Tag Archives: lithography

Tuesday’s Class – Lithography

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The viewing of the lithographs earlier this week greatly impressed me. I previously did not have much experience with viewing such materials, and so wasn’t aware of how beautiful these print forms could actually be. What were particularly impressive were the depictions of the Marquis de Lafayette, which were very well detailed. It would be very interesting to view how such works are made, similarly to when we visited the printmaking institute and saw the process used for earlier print forms. I would imagine it to be a very intricate process, requiring much effort in order to make the images come out well.

Had Lithography been invented….

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Thinking about the three book viewings that we’ve had over the past few weeks, I have kind of grouped everything together in my head. But when I focus on the first book viewing as opposed to our most recent one, I can see that there have been a lot of changes in print, style, paper…etc. over the years. Needless to say, a lot has changed from our viewings of papyrus and parchment to our viewings of more modern books (Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice). What comes to mind from our first books viewing  is the Pope Joan picture we got to see. When we viewed that, I was really impressed with it’s detail. However, after seeing the lithographs of Lafayette on Tuesday, the Pope Joan drawing seemed more like a stick figure. The Lithographs were so intricate, expressing so much detail as opposed to the bolded looking, one dimensional Pope Joan. So, the artwork and designs in books definitely would have been much more detailed back then had they known about lithography. Although the lithographic process was seemingly a bit more complicated as the “image transmission depends not on mechanical actions, but on the chemical properties of attraction between oils” (Howard 131), it is well worth the difference in the beauty of the end product.

Art and Print

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We can better see the social and political impact of printing technology in the 19th century, especially when we look to those whom we deem artists. The lithograph allowed for clear, dependent, and immediate reproduction of images and type. For this, newspapers flourished as they were able to print many copies to distribute, as well as hone their quality. For an artist, this medium could be a perfect way to get their art (and name) out there, or to send a message. Daumier was a virulent critic of French politics in the first half of the 19th century. His lithographs were today’s political cartoons, showing up in newspapers during an era of uncharacteristic weak censorship. Though we have been reading much of the technical aspect of production, here we have a sense of the content made available by these technologies.

If Gutenburg had a lithograph…

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These “what if” questions give me a headache. Not that I don’t like them, but there is no evidence to strongly support them. I am inclined to just answer like this: had lithography or photography been available at the incunabula era, the 16th century would look just like the 20th. That is really the most logical answer of which I can think. But let me explain:

If, for example, linotype followed closely after the hand-press (perhaps as a way to hasten the compositor’s job and speed up the whole process) jobs would be at stake. The compositor was perhaps the most skilled worker besides the owner in the incunabula print house. Linotype is much simpler to create, though a good deal of spelling and grammatical skill is still involved. This would incur labor unrest not seen until the 19th century. Although, even the book details short (possibly daily) labor disputes between the master and his workers (Howard 87-91). And lithography? Forget about it! All the compositor’s skill is thrown to the wayside when you can make molded impressions of a page that can be reused indefinitely. However, with the newer machine technology, more skilled workers are needed who can operate and sometimes repair them. Regardless, a shift in technology will shake up the labor market – much to the dismay of employers.