A beautiful line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi - exhibition catalogue

Book of Exhibition: ‘A beautiful line: Italian prints from Mantegna to Piranesi’ traces the development of Italian printmaking from the Renaissance to rococo through an exhibition of 135 prints selected and researched from a collection of over 2,000 Italian prints in the Art Gallery of South Australia. The works spanned from 1450 to 1750, and the exhibition and exhibition book explored the significance of the invention of print technology on visual culture during this period. The central research question was whether printmaking encouraged artists to develop a unique visual vocabulary in the medium, separate from painting and drawing. The project entailed cataloguing the 15 works in the exhibition, selecting 44 works for in-depth research, and writing short essays (up to 1,000 words each) on 26 of them. Three longer essays of 2,000-3,000 words each explored broader issues of the changing application of printmaking in Italy during this period. The exhibition and book updated and expanded on research first published in 1983 by the Gallery.