Master Engravers of Fifteenth Century Germany Essay -- Master of the P

When thinking of early artistic prints, perhaps one of the few things that come to mind would be playing cards. In modernity, playing cards are not really considered â€Å"artistic† items. However, during the earliest days of print, playing cards were the original media made by the printing process. Even before the printing press, Europe had a love of cards and, whether they were actually intended to be used for play or for show, the people wanted to get their hands on them. Because of the wide spread popularity of cards, it is no surprise that this early print media featured elements that are visually present in other printed media, even to this day. Through the influence of printmakers’ works on each other, these men honed their craft and helped develop printing as a proper art form. The Master of the Playing Cards and the Master E.S. of 1466 were both major engravers in Germany during the fifteenth century. Distinct subject matter, technique, and prevalence in their field has marked them as â€Å"Masters† of their art – a label which has outlived any other identifying information about them. This paper discusses the introduction of printing into Europe and the development of the technique under the influence of these two Masters. The Master of the Playing Cards introduced new subject matter and techniques in his cards, which through his pupil, the Master E.S. of 1466, who replicated and altered these learned skills, went on to spread into other areas of printed medium and marked a path of influence for all who would come after them. Markedly one of the most important developments in the history of visual media was that of the printing press. Brought about by German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenberg, in the mid-fifteenth ... .... "Manuscript Sources for the Playing-Card Master's Number Cards." The Art Bulletin 64, no. 4 (1982): 587-600. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3050270 (accessed April 13, 2014). Wright, Harold J.L.. "Some Masters of Engraving: Lecture II: German and Netherlands Engravers (Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century)." Journal of the Royal Society of the Arts 85, no. 4529 (1939): 1079-1095. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41359422 . (accessed May 9, 2014). Wynne, Marjorie G., and A. Hyatt Mayor. "The Art of the Playing Card." The Yale University Library Gazette 47, no. 3 (1973): 137-184. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40859489 (accessed April 14, 2014). van Buren, Anne H. , and Sheila Edmunds. "Playing Cards and Manuscripts: Some Widely Disseminated Fifteenth-Century Model Sheets." The Art Bulletin 56, no. 1 (1974): 12-30. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049193 (accessed April 13, 2014).