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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Engraving: Its Origin, Processes, and
-History, by Henri Delaborde
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Engraving: Its Origin, Processes, and History
-
-Author: Henri Delaborde
-
-Translator: R. A. M. Stevenson
-
-Release Date: June 13, 2013 [EBook #42936]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGRAVING ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Chris Curnow, Charlie Howard, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-    THE FINE-ART LIBRARY.
-
-    EDITED BY JOHN C. L. SPARKES,
-
-    _Principal of the National Art Training School, South Kensington
-    Museum_.
-
-
-
-
-    ENGRAVING:
-    _ITS ORIGIN, PROCESSES, AND HISTORY._
-
-    BY
-    LE VICOMTE HENRI DELABORDE.
-
-    TRANSLATED BY
-    R. A. M. STEVENSON.
-
-    _With an Additional Chapter on English Engraving_,
-
-    BY
-    WILLIAM WALKER.
-
-    CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
-    _LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE._
-    1886.
-
-    [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
-
-
-
-
-EDITORIAL NOTE.
-
-
-The author of "La Gravure," of which work the present volume is a
-translation, has devoted so little attention to English Engraving, that
-it has been thought advisable to supplement his somewhat inadequate
-remarks by a special chapter dealing with this subject.
-
-In accordance with this view, Mr. William Walker has contributed an
-account of the rise and progress of the British School of Engraving,
-which, together with his Chronological Table of the better-known
-English Engravers, will, we feel sure, add much to the value of the
-Work in the eyes of English readers.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-  CHAP.                                                        PAGE
-
-     I. THE PROCESSES OF EARLY ENGRAVING. THE BEGINNINGS OF
-        ENGRAVING IN RELIEF. XYLOGRAPHY AND PRINTING WITH
-        MOVABLE TYPE                                              1
-
-
-    II. PLAYING CARDS. THE DOT MANNER                            30
-
-   III. FIRST ATTEMPTS AT INTAGLIO ENGRAVING. THE NIELLI OF
-        THE FLORENTINE GOLDSMITHS. PRINTS BY THE ITALIAN AND
-        GERMAN PAINTER-ENGRAVERS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY        49
-
-    IV. LINE ENGRAVING AND WOOD ENGRAVING IN GERMANY AND
-        ITALY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY                           86
-
-     V. LINE ENGRAVING AND ETCHING IN THE LOW COUNTRIES, TO
-        THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY              118
-
-    VI. THE BEGINNING OF LINE ENGRAVING AND ETCHING IN
-        FRANCE AND ENGLAND. FIRST ATTEMPTS AT MEZZOTINT. A
-        GLANCE AT ENGRAVING IN EUROPE BEFORE 1660               150
-
-   VII. FRENCH ENGRAVERS IN THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV              178
-
-  VIII. ENGRAVING IN FRANCE AND IN OTHER EUROPEAN
-        COUNTRIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. NEW
-        PROCESSES: STIPPLE, CRAYON, COLOUR, AND AQUATINT        211
-
-    IX. ENGRAVING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY                     248
-
-  A CHAPTER ON ENGLISH ENGRAVING                                287
-
-  CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ENGLISH ENGRAVERS                      331
-
-  INDEX                                                         343
-
-
-
-
-ENGRAVING.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-    THE PROCESSES OF EARLY ENGRAVING. THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGRAVING
-    IN RELIEF. XYLOGRAPHY AND PRINTING WITH MOVABLE TYPE.
-
-
-The nations of antiquity understood and practised engraving, that is
-to say, the art of representing things by incised outlines on metal,
-stone, or any other rigid substance. Setting aside even those relics of
-antiquity in bone or flint which still retain traces of figures drawn
-with a sharp-pointed tool, there may yet be found in the Bible and in
-Homer accounts of several works executed by the aid of similar methods;
-and the characters outlined on the precious stones adorning the
-breastplate of the high-priest Aaron, or the scenes represented on the
-armour of Achilles, might be quoted amongst the most ancient examples
-of the art of engraving. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Etruscans have left
-us specimens of goldsmith's work and fragments of all kinds, which, at
-any rate, attest the practice of engraving in their countries. Finally,
-every one is aware that metal seals and dies of engraved stone were in
-common use amongst the Romans.
-
-Engraving, therefore, in the strict sense of the word, is no invention
-due to modern civilisation. But many centuries elapsed before man
-acquired the art of multiplying printed copies from a single original,
-to which art the name of engraving has been extended, so that nowadays
-the word signifies the operation of producing a print.
-
-Of engraving thus understood there are two important processes
-or methods. By the one, strokes are drawn on a flat surface, and
-afterwards laboriously converted by the engraver into ridges,
-which, when coated with ink, are printed on the paper in virtue of
-their projection. By the other, outlines, shadows, and half-tints
-are represented by incisions intended to contain the colouring
-matter; while those parts meant to come out white on paper are left
-untouched. Wood-cutting, or engraving in relief, is an example of the
-first method; while to the second belongs metal-work or copperplate
-engraving, which we now call engraving with the burin, or line
-engraving.
-
-In order to engrave in relief, a block, not less than an inch thick,
-of hard, smooth wood, such as box or pear, is used. On this block
-every detail of the design to be engraved is drawn with pen or pencil.
-Then such places as are meant to come out white in the print are cut
-away with a sharp tool. Thus, only those places that have been covered
-beforehand by the pencil or the pen remain at the level of the surface
-of the block; they only will be inked by the action of the roller; and
-when the block is subjected to the action of the press, they only will
-transfer the printing ink to the proof.
-
-This method, earlier than that of the incised line, led to engraving
-"in camaïeu," which was skilfully practised in Italy and Germany during
-the sixteenth century. As in camaïeu engraving those lines which define
-the contours are left as ridges by the cutting away of the surrounding
-surface, we may say that in this method (which the Italians call
-"chiaroscuro") the usual processes of engraving in relief are employed.
-But it is a further object of camaïeu to produce on the paper flat
-tints of various depths: that is to say, a scale of tones somewhat
-similar to the effect of drawings washed in with Indian ink or sepia,
-and touched up with white. Now such a chromatic progression can only
-be arrived at by the co-operation of distinct processes. Therefore,
-instead of printing from a single surface, separate blocks are employed
-for the outlines, shadows, and lights, and a proof is taken by the
-successive application of the paper to all these blocks, which are made
-to correspond exactly by means of guiding marks.
-
-A third style of engraving in relief, the "early dot manner," was
-practised for some time during the period of the Incunabuli, when the
-art was, as the root of this Latin word shows, still "in its cradle."
-By this method the work was no longer carried out on wood, but on
-metal; and the engraver, instead of completely hollowing out those
-parts destined to print light, merely pitted them with minute holes,
-leaving their bulk in relief. He was content that these masses should
-appear upon the paper black, relieved only by the sprinkling of white
-dots resulting from the hollows.
