Leseprobe

62 “her sole right to profit from the distribution of her prints for a period of ten years and to market them as her own invention and property.”13 The privilege, granted on 5 June 1575, mentions five prints – two of which, Christ and the Adulteress and Feast of the Gods, are shown in the exhibition – and safeguarded them against unauthorised reproduction by others.14 The added legitimation bestowed upon her by the privilege of Pope Gregory XIII (reg. 1572–1585) found its way into her inscriptions from this point onwards. Diana occasionally took a playful approach to the design of her inscriptions, using capital block letters for her signature and an elaborate cursive script for the dedications, which testify to exceptional skill – especially when we consider that all inscriptions have to be engraved into the plate in reverse.15 Lettering frequently appears not only along the lower edge of the engraving in the shape of inscriptions or dedications set in neatly justified blocks; we also find signatures and inscriptions integrated into the pictorial space, for example on tablets suspended from a branch or carved into the beams or entablature of an architectural structure. Thus, Diana not only paid special attention to the content and careful wording of her inscriptions, but also to their formal execution. In this way, she ensured that they became an integral part of the composition. Cat. 12 DIANA SCULTOR I Two Children Attached by Their Backs, 1577 Engraving, diam. 195 mm (plate), 273 × 270 mm (sheet), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, inv. no. A 109372

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