THE FINE PRINT

A closer look at whatthe masters wrought.

THERE'S NO COLOR, paint, or canvas, only inked lines pressed onto paper. But linger on the black and white and you'll see what Europe's greatest artists—Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Francisco Goya—coaxed out of copper and wood: earth and air, life and death.

These prints were irresistible to art collector Adolph "Bucks" Weil Jr. '35. Weil bought only the finest prints, those made early in the series of impressions each plate could produce, while the lines were still sharp and true to the artist's original vision, or prints that showed different states of the work as artists sometimes changed their visions, reworking plates to add new details or delete worn areas.

Over his lifetime Weil donated 134 works of fine art to the Hood Museum. After his death in 1995, his widow, Jean K. Weil, donated 121 Old Master and nineteenth-century European prints to the Hood in his memory. Come see them for yourself. The Weil Collections will be on display at the Hood from October 17 through December 20.

No Se Puede Mirar (One Cannot Look) from The Disasters of WarFRANCISCO GOYA, CIRCA 1810-20 Goya's series of 80 prints depicting the horrors of war was a breakthrough. "This was not the stuff of art at the time," says Hood Museum Director Timothy Rub. "French artists were rendering the Napoleonic wars in ennobling and heroic terms." The first edition of the prints was published posthumously in 1863.

The Goldweigher's FieldREMBRANDT, 1651 Rembrandt's realistic etching of the fields outside the Dutch city of Haarlem is both spare and detailed. With just a few lines he rendered the contours of the land and captured workers to the right and swans to the left. He achieved the subtleties of the sky by wiping ink onto the copper plate rather than cutting into it.

The Bearing of the Cross from The Large Passion ALBRECHT DURER, 1498-1499 Durer's wood cut of Christ as the calm center in a vortex of activity can be overwhelming. Durer wants you to look, then have to look away, then come back for more, says Rub, adding, "You can lose yourself in Durer.

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, The Goldweigher's Field, 1651, etching and drypoint on laid paper, single state, gift of Jean K. Weil in memory of Adolph Weil Jr. '35 Albrecht Dürer, The Bearing of the Cross, from The Large Passion, about 1498-1499, woodcut on laid paper; proof impression, gift of Jean K. Weil in memory of Adolph Weil Jr. '35 Francisco Goya, One Cannot Look, number 26 of 80, from the series The Disasters of War, 1810-1820, etching, aquatint, and scraping, gift of Jean K. Weil in memory of Adolph Weil Jr. '35