-
-We just mention by way of note the process which produced those rare
-specimens called "_empreintes en pâte_." All specimens of this work are
-anterior in date to the sixteenth century, and belong less strictly to
-art than to industry, as the process only consisted in producing on
-paper embossed designs strongly suggesting the appearance of ornaments
-in embroidery or tapestry. To produce these inevitably coarse figures
-a sort of half-liquid, blackish gum or paste was introduced into
-the hollow portions of the block before printing. On the block thus
-prepared was placed a sheet of paper, previously stained orange, red,
-or light yellow, and the paste contained in the hollow places, when
-lodged on the paper, became a kind of drawing in relief, something like
-an impasto of dark colour. This was sometimes powdered with a fluffy or
-metallic dust before the paste had time to harden.
-
-Though simple enough as regards the mere process, in practice line
-engraving demands a peculiar dexterity. When the outlines of the
-drawing that is to be copied have been traced and transferred to a
-plate usually made of copper,[1] the metal is attacked with a sharp
-tool, called the dry-point. Then the trenches thus marked out are
-deepened, or fresh ones are made with the graver, which, owing to its
-shape, produces an angular incision. The appearance of every object
-represented in the original must be reproduced solely by these incised
-lines: at different distances apart, or tending in various directions:
-or by dots and cross-hatchings.
-
-Line engraving possesses no other resources. Moreover, in addition
-to the difficulties resulting from the use of a refractory tool, we
-must mention the unavoidable slowness of the work, and the frequent
-impossibility of correcting faults without having recourse to such
-drastic remedies as obtaining a fresh surface by re-levelling the plate
-where the mistakes have been made.
-
-Etching by means of aquafortis, originally used by armourers in their
-damascene work, is said to have been first applied to the execution
-of plates in Germany towards the close of the fifteenth century.
-Since then it has attracted a great many draughtsmen and painters,
-as it requires only a short apprenticeship, and is the quickest kind
-of engraving. Line engravers have not only frequently used etching
-in beginning their plates, but have often employed it, not merely to
-sketch in their subject, but actually in conjunction with the burin.
-Many important works owe their existence to the mixture of the two
-processes, among others the fine portraits of Jean Morin, and the
-admirable "Batailles d'Alexandre," engraved by Gérard Audran, after
-Lebrun. But at present we are only occupied with etching as practised
-separately and within the limits of its own resources.
-
-The artist who makes use of this method has to scoop no laborious
-furrows. He draws with the needle, on a copper plate covered with a
-coating of varnish, suggestions of form as free as the strokes of pen
-or pencil. At first these strokes only affect the surface of the copper
-where the needle has freed the plate from varnish. But they become of
-the necessary depth as soon as a certain quantity of corrosive fluid
-has been poured on to the plate, which is surrounded by a sort of wax
-rampart. For a length of time proportioned to the effect intended, the
-acid is allowed to bite the exposed parts of the metal, and when the
-plate is cleaned proofs can be struck off from it.
-
-With the exception of such few modifications as characterise prints in
-the scraped or scratched manner, called "sgraffio," and in the stippled
-manner, the methods of engraving just mentioned are all that have been
-used in Europe from the end of the Middle Ages up to about the second
-half of the seventeenth century. We need not, therefore, at present
-mention more recent processes, such as mezzotint, aquatint, &c., each
-of which we shall touch upon at its proper place in the history of the
-art. Before proceeding with this history, let us try to recollect
-the facts with which we have prefaced it; and, as chronological order
-proscribes, to differentiate and classify the first productions of
-relief engraving.
-
-However formal their differences of opinion on matters of detail,
-technical writers hold as certain one general fact. They all agree in
-recognising that the methods of relief engraving were practised with a
-view to printing earlier than the method of intaglio. What interval,
-however, separates the two discoveries? At what epoch are we to place
-the invention of wood engraving? or if the process, as has been often
-alleged, is of Asiatic origin, when was it brought into Europe? To
-pretend to give a decisive answer to these questions would be, at
-least, imprudent. Conjectures of every sort, and even the most dogmatic
-assertions, are not wanting. But the learned have in vain evoked
-testimony, interpreted passages, and drawn conclusions. They have gone
-back to first causes, and questioned the most remote antiquity; they
-have sometimes strangely forced the meaning of traditions, and have
-too often confounded simple material accidents with the evidences
-of conscious art properly so called. Yet the problem is as far from
-solution as ever, and, indeed, the number and diversity of opinions
-have up till now done little but render conviction more difficult and
-doubt more excusable.
-
-Our authorities, for instance, are not justified in connecting the
-succession of modern engravers with those men who, "even before the
-Deluge, engraved on trees the history of their times, their sciences,
-and their religion."[2] Nor is the mention by Plutarch of a certain
-almost typographical trick of Agesilaus, King of Sparta, excuse enough
-for those who have counted him among the precursors of Gutenberg. It is
-by no means impossible that Agesilaus, in a sacrifice to the gods on
-the eve of a decisive battle may have been clever enough to deceive his
-soldiers, by imprinting on the liver of the victim the word "Victory,"
-already written in reverse on the palm of his hand. But in truth such
-trickery only distantly concerns art; and if we are to consider the
-Greek hero as the inventor of printing, we must also allow that it has
-taken us as long as eighteen centuries to profit by his discovery.
-
-We shall therefore consider ourselves entitled to abandon all
-speculations on the first cause of this discovery in favour of an
-exclusive attention to such facts as mark an advance from the dim
-foreshadowing of its future capabilities to the intelligent and
-persevering practice of the perfected processes of the art. We shall
-be content to inquire towards what epoch this new method, the heir of
-popular favour, supplemented the old resources of the graphic arts
-by the multiplication of engravings in the printing press. And we
-may therefore spare ourselves the trouble of going back to doubtful
-or remote information, to archæological speculations, more or less
-excused by certain passages in Cicero, Quintilian, and Petronius, or
-by a frequently quoted phrase of Pliny on the books, ornamented with
-figures, that belonged to Marcus Varro.[3]
-
-Moreover in examining the historical question from a comparatively
-modern epoch only, we are not certain to find for ourselves, still
-less to provide for others, perfectly satisfactory answers. Reduced
-even to these terms, such a question is complicated enough to excuse
-controversy, and vast enough to make room for a legendary as well as
-a critical view of the case. Xylography, or block printing, which may
-be called the art of stamping on paper designs and immovable letters
-cut out on wood, preceded without doubt the invention of printing in
-movable metal characters. Some specimens authentically dated, such as
-the "St. Christopher" of 1423, and certain prints published in the
-course of the following years, prove with undeniable authority the
-priority of block printing. It remains to be seen if these specimens
-are absolutely the first engraved in Europe; whether they illustrate
-the beginning of the art, or only a step in its progress; whether, in
-one word, they are types without precedent, or only chance survivals of
-other and more ancient styles of wood engraving.
