Watermark Portal
An Online Database for Watermarks and Papers
Used for Prints and Drawings
Arianna Meucci
Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut te Florence
Dutch Universitary Institute for Art History in Florence
Kupferstichkabinett Online/ Printroom Online
Internationale Tagung zu Graphik-Datenbanken im Internet
International Conference on Online Databases for Graphic Works
Wolfenbüttel, 14-16.03.2011
Significance of Paper
The study of paper is used to :
Identify undated paper
documents or expertise
documents of questioned
authenticity
Paper studies have also a historical
dimension, revealing aspects of
technological evolutions, economical
infrastructures, state policies, etc.
interwoven into human networks across
countries
Knowledge of this kind is partly obtained from the physical characteristics of paper, a
source of ‘hidden information’ as opposed to the visible inscription on a paper object.
Watermarks constitute the most prominent characteristics examined by historians as well
as reproduced and documented in catalogues.
A great amount of such and similar paper data with a broad
geographical and temporal spread is necessary in order to create
a reliable information source.
Bernstein Consortium, Ref. D7.8, FPR, 2009
Bernstein
The Memory of Paper
www.memoryofpaper.eu
Bernstein Consortium
Bernstein Consortium
brings together all the
major European actors
in the field of digital
historical paper
expertise (hence the
partner choices) coming
from both humanities
and computer sciences.
The project consortium
consists of nine partners
from six countries,
among which the largest
collections of paper and
watermarks.
Austrian
Academy of
Sciences,
Wien
University of
Liverpool
Archives of the
State of BadenWürttemberg,
Stuttgart
Laboratory for
Occidental
Medieval
Studies in Paris
Koninklijke
Bibliotheek,
The Hague
Bernstein
Consortium
Graz
University of
Technology
Delft
University of
Technology
Further institutions which have contributed prominently to
the project are:
Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del
Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario, Rome, Italy
Paper and Watermark Museum of Fabriano, Fabriano,IT
Institut Valencià de Conservació i Restauració de Béns
Culturals, València, Spain
State Historical Museum of Russia, Moscow, Russia
Dutch
University
Institute for
Art History
Florence
German
National
Library,
Leipzig
Bernstein Consortium, Ref. D7.8, FPR, 2009
Bernstein Project’s Goals
The goal of project
Bernstein was the creation
of a European integrated
digital environment for
paper history and expertise
Bernstein connects
all European
watermark
databases accessible
through the Internet
It offers a
comprehensive and
unrivalled
information source
about paper
A substantial further project goal was the
dissemination of the achieved results to a broad
audience in the form of a series of exhibitions, a
book about paper history and watermarks and an
easily installable software package for paper
cataloguing
Bernstein Consortium, Ref. D7.8, FPR, 2009
Bernstein Watermark Databases
WILK - Watermarks in
Incunabula printed in the
Low Countries
created by
Koninklijke Bibliotheek
WZMA - Watermarks of
the Middle Ages
Piccard Online
(the entire “Piccard” repertory
of watermark tracings)
created by
Archive of the State of BadenWürttemberg
Database of Watermarks
and Papers Used for Prints
and Drawings
(from Austrian manuscripts of
the late Middle Ages)
created by
Austrian Academy of Sciences
created by
Nederlands Interuniversitair
Kunsthistorisch Instituut (NIKI)
Integrated Workspace : www.memoryofpaper.eu
The integrated workspace
( www.memoryofpaper.eu )
provides the digital
environment necessary for the
integration of resources. It is
an Internet application
interfaced in six languages
(English, French, German,
Italian, Russian, and Spanish)
that gives access to all the
Bernstein resources, of which
the main components are the
catalogue, the atlas, the
bibliography, the expertise,
and the toolkit.
Bernstein Catalogue
www.memoryofpaper.eu
The Catalogue allows search in and data retrieval from the various online databases.
The search can be formulated in six languages: all search terms are translated automatically into the
supported languages according to the Bernstein vocabulary for watermark descriptions. A search in
Italian for sirena is carried out also for mermaid (English) and Meerjungfrau (German).
Catalogue offers three modes for the search: simple search, advanced search, and browse motif.
In simple search the user just enters the
search terms in a search field.
The browse motif offers the possibility to
navigate in the tree structure of the
systematics by names or by icons.
In advanced search the user can combine
several search fields.
Watermark Database
of the
Dutch University Institute for Art History
(NIKI – Nederlands Interuniversitair Kunsthistorisch Instituut)
www.wm-portal.net
NIKI’s Watermark Database
NIKI’s Watermark Database is an online international database, which provides
a new study subsidy for the art historians, giving technical and historical
information about the paper, which can help supporting and integrating art
critics and historic research.
By now, NIKI’s Watermark Database is unique in its genre, as it is the first
database on watermarks and papers created with the specific aim at giving a
support on dating, authenticating and locating the provenance of the
anonymous graphics and of uncertain attribution. It is the first database on
artistic papers to join an international consortium of databases (Consortium
Bernstein – The Memory of Paper).
