Giambattista fused his technical knowledge with a broad vision of industrial organization, thanks to frequent trips that he made from an early age to several European countries and to North America. In 1889 he received the Legion of Honor for having presented, at the Paris Exposition, the best watermarks for banknotes. Even before the Parisian recognition there existed a genuine enthusiasm for the watermarks of Fabriano. In 1886 Ernst Kirchner of Frankfurt on Main wrote: "Your watermarked papers are the most beautiful I've ever seen. Since possessing these truly artistic sheets I no longer dare even to look at the same products from Germany. The portraits, as well as the details that adorn them are of an admirable finesse, perfect, and now form the essential point of this modest collection that I care for with much affection."1 Once Upon a Time… The Artistic Watermark in Light and Shade annarita librari Annarita Librari with the book on Giambattista Miliani. The Librari family narration begins with the history of Miliani. Photo: Oliviero Burattini, 2016. All photos courtesy of the author. winter 2016 - 19 Eraldo Librari, engraving at the Miliani Paper Mill, 1950. In the field of the artistic chiaroscuro watermark for banknotes, Giambattista first worked with Professor Bianchi of Rome, a medalist of the Holy Apostolic Palaces, to obtain engravings on wax. Bianchi sent the commissioned wax reliefs to Fabriano directly from Rome. Giambattista's foresight and vision led him to endow the watermark studio of the Fabriano paper mills with a wax-engraving section, employing young and skilled artists who fully succeeded in meeting the company's requirements. Founder of this watermark school was Serafino Cilotti (1868–1943), who created works of notable artistic impact, then considered a new form of figurative art expression in wax. Angelo Bellocchi (1880–1939) and Virgilio Brozzesi (1869– 1946) were engravers in the workshop. Aldo Frezzi (1885–1972), Eraldo Librari (1907–1988), and Luigi Filomena (1910–2010) are considered the students of Cilotti. Luigi Casoni was an engraver at Miliani until 1958, when he was called by the Bank of Italy to engrave the testine (heads) of the banknotes. My grandfather Eraldo Librari learned this art primarily by observing Serafino Cilotti, or rather by "stealing with his eye" while Cilotti engraved. Eraldo was attentive and adept, already having artistic training under his belt, with an innate inclination towards the most varied of art forms. He grew up respecting the art of papermaking as his father Decoroso and grandfather Angelo worked in the vat department of the prestigious Fabriano factory. He attended vocational school as a young man, studied carving with Professor Ivo Quagliarini of Fabriano, and worked in his furniture factory. Eraldo was a skilled and prolific sculptor, creating numerous busts of famous personages of the period from Fabriano. He was also the author of numerous poems and a composer of songs. Eraldo entered the Miliani mill on May 11, 1932 after having won a competition. During his career at Miliani, Eraldo engraved many large-scale wax works of art, and heads for banknotes, the sector driving the company. These works were preceded by extensive preparatory drawings in pencil and ink, in an era where everything was entrusted to the manual ability of the artist. The large engravings, which the company had made by its most accomplished engravers for reasons both propagandistic and image oriented, are not simple, nor are they cold reproductions of works of art or portraits. Instead, they are the result of a personal interpretation reflected in an expressive and sculptural style. A simple landscape element, like a plant, is rendered with the minutia of a botanist, and facial expressions reflect the pathos of the character portrait, impacted by his emotional involvement and his sensitivity. This involvement nearly brought Eraldo to forget the goal of the wax engraving, treating the wax itself as a final sculptural work, just as one would treat a piece of wood, where material must be carved away to permit the image enclosed inside to emerge. Both sons of Eraldo Librari, Franco (my father) and Sandro (my uncle) learned this art of engraving on wax within their own home. My father tells me how difficult it was to learn to pour a suitable wax tablet for engraving. It has to be intact, the right color, uniform in transparency. He recalls breathing in the odor of the wax while practicing. Franco characterized his relationship with his father as a bit "stormy," because according to him, his father followed him and checked on him too much, while he wanted to be more independent and to do everything faster. Franco succeeded in being hired in 1963 by the paper mill, at first in the watermark workshop as an apprentice. Compared to many engravers, my father became skilled at every successive phase from the wax engraving, including electroplating, to