-
-Papillon, in support of the opinion that the earliest attempts took
-place at Ravenna before the end of the thirteenth century, brings into
-court a somewhat doubtful story. Two children of sixteen, the Cavaliere
-Alberico Cunio and his twin sister Isabella, took it into their heads
-in 1284 to carve on wood "with a little knife," and to print by some
-process seemingly as simple a series of compositions on "the chivalrous
-deeds of Alexander the Great." The relations and friends of the two
-young engravers, Pope Honorius IV. amongst others, each received a
-copy of their work. After this no more was heard of the discovery till
-the day when Papillon miraculously came across evidences of it in
-the library of "a Swiss officer in retirement at Bagneux." Papillon
-unfortunately was satisfied with merely recording his discovery. It
-never occurred to him to ensure more conclusive publicity, nor even
-to inquire into the ultimate fate of the prints he only had seen. The
-collection of "The Chivalrous Deeds of Alexander the Great" again
-vanished, and this time not to reappear. It is more prudent, in default
-of any means of verification, to withhold our belief in the precocious
-ability of the Ravenna twins, their xylographic attempts, and the
-assertions of their admirers, although competent judges, such as the
-Abbé Zani,[4] and after him Emeric David, have not hesitated to admit
-the authenticity of the whole story.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE ST. CHRISTOPHER OF 1423.]
-
-The learned Zani had, in truth, his own reasons for taking Papillon
-at his word. Had the story tended to establish the pre-existence of
-engraving in Germany, he would probably have investigated the matter
-more closely, and with a less ready faith. But the glory of Italy was
-directly at issue, and Zani, honest though he was, did not feel
-inclined to receive with coldness, still less to reject, testimony
-which, for lack of better, might console his national self-respect,
-and somewhat help to avenge what the Italians called "German vanity."
-Pride would have been a better word, for the pretensions of Germany
-with regard to wood engraving are based on more serious titles and
-far more explicit documents than the one discovered by Papillon, and
-recklessly passed on by Zani. Heinecken and the other German writers on
-the subject doubtless criticise in a slightly disdainful manner, and
-with some excess of patriotic feeling. For all that, they defend their
-opinions by documents, and not by mere traditions; and if all their
-examples are not quite evidently German, those which are not should in
-justice be attributed to Flanders, or to Holland, and by no means to
-Italy.
-
-In this struggle of rival national claims the schools of the Low
-Countries are entitled to their share of glory. It is quite possible
-that their claims, so generally ignored towards the end of the last
-century, should in the present day be accounted the most valid of all;
-and that, in this obscure question of priority, the presumption may be
-in favour of the country which supplied an art closely connected with
-engraving with its first elements and its first examples. It would
-be unbecoming in every way to pretend to enter here on a detailed
-history of the origin of printing. The number of exhaustive works
-on the subject, the explanations of M. Léon de Laborde, M. Auguste
-Bernard, and more recently of M. Paeile, would render it a mere lesson
-in repetition or a too easy parade of borrowed learning. Anyhow, the
-discovery of printing with type is so intimately connected with the
-printing of engravings, and the practical methods in both are so much
-alike, that it is necessary to mention a few facts, and to compare a
-few dates. We shall therefore, under correction, reduce to the limits
-of a sketch the complete picture drawn by other hands.
-
-If printing be strictly understood to mean typography, or the art of
-transferring written matter to paper by means of movable and raised
-metal types, there can be no doubt that its discovery must date from
-the day on which there was invented at Mayence the process of casting
-characters in a mould previously stamped in the bottom by a steel die
-bearing the type to be reproduced.
-
-Gutenberg, with whom the idea of this decisive improvement originated,
-is in this sense the earliest printer. His "Letters of Indulgence" of
-1454 and his "Bible" are the oldest examples of the art with which he
-is for ever associated. In a general sense, however, and in a wider
-meaning of the word, it may be said that printing was known before
-Gutenberg's time, or at least before he published his typographical
-masterpieces. People previously knew both how to print broadsides from
-characters cut on a single block, and how to vary the arrangement of
-the text by using, in place of an immovable row of letters, characters
-existing as separate types, and capable of various combinations. On
-this point we must trust to the testimony of one of Gutenberg's
-workmen, Ulrich Zell, the first printer established in Cologne. Far
-from attributing to his master the absolute invention of movable type,
-he merely contrasts with the process known and practised in the Low
-Countries before the second half of the fifteenth century "the far more
-delicate process" of cast type "that was discovered later." And Ulrich
-Zell adds, "the first step towards this invention was taken in 1440 in
-the printing of the copies of Donatus,[5] which were printed before
-this time in Holland (_ab illis atque ex illis_)."
-
-Now if these copies of Donatus were not printed by means of movable
-type, why should they be mentioned rather than the many other works
-equally fitted to give a hint to Gutenberg? Why, in going back to
-the origin of the discovery, should his pupil say nothing of those
-illustrated legends which were xylographically cut and sold in all
-the Rhenish towns, and which the future inventor of printing must
-have seen hundreds of times? For the attention of Gutenberg to have
-been thus concentrated on a single object, there must have been some
-peculiar merit and some stamp of real progress in the mode of execution
-to distinguish the copies of Donatus printed at Haarlem from other
-contemporary work. Laurence Coster--the name attributed to the inventor
-of the process which Gutenberg improved--must have already made use of
-a method more closely allied than any other to the improvements about
-to follow, and destined to put a term to mere experiments.
-
-To suppose the contrary is to misunderstand the words of Ulrich Zell
-and the influence which he attributes to the Dutch edition of Donatus,
-from which Gutenberg derived "the first idea of his invention." It
-is still more difficult to understand how, if the Donatuses are
-block-printed, reversed letters are sometimes found in the fragmentary
-specimens which survive. There is nothing the least extraordinary
-in such a mistake when it can be explained by the carelessness of
-a compositor of movable type, but such a mistake would really be
-incredible on the part of a xylographic workman. What possible caprice
-could have tempted him to engrave occasional letters upside down? One
-could only suppose he erred, not from inadvertence, but with voluntary
-infidelity and in calculated defiance of common sense.
-
-The discovery which has immortalised the name of Gutenberg should be
-recognised and admired as the conclusion and crown of a series of
-earlier attempts in printed type. Taking into account the inadequacy
-of the movable type, whether of wood or of any other substance, first
-employed by the Dutch, and the perfection of the earliest specimens
-of German printing, it can and should be admitted that, before the
-publication of the "Letters of Indulgence," the "Bible," and other
-productions from the workshop of Gutenberg and his fellow-labourers,
-attempts at genuine typography had been already pursued, and to a
-certain extent rewarded with success.
