F.A.A. Dahme (artist)
Johann Gutenberg
Germany: 1924
Signed and dated lower left
Oil on canvas
19 x 32.25 inches, overall
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Johann Gutenberg
Painting by F.A.A. Dahme, 1924
Painting by F.A.A. Dahme, 1924
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Johann Gutenberg (c. 1394 - 1468), inventor of moveable type, is shown with Johann Fust (c. 1400-1466), the financier of the press, and Peter Schoeffer, Gutenberg's younger colleague and one of Europe's first broadly successful printer of books.
A painted inscription in the lower right corner reads: "Johann Gutenberg mit seinen Jeilhaver Johann Fust und Gehilfen Peter Schoeffer besichtigen den ersten Abzug seiner neu erfundenen Druker-Presse in den Jahren 1440-1450." [Johann Gutenberg with his partner Johann Fust and assistant Peter Schoeffer look over the first print produced by the newly invented printing press in the years 1440-1450.]
In addition to inventing the moveable type printing press, Gutenberg resolved solutions to the technical problems posed by his creation. He attained such a high degree of perfection that the principles of his invention remained unchanged to this day. Between 1450 and 1452, Johann Fust lent money to Gutenberg to finance his experimental printing press. Failing to recover the investment, Fust brought suit and was awarded a large part of Gutenberg's equipment. He then set up a printing office in partnership with his son-in-law and some historians are led to believe that they were the printers of the renowned Gutenberg Bible. The Psalter they printed in 1457 is the first printed book with a date and complete colophon, or identifying device of the printer. Fust and his son-in-law published many other books, including in 1465, De Officiis (On Moral Obligations) by the Roman statesman Cicero. This book contained the first printed Greek characters.
References:
"Peter Schoeffer, Printer of Mainz." Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University. 30 July 2003. http://www.smu.edu/bridwell/html/Schoeffer.htm (4 August 2003).