NIKI’s Watermark Database - History
The Watermark Database was created by the Dutch University Institute of Art
History in Florence to collect the results of a project, that started under the
guidance of the Director Prof. Bert W. Meijer in 2001.
The project was focused on watermarks and papers
used for artistic purposes from XV to XIX century
I’ve been part of this project under the supervision of project manager Dr. Georg
Dietz from 2005 to 2010. My assignment referred to:
• digitalization and cataloguing,
• assistant to the database graphic interface,
• expertise on demand (mostly for private collectors)
By then,
 more than 2000 watermarks have been x-rayed and digitalized from several
international institutes (British Museum, Uffizi, Louvre, Herzog Anton
Ulrich-Museum, Hermitage Museum, …)
 more than 1500 of those watermarks come from prints (of artists such as
Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, Jan Muller, Hans Baldung, Jacques Bellange
and others).
NIKI’s Watermark Database - Homepage
www.wm-portal.net
Language: English
Data accessibility can be as:
 guest : users can only read the cards
 login/registration : users can input new data, participate to forums and update old cards
Link to NIKI’s website
A. Meucci, Database internazionale di filigrane..., in: MKIF, 52.2008,2/3 [2010]
NIKI’s Watermark Database - Search
www.wm-portal.net
Simple Search : users enters a search term in
the Keyword Search field.
Advanced Search : users may choose among
8 parameters:
1. Creator/Artist
3. Time Period
5. Range
7. Not Empty Value
2. Signatures
4. Keyword
6. Exact value
8. Empty Value
A. Meucci, Database internazionale di filigrane..., in: MKIF, 52.2008,2/3 [2010]
NIKI’s Watermark Database – Catalogue Card
www.wm-portal.net
Source Area
Along the vertical gray bar a tree-menu visualize the four areas in witch the
card is articulated, and it allows to move freely through the card fields.
In the central white space are displayed the data collected in fields through
witch it is possible to move with the next/back button.
Along the horizontal gray bar it is possible to navigate through the database.
A. Meucci, Database internazionale di filigrane..., in: MKIF, 52.2008,2/3 [2010]
NIKI’s Watermark Database – Catalogue Card
www.wm-portal.net
Paper Area
Watermark Area
Image Area
Print Version
A. Meucci, Database internazionale di filigrane..., in: MKIF, 52.2008,2/3 [2010]
NIKI’s Watermark Database – Synergy
www.wm-portal.net
The peculiar feature of the database is to be an open source : users can register themselves
and participate at the growing of the archive, entering new data, editing/updating/deleting old
catalogue’s cards, participating to forums to share doubts, considerations, or notes.
Login/Registration area
Permalink button creates a direct link from the
watermark catalogue card to the catalogue card
of the print/drawing in which the watermark has
been found.
Each area has an Additional Notes field in
witch it is possible to create forums and share
informations.
A. Meucci, Database internazionale di filigrane..., in: MKIF, 52.2008,2/3 [2010]
Study Cases
Study Case 1 : Artist’s Modus Operandi
Rembrandt printed in batches as needed, using whatever papers he had at hand that he felt were appropriate
Evidence:
The III state of the Death of the Virgin in the Hermitage Museum’s collection, the plate for which is signed and dated 1639, exists in early
impressions on papers with several different watermarks. The Hermitage Museum’s impression bears a Strasbourg Bend watermark, which is
the same watermark found on all impressions of The Three Crosses on which watermarks are visible, both before and after the major change to
the fourth state of the plate.
This indicates that Rembrandt made the Hermitage Museum’s impression of Death of the Virgin around the same time, using the same ream of
paper that he used for the 1653 printings of The Three Crosses.
When Rembrandt made another print of nearly identical size, Ecce Homo, in 1655, he did not use the same paper again, suggesting that he
had run out of that paper by then.
Rembrandt van Rijn,
Death of the Virgin,
Etching and drypoint (s.&d. 1639)
II/III state, 1653
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum,
inv. 235094
Rembrandt van Rijn,
The Three Crosses
Etching and burin (s.&d. 1653 on III state)
III/V state, 1653
London, British Museum, inv. 1973.U.941
Strasbourg Bend
Study Case 2 : Chronology of Print States
The IV state of The Three Crosses, dated on stylistical features circa 1660-61,
would have been done prior than the Ecce Homo state of 1655
Evidence :
All the watermarks known of III to V state of The Three Crosses print are Strasbourg Bend, that as to say Rembrandt printed the three states on the
same paper (of 1653).
When Rembrandt made another print of nearly identical size, Ecce Homo, in 1655, he did not use the same paper of the three states of The Three
Crosses, suggesting that he had run out of that paper by then.
This provides evidence that the changes to the IV state of The Three Crosses, usually dated 1660-61, would have had to come prior to the printing of
the Ecce Homo (which is signed and dated 1655 in the VII state, but all the IV to VII state known etchings are printed on the same paper with a
Strasbourg Lily as watermark).