-
-From the very confession of Ulrich Zell, a confession repeated by the
-anonymous author of the "Chronicle of Cologne" printed in 1499,[6] the
-first rude essay in the art (_prefiguratio_) was seen in the town of
-Haarlem. We may, in short, conclude that the idea of combining designs
-cut on wood with a separate letterpress in movable types, belongs in
-all probability to Holland.
-
-One of the oldest collections of engravings with subject matter printed
-by this process is the "Speculum Humanæ Salvationis," mentioned by
-Adrian Junius in his "Batavia"--written, it would seem, between the
-years 1560 and 1570, but not published till 1588, many years after his
-death. Therein it is expressly stated that the "Speculum" was printed
-before 1442 by Lourens Janszoon Coster. It is true that Junius is
-speaking of events which occurred more than a century before the time
-to which he ascribes them: "on the testimony," as he says, "of very
-aged men, who had received this tradition, as a burning torch passed
-from hand to hand." And this belated narrative has appeared, and may
-still appear, somewhat doubtful. We ourselves consider the doubt to be
-exaggerated, but we shall not insist on that. The specimens survive
-which gave rise to such legends and commentaries; and it is fitting
-they should be questioned.
-
-Four editions of the "Speculum" are known, two in Dutch and two in
-Latin. It must be understood that we only speak of the editions which
-have no publishers' names, no dates, nor any sign of the place where
-they were published: the "Speculum," a sort of Christian handbook,
-much used in the Low Countries, having been frequently reprinted, with
-due indication of names and places, during and after the last twenty
-years of the fifteenth century. The oldest Dutch edition that is
-dated, the one of 1483, printed by John Veldenaer, reproduces certain
-engravings which had already embellished the four anonymous editions,
-with the difference that the plates have been sawn in two to suit the
-dimensions of a smaller volume. Hence, whatever conjectures may exist
-as to the date of the first publication, we have, at least, a positive
-fact: as the original plates only appear in a mutilated state in the
-copies printed in 1483, it is evident that the four editions where they
-appear entire are of earlier date. These questions remain:--first,
-whether they are earlier, too, than the second half of the fifteenth
-century--earlier, that is, than the time when Gutenberg gave to the
-world the results of his labour? and second, whether they originated,
-like the edition of Donatus, in a Dutch workshop?
-
-Doubt seems impossible on the last point. These four editions are all
-printed with the same cuts, on the same paper made in Brabant, and
-under the same typographical conditions, with the exception of some
-slight differences in the characters of the two Dutch editions, and the
-insertion of twenty leaves xylographically printed in one of the two
-Latin editions. Is it, then, likely, or even possible, that these books
-belong, as has been supposed, to Germany?
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE HOLY VIRGIN AND THE INFANT JESUS.
-
-German Wood Engraving. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-The thing might, indeed, be possible, were it merely a question of
-the copies in Latin; but the Dutch ones cannot be supposed to have
-been published anywhere but in Holland; and the origin of the latter
-once established, how are we to explain the typographical imperfection
-of the work if not by ignorance of the process which Gutenberg was
-to popularise? According to M. Paeile, a competent judge in such a
-matter,[7] the letterpress of the Dutch "Speculum" is written in the
-pure dialect of North Holland, as it was spoken in those parts towards
-the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth.
-Armed, therefore, with but a few particulars as to printing and idiom,
-it will not be too bold in us to fix the date of publication between
-the first and second quarters of the fifteenth century. It may be added
-that the costume of the figures is of the time of Philip the Good;
-that the taste and style of the drawing suggests the influence of the
-brothers Van Eyck; and that there is a decided contrast between the
-typographical imperfection of the text and the excellent quality of the
-plates. Art, and art already well on its way and confident of its
-powers, is thus seen side by side with an industrial process still in
-its infancy: a remarkable proof of the advances already accomplished in
-wood engraving before printing had got beyond the rudimentary period.
-For our present purpose, this is the chief point, the essential fact to
-verify.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 3.--ST. VERONICA.
-
-German Wood Engraving. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 4.--ST. JOHN.
-
-Flemish Wood Engraving. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-The discovery of printing, therefore, is doubtless a result of the
-example of relief engraving, and there is no doubt either that the
-first attempts at printing with type originated in Holland. Whilst
-Coster, or the predecessor of Gutenberg, whoever he was, was somewhat
-feebly preparing the way for typographical industry, painting and the
-arts of design generally had in the Low Countries attained a degree
-of development which they had not before reached, except in Italy.
-Amongst the German contemporaries of Hubert and John van Eyck, what
-rival was there to compare with these two masters?--what teacher with
-so notable an influence, or so fertile a teaching? Whilst, on the banks
-of the Rhine, artists unworthy of the name and painters destitute of
-talent were continuing the Gothic traditions and the formulæ of their
-predecessors, the school of Bruges was renewing, or rather founding, a
-national art. By the beginning of the fifteenth century the revolution
-was accomplished in this school, which was already distinguished by
-the Van Eycks, and to which Memling was about to add fresh lustre.
-Germany, too, in a few years was to glory in a like success; but the
-movement did not set in till after the second half of the century.
-Till then everything remained dead, everything betrayed an extreme
-poverty of method and doctrine. If we judge the German art of the time
-by such work, for instance, as the "St. Christopher," engraved in
-1423, a single glance is sufficient to reveal the marked superiority
-of the contemporary Flemings. It is, then, far from unnatural that,
-at a time when painters, goldsmiths, and all other artists in Flanders
-were so plainly superior in skill to their co-workers in Germany, the
-Flemish engravers should likewise have led the van of progress, and
-taken their places as the first in the history of their art.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 5.--THE INFANT JESUS.
-
-Flemish Wood Engraving. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 6.--JESUS, SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD.
-
-German Wood Engraving. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 7.--THE CRUCIFIXION.
-
-German Wood Engraving. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-It may be said that the proofs are insufficient. Be it so. We shall
-not look for them in the "Virgin" on wood, belonging to the Brussels
-Library, and bearing the date 1418, as the authenticity of this date,
-to our thinking perfectly genuine, has been disputed; nor shall we seek
-for them in the anonymous examples which it seems to us but just to
-ascribe to the old school of the Low Countries.[8]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 8.--THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN.
-
-Dutch Wood Engraving. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-Up to now we are willing to admit that only Germany is in a position
-to produce a piece of evidence beyond suspicion. With its imposing
-date of 1423, its time-honoured rights, and official renown, the "St.
-Christopher," now in the library of Lord Spencer, has privileges which
-cannot be disputed or questioned. But it does not follow that the
-wood-cuts of the "Speculum," of the "Biblia Pauperum," of the "Ars
-Moriendi," and of similar undated publications, must be more recent.
