Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Piranesi, Tiepolo, Palezieux, Morandi, and Corot are only a few of the great names you will find in the pages of this volume. The works presented in this volume are all masterpieces of engraving and heliography; their reproductions allow us to explore the history of engraving, from the first 15th century works on wood to the freer experiments of the 20th century, among which you will even find some examples of outsider art.
The visual narrative isn’t in chronological order: Florian Rodari, editor of this volume, has in fact set himself the aim of bringing out the similarities between ancient and modern masters, and this is possible only by pursuing a free and conscious association. Far from the idea of making comparisons and establishing a hierarchy, this volume reminds us that formal issues and technical ambition transcend time and history.
Florian Rodari has pursued a career as a writer and an art historian for over fifty years. In particular, he is the author of a fundamental essay on Collage published by Albert Skira (1987), a publisher for whom he has directed several series. He was the director of the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne from 1979 to 1983, curator of the Fondation William Cuendet & Atelier in Saint-Prex since 1977, and since 1983 of the Fondation Jean et Suzanne Planque, housed at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence. He has curated numerous worldwide exhibitions on painting, engraving, and photography. Aside from books for young adults and several monographs on painters, he is also the author of a number of essays published in 2016 by Gallimard with the title L’Univers comme alphabet. He is also the literary director of the La Dogana publishing house which he founded in Geneva in 1981.