Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...

motif in Italy; the bull’s head in Southern Germany and the
anchor in parts of Austria, and, above all, in Dalmatia. In
addition, within the same motif category, the characteristics
of a watermark can differ depending on whether it was
used in archives or by printers.
This well-ordered diversity leads us once again to pose
the question: what kind of world is hidden behind the
choice of subjects for watermark motifs? It has already
been said that medieval norms required that two different
watermarks had to be used to distinguish fine quality paper
and so-called “fioretto” grade product, but it is not out of
the question that the choice of subject for watermarks indicated
quality on a much more compressed scale. The phenomenon
is clearly attested to in the 16 th century in Zurich
– where it was prescribed that watermarks for superior
quality papers had to be larger – and implicitly, at the same
time, at Regensburg. But can it be by chance that the cardinal’s
galero, which appeared in Venice after the year 1480,
happens to be associated with a paper that’s generally
whiter and less “lumpy” (i.e. course) than other papers, or
that the watermark seen in the sheets that compose the
highly esteemed edition of Callierges happens to be a lily?
The choice of motifs for a watermark can hide other clues:
the case of the half-moon is well-noted, the production of
which, including in the Garda area, was especially aimed in
the direction of the Ottoman Empire; in the same way, the
predominance of the anchor as a motif in Dalmatia surely
suggested in an indirect way that that particular paper was
destined to travel overseas. And it is impossible not to notice
that the bull’s head, which was mainly directed towards
Germany, was the watermark motif most used by papermakers
based in the German-speaking area. The implicit
meanings “concealed” in watermarks certainly represent an
interesting and relatively unexplored area of study.
Finally, we should make some mention of a phenomenon
that originated in Venice and only later on appeared in other
countries: the countermark. This is a watermark that is
smaller than the principal watermark in a sheet, and is almost
always to be found in a corner on the opposite side of
a sheet to the one in which the principal watermark is situated
(i.e. sewn onto the original mould). The countermark
made its first appearance a little after the year 1480, but its
full development only occurred in the successive decade: in
that period, the Corpus analysed during “Progetto Carta”
contains a little more than 25% of sheets that include a
countermark. Moreover, the appearance of the phenomenon
can be linked to a differentiation method that was desired
by papermakers in a geographical area teeming with
papermakers that used the same watermark motif. This explanation,
however, does not take into account other factors:
the phenomenon did not appear in other regions of
the continent, such as the Eastern Europe and France,
where the situation was exactly the same. Countermarks
appear much earlier and in greater numbers in printed
books than in archival documents. There is a positive correlation
between the presence of countermarks and the
whiteness level of papers.
Literature: Ornato et al., La carta occidentale nel tardo
medioevo, Volumes I and II (Addenda 4).
E.O. (M.L.)
Paper and Watermarks in Art History
European artists have used paper as support for preparatory
and other drawings as well as for etchings, engravings
and woodcuts for many centuries. However, only scant information
is available about the paper they used. Although
paper travelled and often was made in one European country,
but bought and used by artists and printmakers/dealers
elsewhere, establishing the place and date of production
and/or use of paper, sometimes ascertained by watermarks,
may help to identify the artist who used the paper. It would
be interesting to know how and when a given paper brand
was used by a particular artist and artists in general and if,
and in what way, paper used by artists for their prints differs
from that used for their drawings, letters or poems.
As other paper-consumers, artists and print dealers
bought their paper in relatively small quantities: either in
reams of 500 leaves that due to the methods of paper production
have one and the same structure and watermark or
also in books of 25 leaves each with the same watermark.
In general, these leaves with the same watermark were
used by artists during a relatively small number of years.
When an impression of a print by a particular artist that carries
a date and another one without date are printed on the
same kind of paper with the same watermark it is highly
probable that the print without date is from more or less
the same period as the dated example. Mutatis mutandis
this is also valid for dated drawings or undated ones related
to a datable commission. Other drawings with the same
Ill. 5: Foolscap
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