-Nor, because a dated German print has survived, must it therefore be
-concluded that nothing was produced at that time except in Germany. It
-should be particularly observed that the plates of the "Speculum" seem
-well-nigh prodigies of pictorial skill and knowledge in comparison
-with the "St. Christopher;" that their author must have served a long
-apprenticeship in a good school; that, in short, no art begins with
-such a piece of work, and that, even supposing these cuts did not
-appear till after the German print, some time had doubtless elapsed
-during which the progress they involve had been prepared and pursued.
-
-It is therefore reasonable to suppose that, from the first years of
-the fifteenth century, the engravers of the Low Countries began, under
-the influence of the Van Eycks, to be initiated into the conditions
-of art, and that, like their countrymen the printers, they showed
-the path which others were to clear and level. It must be remarked,
-however, that in the beginning printing and wood engraving do not
-always march on parallel lines--that they do not meet in like order
-their successive periods of trial and advance. In Germany, up till
-the time when Gutenberg attained the final stage, and popularised
-the last secrets of the printing process, painters, draughtsmen, and
-engravers were all helpless in a rut: from the author of the "St.
-Christopher" to the engravers of thirty years later, they boast but the
-roughest and coarsest of ideas and methods. Heinecken, the exaggerated
-champion of the German cause as against the partisans of Coster, whom
-he contemptuously calls "the beadle"[9]--Heinecken himself, speaking
-of the first German books engraved on wooden tablets, is obliged to
-admit that "when the drawing is examined with a connoisseur's eye, a
-heavy and barbarous taste appears to reign throughout."[10] In Germany
-the artistic part was to wait upon and follow the example of the
-industrial: was to lag behind and to plod on in barbarism long after
-the industrial revolution was accomplished at its side. And it was long
-before the "wood-cutting" engravers acquired anything like the skill of
-the printers employed by Gutenberg and by Füst.
-
-In the Low Countries, on the other hand, the regeneration of art
-preceded mechanical improvement. Even when the latter was in full
-progress, nay, even when a grand discovery had revealed all the
-capabilities and fixed the limits of printing, engraving was by no
-means subordinated, as in Germany, to the advance of the new process,
-but, on the contrary, had long since acquired a clearness and certainty
-of execution which was still lacking in the works of the printers. The
-"Speculum," as we have said, bears testimony to that sort of anomaly
-between the mechanical imperfection of the Dutch printed texts of
-the fifteenth century and the merit of the plates by which they were
-accompanied. Other examples might be mentioned, but it is useless to
-multiply evidence, and to insist on details. We shall have accomplished
-enough if we have succeeded in accentuating some of the principal
-features, and in summing up the essential characteristics of engraving,
-at the time of the Incunabuli.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-PLAYING CARDS. THE DOT MANNER.
-
-
-In our endeavour to prove the relative antiquity of wood engraving
-in the Low Countries, we have intentionally rather deferred the
-purely archæological question, and have sought the first signs of
-talent instead of the bold beginnings of the art. The origin of wood
-engraving, materially considered, cannot be said to be confined to the
-time and country of the pupils of Van Eyck. It was certainly in their
-hands that it first began to show signs of being a real art, and give
-promise for the future; but we have still to inquire how many years
-it had been practised in Europe, through what phases it had already
-passed, and to what uses it had been applied, before it took this start
-and received this consecration.
-
-We treat this question of origin with some reserve, and must repeat
-as our excuse that _savants_ have pushed their researches so far,
-and unhappily with such conflicting results, and have found, or have
-thought they found, in the accounts of travellers, or in ancient
-official or historical documents, so many proofs and arguments in
-support of different systems, that it becomes equally difficult to
-accept or to finally reject their various conclusions. The prevailing
-opinion, however, attributes to the makers of playing cards, if not the
-discovery of wood engraving, at least its first practical application
-in Europe. Many writers agree on the general principle, but agreement
-ends when it comes to be question of the date and place of the earliest
-attempts. Some pronounce in favour of the fourteenth century and
-Germany; others plead for France, where they say cards were in use
-from the beginning of the reign of Philip of Valois. Others again,
-to support the claims of Italy, arm themselves with a passage quoted
-by Tiraboschi from the "Trattato del Governo della Famiglia," a work
-written, according to them, in 1299; and they suppose, besides, that
-the commercial relations of Japan and China with Venice would have
-introduced into that town before any other the use of cards and the art
-of making them.
-
-Emeric David, one of the most recent authorities, carries things
-with a still higher hand. He begins by setting aside all the
-claimants--Germany with the Low Countries, France as well as Italy.[11]
-Where playing cards were first used, or whether any particular
-xylographic collection belongs or not to the first years of the
-fifteenth century, are matters of extremely small importance in his
-eyes. In the documents brought forward by competent experts as the most
-ancient remains of wood engraving, he finds instead a testimony to
-the uninterrupted practice of the art in Europe. For the real origin
-the author of the "Discours sur la Gravure" does not hesitate to go
-boldly back beyond the Christian era. Nor does he stop there; but sees
-in the practice of the Greeks under the successors of Alexander a
-mere continuance of the traditions of those Asiatic peoples who were
-accustomed from time immemorial to print on textile fabrics by means of
-wooden moulds.
-
-It would be too troublesome to discuss his facts or his conclusions;
-so many examples borrowed from the poets, from the historians of
-antiquity, and the Fathers of the Church, appear to sustain his perhaps
-too comprehensive theory. The best and the shortest plan will be to
-take it upon trust, and to admit on the authority of Homer, Herodotus,
-Ezekiel, and St. Clement of Alexandria, that from the heroic ages till
-the early days of Christianity, there has been no break in the practice
-of printing upon various materials from wooden blocks. Still less need
-we grudge the Middle Ages the possession of a secret already the common
-property of so many centuries.
-
-But the printing of textiles does not imply the knowledge and practice
-of engraving properly so called; and many centuries may have passed
-without any attempt to use this merely industrial process for finer
-ends, or to apply it to the purposes of art. Seals with letters cut in
-relief were smeared with colour and impressed on vellum or paper long
-before the invention of printing. The small stamps or patterns with
-which the scribes and illuminators transferred the outlines of capital
-letters to their manuscripts, might well have suggested the last
-advance. And yet how many years and experiments were required to bring
-it to perfection! Why may we not suppose that the art of engraving,
-like the art of printing, in spite of early, partial, and analogous
-discoveries, may have waited long for its hour of birth? And when
-block printing was once brought from Asia into Europe, why may it not
-have suffered the same fate as other inventions equally ingenious in
-principle and equally limited in their earlier applications? Glass, for
-instance, was well known by the nations of antiquity; but how long a
-time elapsed before it was applied to windows?
