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

watermark may well have belonged to the same ream of
leaves and were probably used by the same artist or his
workshop within a rather short period.
Datable paper may provide insights in a given paper
brand used by an artist, could help establish a chronology
of works, verify authenticity, and highlight workshop practices.
The uncertain attribution of a drawing to an artist
when the drawing contains a particular watermark which is
already known from a certain work by the same artist may
give additional support to the attribution of the uncertain
work.
As paper-leaves used for drawings by an artist have often
been cut into various pieces, registering the characteristics
of one piece of paper with a drawing by the artist may be a
starting point for recognizing other pieces of paper with
drawings that have belonged to the same leaf and even the
same ream of leaves. Many of the so-called “peintregraveurs”
such as Albrecht Dürer, Parmigianino and Rembrandt
made prints as well as drawings. Sometimes their
prints are dated. If the paper of these prints has identical
watermarks, they may well help establishing dates and authenticity
of undated prints and drawings by the same artist
and his workshop and of the relationship among print impressions.
Some watermarks may be typical for a certain
year or period.
For all these reasons a large set of data and images of
watermarks and paper-leaves would provide a fundamental
instrument for the study of prints and drawings, i.e. for the
art history scholar, for museum staff, for collectors, and
for art dealers. In the past watermarks have been regularly
retrieved for research. They are usually hidden in
individual catalogues if published at all or otherwise held
closed by the owners’ institutions of the art works. The
database of the Dutch Institute in Florence now under construction
will offer the great advantage of a centralized collection
of large quantities of watermark material. Its cumulative
effect will be an essential surplus value to its
clients/users.
Example of a watermark in an etching
by Rembrandt:
The Foolscap watermark (Ill. 5) has been found in many
variants in paper of etchings produced by Rembrandt. This
variant (foolscap, collar with seven points, long loose hair,
small balls at the lower side of the collar-points and below)
is for example present in a number of etchings from the
years 1639 until 1642, such as those illustrated in illustrations
6 and 7, the first one approximately datable 1639 and
the second one signed and dated 1642.
44
Example of a watermark in Michelangelo
A watermark with an eagle (Briquet 89; here ill. 8) found in
a drawing of fortifications (Florence, Casa Buonarroti
inv.no. 27a, De Tolnay Corpus no.567; ill. 9) is identical to
the watermark recently found in a study of fortifications attributed
until now to the school of Michelangelo (Florence,
Casa Buonarroti, inv. no. 12a, De Tolnay Corpus 565; ill.
10). The discovery of the identity of these watermarks provides
an excellent argument to reconsider whether the second
drawing is in fact by an artist of Michelangelo’s school
or rather by an artist active in the workshop, or by
Michelangelo himself.
Selective Bibliography: Ash / Fletcher, Watermarks in
Rembrandt’s Prints; Boorsch et al., exhibition catalogue;
Filedt Kok et al., Jan Muller as Printmaker; Griffiths, On
Some Albums; Griffiths / Hartley, Watermarks; Hinterding,
Rembrandt als etser; Hinterding, Rembrandt as an etcher;
La Chapelle, Michel-Ange; La Chapelle et al., Les filigranes;
La Chapelle et al., Les relevés de filigranes; Lanfiuti Baldi,
Contributo alla conoscenza; Lanfiuti Baldi, La cattura di
Cristo di Dürer; Lunning, Characteristics of Italian paper;
Meijer, An International Database; Roberts, Dictionary
1998; Woodward, Catalogue of Watermarks.
Ill. 8: Watermark, “Eagle” (Briquet 89)
Watermarks and Musicology
B.W.M. (B.W.M. / L.D.)
More than any other field of historical study, musicology
has found the additional information that can be gained by
research on paper and watermarks of inordinate value. A
detailed survey of the results that such research can bring
has already been published by Frederick Hudson in 1987,
and it is thus unnecessary to go into great detail in this regard
here. The significance of such research and documentation
activities can be seen in the special watermark volumes
that are part of the complete works of Bach, published
in 1985 by Wisso Weiß in co-operation with