For years scholars had assumed that the IV state was made quite later, after Rembrandt had time to thoroughly rethink his subject, due to details
connected to the 1661’s painting The Oath of the Batavians (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum).
Eric Hinterding’s research on the watermarks found on Rembrandt’s prints, however, strongly suggests otherwise : the dating of the IV state of The
Three Crosses would be anticipate to earlier than 1655, at about 1653-1654.
Strasbourg Lily
Rembrandt van Rijn,
The Three Crosses,
Etching and drypoint (s.&d. 1653 on III state)
IV/V state, 1660-61? or 1653-54?
Vevey, Musée Jenisch, inv. DK 56
Rembrandt van Rijn,
Ecce Homo,
Drypoint (s.&d. 1655 in VII state)
Strasbourg Bend
V/VIII state, 1655
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, inv. 9252
E. Hinterding, Rembrandt as an Etcher, 2006
Study Case 3 – Masters, Collaborators & Scolars
Fra Bartolomeo
Fra Bartolomeo
Pear, in:
Study for a Saint Catherine, ca. 1510’s
Rotterdam, MBvB, inv. N 71
Crescent, in:
Virgin and Child, ca. 1511-1512
Firenze, GDSU, inv. 522 E
Fra Paolino da Pistoia
Pear, in:
Giovanni Antonio Sogliani
Crescent, in:
Study of a Kneeling Female Saint, ca. 1509
Study of Figure, ca. 1511-12
Rotterdam, MBvB, inv. N 94
Rotterdam, MBvB, inv. N 159
Fruit : pear
Crescent moon
early XIV century, 46x49 mm.
Tuscan manufacture (Colle Val d’Elsa,
Cartiera Il Nespolo?) Briquet, II, 7388
early XVI century, 41x38 mm.
Tuscan manifacture (Colle Val d’Elsa?)
Nothing similar in Briquet
About the circle of artists among
Fra Bartolomeo, watermarks can
provide evidence of :
1. Coherent dating of drawings
not directly connected to
dated panels
2. Common paper supplies, thus
common pictorial media
3. Tentative attribution when a
watermark appears to be
totally extraneous to the group
found on the circle’s
contemporary drawings
4. Watermarks of papers
circulating in Florence at that
time, surely created by a
nearby manufacture
A. Meucci, Storia dell’arte e studio delle filigrane…,
post-graduate thesis, Univ. Pisa, 2005
Study Case 4 – Prints and Places
Albrecht Dürer, Large Triumphal Carriage, 1522.
Woodcut, eight blocks, (framed) 72,05 x 255,05 cm.
V/VII state; Venice: Jacubus Chinig, 1589
Washington, Library of Congress, inv. FP - XV - D955, no. 252
Watermarks help recollecting the
engraved blocks roaming (thus the print
history and fame) from the artist’s first
edition to the last one, specially when
posthumous.
Watermarks can give evidence of the
cultural movement of a city, especially
when a foreign oeuvre reveals to have
been edited on a local manufactured
paper.
Watermark of I and II state :
Watermark of V state :
Latin cross with two circles below the arms Initials C-SG(C?) in escutcheon surmounted by
and pedestal, (possibly a countermark)
a trefoil, countermark of Angel
Nuremberg manufacture, XVI century
Nothing similar in Briquet and Piccard
Venetian manufacture, XVI century
Briquet, I, 636 (1572)
L. S. Stiber & et al., The Triumphal Arch .. ,
Book and Paper Annual, 14 (1995)
Breadth
Future - Impact
 Facilitating
role.
Obviously the creation of digital resources will facilitate a work until now
done “manually”, improving the speed and breath of research.
 Innovation
role.
By integrating content (the Bernstein paper databases and the digital graphic
catalogues connected to NIKI’s archive through the “permalink” key
command) with content processing tools (the image processing, cartography
and bibliography software of the Bernstein system) existing data can be used
in ways not possible before (for example the ability for measuring paper
features provided by image processing and the statistical information
generated by paper databases make the dating of paper documents possible).
Future - Involvement
 Broadening and synergizing role.
Curators who will enter new data taken from their own graphic collection in the
NIKI’s Watermark Database, will give to their own collection a positive
feedback, because:
I.
they will offer a new professional tool of research to the users of their
catalogue;
II. there will be presented more detailed data concerning every
collection’s piece;
III. thank to the Permalink key command, the world wide visibility of the
collection’s catalogue will be optimized;
IV. through NIKI’s WD, the graphic collection’s catalogue will be in
connection with other important international graphic collections’
catalogues;
V. the collection’s catalogue will be powered by a synergizing connection
with NIKI’s WD and Bernstein online resources.
Please consider that for any doubt or question concerning NIKI’s WD
registration, data input, watermarks’ expertise or cataloguing,
I will be at your disposal.
Thank you for listening