-
-We have said that according to a generally received opinion we must
-look upon playing cards as the oldest remains of xylography. But the
-evidence on which this opinion is based has only a negative authority.
-Because the old books in which cards are mentioned say nothing of
-any other productions of wood engraving, it has been inferred that
-such productions did not yet exist; but is it not allowable to ask
-if the silence of writers in such a case absolutely establishes such
-a negative? Might not this silence be explained by the nature of the
-work, and of the subject treated, which was generally literary or
-philosophical, and quite independent of questions of art? When speaking
-of cards, whether to formally forbid or only to restrain their use,
-the chroniclers and the moralists of the fourteenth century, or of the
-beginning of the fifteenth, probably thought but little of the way
-they were made. Their intention was to denounce a vice rather than to
-describe an industrial process. Why, then, should they have troubled
-about other works in which this process was employed, not only without
-danger to religion and morality, but with a view of honouring both?
-Pious pictures cut in wood by the hands of monks or artisans might
-have been well known at this time, although contemporary authors may
-have chosen to mention only cards; and, without pushing conjecture too
-far, we may take the liberty of supposing that engravers first drew
-their inspiration from the same source as illuminators, painters on
-glass, and sculptors. Besides, we know well that art was then only the
-naïve expression of religion and the emblem of Christian thought. Why
-should the cutters of xylographic figures have been an exception to the
-general rule? and what strange freak would have led them to choose as
-the subject of their first efforts a species of work so contrary to the
-manners and traditions of all the schools?
-
-Setting aside written testimony, and consulting the engravings
-themselves which have been handed down to us from former centuries,
-we are entitled to say that the very oldest playing cards are, at the
-most, contemporaneous with the "St. Christopher" of 1423 and the oldest
-known wood-cuts, inasmuch as the engraving of these cards certainly
-does not date back beyond the reign of Charles VII. That the Italian,
-German, or French _tarocchi_ (ornamented chequers or cards) were in use
-before that time is possible; but as none of these early _tarocchi_
-have survived, it cannot be known to what extent they represent the
-progress of the art, and how far they may have served as models for
-other xylographic works: even though it be true that relief engraving,
-and not merely drawing with the pen, was the means first employed for
-the making of the _tarocchi_ mentioned here and there in the chronicles.
-
-Such French cards as have come down to us would lead us to believe,
-in any case, that the progress was slow enough, for they still reveal
-an extraordinary want of experience both as to shape and effect, and
-have all the timidity of an art still in its infancy. This must also
-be said of works of the same kind executed in Germany in the fifteenth
-century; except the cards, attributed to a contemporary of the Master
-of 1466, and these are engraved on metal. In Italy alone, cards, or
-rather the symbolical pieces known rightly or wrongly by the name of
-_tarocchi_, possessed, from an artistic point of view, real importance
-from the time when engraving on metal had begun to take the place of
-wood-cutting. The artists initiated by Finiguerra into the secrets of
-the new method displayed good taste, knowledge, and skill; and in such
-less important work, as well as in that of a higher order, their talent
-at last inaugurated an era of real progress and of fruitful enterprise.
-
-It is of no consequence, for the matter of that, whether wood engraving
-was first applied to the making of pious pictures or to the manufacture
-of cards. In any case the process is generally looked upon as the
-oldest method of engraving, and as the first to give types to be
-multiplied in proofs by printing.
-
-M. Léon de Laborde, one of the clearest and best informed writers
-on the origins of engraving and typography, considers, on the other
-hand, that engraving in relief on metal, rather than the xylographic
-process, was the proximate cause of the discovery of printing. In a
-work published in 1839, which unfortunately has yet to receive the
-amplifications promised by the author,[12] M. de Laborde declares
-that the first printed engravings must have been dotted ones: that
-is, prints produced in the peculiar mode already touched upon, and in
-which the black parts come out sprinkled with white dots. According to
-him, engraving, or, to speak more exactly, the printing of engraved
-work, must have been invented by goldsmiths rather than by draughtsmen
-or illuminators. The former, by the nature of their craft, possessed
-the tools and the necessary materials, and were therefore in a better
-position than any one else to stumble upon the discovery of the
-process, if not deliberately to invent it. As matter of fact, many of
-those who worked in the Low Countries, or in the Rhenish provinces,
-during the first years of the fifteenth century, printed works in
-the early dot manner: in other words, engraved in relief on metal.
-And those xylographic specimens which are usually looked upon as the
-oldest examples of engraving, are in reality only the outcome of a
-reformation, and the product of an art already modified.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 9.--JESUS CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS.
-
-Engraving in the Dot Manner (1406).]
-
-The opinion expressed some time ago by M. Léon de Laborde has recently
-been supported by the discovery of two engravings, in the early dot
-manner, belonging, we think, to the year 1406, and on which we have
-ourselves published some remarks.[13] But our argument being only
-founded on the similarity of certain external facts, so to speak, and
-on the probability of certain calculations, it is not really possible
-to attribute to these documents so secure a standing as to those whose
-age is established by dates, and set practically beyond question.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 10.--THE HOLY FACE.
-
-Engraving in the Dot Manner (1406).]
-
-Now, the oldest of the dated engravings in relief on metal is the "St.
-Bernardino of Siena," wrongly called the "St. Bernard," belonging to
-the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. This engraving in the dot manner
-bears the date 1454. It is, therefore, later than the "St. Christopher"
-engraved on wood, and later even, as we shall presently see, than the
-first engraving in incised line, the "Pax," by Finiguerra, whose date
-of printing is certain. Remembering these facts, the separation of the
-oldest dotted prints from the first specimens of true engraving is only
-permissible on the ground that they are works executed by a special
-process. Considered from a purely artistic point of view, they offer
-little interest. Their drawing, still ruder than that of the German
-wood-cuts, exhibits an almost hieroglyphic unreality. Their general
-effect is purely conventional; and, owing to the uniform depth of the
-blacks, their insignificant modelling expresses neither the relief nor
-the comparative depression of the forms.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 11.--ST. BERNARDINO.
-
-Engraving in the Dot Manner (1454).]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 12.--ST. CHRISTOPHER.
-
-Engraving in the Dot Manner. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-In short, we find in these early dotted prints nothing but perfect
-falseness to nature, and all the mendacity inherent in feebleness of
-taste and slavish conformity to system.
-
-How comes it that this sorry child's-play has appeared to deserve in
-our day attention which is not always conceded to more serious work?