retouching the resulting positive and negative metal dies or punches, and pressing the metal screen between the dies to create the watermark form for the mould. This made him aware of all the difficulties to be encountered in later stages, in which a wax engraving might not ever be actualized as a watermark due to technical issues. Often he found himself with truly artistic engravings in which, however, it was necessary to sacrifice some aspects of the expression because they would have created insurmountable problems for the implementation of subsequent stages in the process. The retouching of the dies was the most delicate phase, because the presence of undercuts would impede the pressing of the metal mesh, creating tears in the material. When you consider that often retouching would not be done by the same artists who had made the engraving, you can well understand how high was the risk of compromising the artistry. In this art, my father was truly the complete engraver. He has always followed, personally, every stage of the processing and is able to independently carry out a watermark from the engraving to the final making of the paper sheet in the vat. All his mature work can be defined as technically perfect works, where interpretation of a work of art unites with technical expertise. His wax plate is ready for the creation of the dies and their subsequent stamping of the wire mesh without having to resort to invasive retouching. The fact that he had learned this art from his father, in the home, has allowed him, over the years and not without obstacles, to achieve a qualification and recognition never obtained by engravers who came before him. He has worked independently from 1970 until the time of retirement and has been able to safeguard the artistry of his work. As the only daughter of Franco Librari, from childhood I saw my family members engrave alone, in the dark, on a backlit lectern, with the aid of a magnifying glass and some burins adapted to their demands. From thin wax tablets they removed wax, day after day. From a simple pencil mark emerged faces in bas relief. It is a labor that requires a long period of time, because we have to render in light and shade, studying the planes, that which normally come alive with color in the works of art. If we remove too much wax we cannot replace it and must start from the beginning again. In some periods my father, to meet urgent needs of the papermill, brought home work and so it happened that, on weekends or in the evening after dinner, he asked me to "go hunting for errors," meaning to compare his work with the original photo representing the subject to be reproduced, in order to identify details that could be improved or which had eluded the one who had been concentrating too long on that work. Thus I began to become familiar with this art form so unknown outside of our city. Originally tied to banknote security issues, the watermark has experienced an historic transition now that modern counterfeiting systems have been introduced in paper money. Consequently, even the paper mill has adapted, devoting fewer resources to this sector, and availing itself of the assistance of mechanical means such as the pantograph.2 I have tried to raise awareness and promote the art of the watermark as an integral part of today's paper industry, but the obstacles feel insurmountable. The fact is that the time required for the creation, entirely by hand, of the engraving and the subsequent stages, truly long and complex, makes the price of a commissioned work too expensive. Its cost can never be repaid from the sale of paper sheets. I do not regret that I have ventured into this art. I am proud of my family tradition which, with its dedication to the work, has contributed to the history of Fabriano. Watching my father work, any spectator, including me, would think the work to be easy, but I am glad to understand, in practice, the complexity of the art, and the expertise necessary to perform with such flair, as does my father, those skilled games of the burin. Editor's note: For more on the history of the Miliani paper mill, see the publication noted in Endnote 1 and these two new publications: Fabriano: City of Medieval and Renaissance Papermaking, by Sylvia Rodgers Albro (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and Library of Congress, 2016); and LA FORMA. Formisti e Cartai nella Storia della Carta Occidentale \[THE MOULD. Paper- and Mould-Makers in the History of Western Paper\], edited by Giancarlo Castagnari and Livia Faggioni, published in Italian and English (Fabriano: G. Fedrigoni Istocarta Foundation, 2016). ___________ notes 1. Ernst Kirschner of Frankfurt on Main, quoted in Bruno Bravetti, Giambattista Miliani (Ancona: Affinità Elettive, 2010). 2. Editor's note: A pantograph is an engraving or routing instrument for copying a design, used in the paper industry for engraving a light-and-shade relief by machine.