-This might be better excused had these prints been investigated in
-order to demonstrate the principles of the method followed afterwards
-by the engravers of illustrations for books. The charming borders, for
-instance, which adorn the "Books of Hours," printed in France at the
-end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries,
-would naturally suggest comparisons between the way in which many parts
-are stippled, and the process of the early dotted engraving. But we
-may surely term excessive the efforts of certain scholars to fix on
-these defective attempts in a particular method of work the attention
-of a public naturally attracted elsewhere. The fact is, however, that
-in this matter, as well as in questions relating to the origin of wood
-engraving and printing, national self-respect was at stake, and writers
-sought in the narrow field of archæology a victory over rival claims
-which they might less easily have achieved on other grounds.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 13.--JESUS ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
-
-Engraving in the Dot Manner. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-Between the authors of the Low Countries and of Germany, long
-accustomed to skirmishes of the kind, this new conflict might have
-begun and continued without awaking much interest in other nations;
-but, contrary to custom, these counterclaims originated neither in
-Germany nor in the Low Countries. For the first time the name of France
-was heard of in a dispute as to the origin of engraving; and though
-there was but scant honour to be gained, the unforeseen rivalry did not
-fail to give additional interest to the struggle, and, in France at
-least, to meet with a measure of favour.
-
-The words "Bernhardinus Milnet," deciphered, or supposed to be
-deciphered, at the bottom of an old dotted engraving, representing
-"The Virgin and the Infant Jesus," were taken for the signature of a
-French engraver, and the discovery was turned to further profit by the
-assumption that the said "Bernard or Bernardin Milnet" engraved all
-the prints of this particular class; although, even supposing these
-to belong to a single school, they manifestly could not all belong
-to a single epoch. The invention and monopoly of dotted engraving
-once attributed to a single country, or rather to a single man, these
-assertions continued to gain ground for some time, and were even
-repeated in literary and historical works. A day, however, came when
-they began to lose credit; and as doubts entered even the minds of his
-countrymen, the supposed Bernard Milnet is now deprived of his name and
-title, and is very properly regarded as an imaginary being.
-
-Does it follow from this, as M. Passavant[14] would have it, that
-all these prints, naturalised for a little while in France, ought to
-be restored to Germany? Their contradictory character with regard to
-workmanship and style might cause one, with the most honest intentions,
-to hesitate, though their intrinsic value is not such as to cause the
-former country any great loss.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 14.--ST. GEORGE.
-
-Engraving in the Dot Manner. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 15.--ST. DOMINIC.
-
-Engraving in the Dot Manner. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of anything less interesting,
-except with regard to the particular nature of the process. The
-outlines of the figures have none of that drawing, firm even to
-stiffness, nor has the flow of the draperies that taste for abrupt
-forms, which distinguished the productions of the German school from
-its beginnings. The least feeble of these specimens, such as the "Saint
-Barbara," in the Brussels Library, or the "St. George on Horseback,"
-preserved in the Print Department of the Bibliothèque Nationale in
-Paris, do indeed occasionally suggest some similarity of origin or
-manner with the school of Van Eyck. But it is unnecessary to debate
-the point at greater length. Whether produced in France, in the Low
-Countries, or in Germany, the dotted engravings of the fifteenth
-century add so little lustre to the land which gave them birth, that no
-scepticism as to their origin need lie very heavily on the conscience.
-In the general history of the documents on the origin of engraving,
-the dotted prints form a series distinguished by the method of their
-execution from any other earlier or contemporary specimens of work;
-the date mark 1454, borne by one among the number, gives us authentic
-information as to the time of these strange experiments, these
-curiosities of handicraft rather than of art. This is as much as we
-need to bear in mind upon the subject, and quite enough to complete the
-history of the elementary attempts which preceded or which co-existed
-for a few years with the beginning of engraving by incised line in
-Italy.
-
-We have now arrived at that decisive moment when engraving, endowed
-with fresh resources, was practised for the first time by real masters.
-Up to the present, the trifling ability and skill possessed by certain
-wood-cutters and the peculiar methods of dotted engraving have been
-the only means by which we could measure the efforts expended in the
-search for new technical methods, or in their use when discovered. We
-have now done with such hesitating and halting progress. The art of
-printing from plates cut in intaglio had no sooner been discovered by,
-or at least dignified by the practice of, a Florentine goldsmith, than
-upon every side fresh talent was evoked. In Italy and Germany it was
-a question of who should profit most and quickest by the advance. A
-spirit of rivalry at once arose between the two schools; and fifteen
-years had not elapsed since Italian art had given its note in the works
-of the goldsmith engravers of the school of Finiguerra, before German
-art had found an equally definite expression in the works of the Master
-of 1466. But, before examining this simultaneous progress, we shall
-have to say a few words on the historical part of the question, and to
-return to the origin of the process of intaglio engraving, as we have
-already done with the origin of engraving in relief. This part of our
-subject must be briefly and finally disposed of; we may then altogether
-abandon the uncertain ground of archæological hypothesis.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-    FIRST ATTEMPTS AT INTAGLIO ENGRAVING. THE NIELLI OF THE
-    FLORENTINE GOLDSMITHS. PRINTS BY THE ITALIAN AND GERMAN
-    PAINTER-ENGRAVERS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
-
-
-We have seen that Gutenberg's permanent improvements in the method of
-printing resulted in the substitution, so far as written speech was
-concerned, of a mode of reproduction almost infinitely fruitful, and
-even rapid when compared to the slowness and the limited resources of
-the xylographic method. Typography was destined to abolish the use of
-block printing, and more particularly of caligraphy, which, till then,
-had occupied so many pious and patient hands both in monasteries and in
-schools. The art of printing from engravings worked similar mischief
-to the illuminator's craft. Such were, before long, the natural
-consequences of the progress made; and, we may add, such had been from
-the first the chief object of these innovations.
-
-Perhaps this double revolution, so potent in its general effect and
-in its influence on modern civilisation, may have appeared to those
-engaged in it no more important than a purely industrial improvement.
-Surely, for instance, we do no injustice to Gutenberg if we accept
-with some reserve the vast political and philosophical ideas, and the
-purposes of universal enfranchisement, with which he has been sometimes
-credited? Probably the views of the inventor of printing reached
-neither so far nor so high. He did not intend to figure as an apostle,
-nor did he regard himself as devoted to a philanthropic mission, as we
-should put it in the present day. He considered himself no more than a
-workman with a happy thought, when he proposed to replace the lengthy
-and costly labours of the copyist by a process so much cheaper and so
-much more expeditious.
-
-A somewhat similar idea had already occurred to the xylographic
-printers. Even the title of one of the first books published by them,
-the "Biblia Pauperum," or "Bible for the Poor," proved their wish to
-place within the reach of the masses an equivalent to those illuminated
-manuscript copies which were only obtainable by the rich. One glance at
-the ancient xylographic collections is enough to disclose the spirit
-in which such work was undertaken, and the design with which it was
-conceived. The new industry imitated in every particular the appearance
-of those earlier works due to the pen of the scribe or to the brush of
-the illuminator; and, perhaps, the printers themselves, speculating
-on the want of discernment in the purchasing public, thought less of
-exposing the secret of their method than of maintaining an illusion.
-
-In most of the xylographic books, indeed, the first page is quite
-without ornamentation. There are neither chapter-headings nor
-ornamental capitals; the blank space seems to await the hand of the
-illuminator, who should step in to finish the work of the printer, and
-complete the resemblance between the printed books and the manuscript.
-Gutenberg followed; and even he, although less closely an imitator of
-caligraphy, did not himself disdain at first to practise some deception
-as to the nature of his method. It is said that the Bible he printed
-at Mayence was sold as manuscript; and the letterpress is certainly
-not accompanied by any technical explanation, or by any note of the
-printer's name or the mode of fabrication. Not till somewhat later,
-when he published the "Catholicon," did Gutenberg avow that he had
-printed this book "without the help of reed, quill, or stylus, but
-by means of a marvellous array of moulds and punches." Even in this
-specimen of a process already settled and finally disclosed to the
-public, the capital letters were left blank in the printing, and were
-afterwards filled in with brush or pen. It was a farewell salutation
-to the past, and the latest appearance of that old art which was now
-doomed to pass away before the new, and to leave the field to the
-products of the press.
-
-Did the inventor of the art of printing from plates cut in intaglio,
-like the inventor of the art of typography, only wish at first to
-extend to a larger public what had hitherto been reserved for the
-favoured few? Was early engraving but a weapon turned against the
-monopoly of the miniature painter? We might be tempted to think so,
-from the number of manuscripts belonging to the second half of the
-fifteenth century, in which coloured prints, surrounded by borders
-also coloured, are set opposite a printed text, apparently in order to
-imitate as nearly as possible the familiar aspect of illuminated books.
-Next in turn came printed books with illustrations, and loose sheets
-published separately for every-day use. The Italian engravers, even
-before they began to adorn with the burin those works which have been
-the most frequently illustrated--such, for instance, as the religious
-handbooks and the poem of Dante--employed the new process from as early
-as 1465, to assure their calendars a wider publicity. But let us return
-to the time when engraving was yet in its early stages, and when--by
-chance, by force of original genius, or by the mere completion of
-what had been begun by other hands--a Florentine goldsmith, one Maso
-Finiguerra, succeeded in fixing on paper the impression of a silver
-plate on which lines had been engraved in intaglio and filled with
-black.
-
-Finiguerra's great glory does not, however, lie in the solution of
-the practical difficulty. Amongst the Italians none before him had
-ever thought of trying to print from a work engraved in incised
-line or intaglio on metal; and therefore, at least, in his own
-country, he deserved the honours of priority. But the invention of
-the process--that is, in the absolute and literal sense of its name,
-the notion of reproducing burin work by printing--was certainly not
-peculiar to Finiguerra. Unconscious of what was passing elsewhere,
-he may have been the first in Florence to attempt this revolution in
-art; but, beyond the frontiers of Italy, many had already employed
-for the necessities of trade that method which it was his to turn
-into a powerful instrument of art. His true glory consists in the
-unexpected authority with which he inaugurated the movement. Although
-it may be true that there are prints a few years older than any
-Florentine niello--the German specimens of 1446, discovered but the
-other day by M. Renouvier,[15] or the "Virgin" of 1451 described by
-M. Passavant[16]--it cannot change the real date of the invention of
-engraving; that date has been written by the hand of a man of talent,
-the first engraver worthy of the name of artist.
-
-That Finiguerra was really the inventor of engraving, because he
-dignified the new process by the striking ability with which he used
-it, and proved his power where his contemporaries had only exhibited
-their weakness, must be distinctly laid down, even at the risk of
-scandalising some of the learned. He has the same right to celebrity
-as Gutenberg, who, like him, was but the discoverer of a decisive
-advance; the same right also as Nicolò Pisano and Giotto, the real
-founders of the race of the Great Masters, and, truly speaking, the
-first painter and the first sculptor who appeared in Italy, although
-neither sculpture nor painting were even novelties at the moment of
-their birth. As a mere question of date, the "Pax" of Florence may
-not be the earliest example of engraving; be it so. But in which of
-these earlier attempts, now so much acclaimed as arguments against
-the accepted tradition, can we glean even the faintest promise of the
-merits which distinguish that illustrious engraving? He who wrought it
-is no usurper; his fame is a legitimate conquest.
-
-It is a singular coincidence that the discovery of printing and that of
-the art of taking proofs on paper from a plate engraved in intaglio,
-or, to speak more exactly, that the final improvements of both these
-processes, should have sprung up almost simultaneously, one in Italy
-and the other in Germany. There is only an interval of two years
-between the time when Finiguerra printed his first engraving in 1452,
-and the time when Gutenberg exhibited his first attempts at printing
-in 1454. Till then, copies drawn, painted, or written by hand had been
-the only efficient means of reproduction. None, even amongst those
-most capable of original thought or action, considered it beneath them
-to set forth the thought of others. Boccaccio and Petrarch exchanged
-whole books of Livy or of Cicero which they had patiently transcribed,
-and monkish or professional artists copied on the vellum of missals
-the paintings which covered the walls or adorned the altars of their
-churches. Such subjects as were engraved on wood were only designed
-to stimulate the devotion of the pious. Both by their inadequate
-execution, and the special use for which they were intended, they must
-rank as industrial products rather than as works of art.
-
-Besides illumination and wood engraving, there was a process sometimes
-used to copy certain originals, portraits or fancy subjects, but more
-frequently employed by goldsmiths in the decoration of chalices,
-reliquaries, and altar canons. This process was nothing but a special
-application and combination of the resources belonging to the long
-known arts of enamelling and chalcography, which last simply means
-engraving on metal. The incised lines made by the graver in a plate
-of silver, or of silver and gold combined, were filled with a mixture
-of lead, silver, and copper, made more easily fusible by the addition
-of a certain quantity of borax and sulphur. This blackish-coloured
-mixture (_nigellum_, whence _niello_, _niellare_) left the unengraved
-parts exposed, and, in cooling, became encrusted in the furrows where
-it had been introduced. After this, the plate, when carefully polished,
-presented to the eye the contrast of a design in dull black enamel
-traced upon a field of shining metal.
-
-Towards the middle of the fifteenth century this kind of engraving
-was much practised in Italy, especially in Florence, where the best
-niellatori were to be found. One of them, Tomaso, or for short, Maso
-Finiguerra, was, like many goldsmiths of his time, at once an engraver,
-a designer, and a sculptor. The drawings attributed to him, his nielli,
-and the bas-reliefs partly by him and partly by Antonio Pollajuolo,
-would not, perhaps, have been enough to have preserved his memory: it
-is his invention--in the degree we mentioned--of the art of printing
-intaglio engravings, or rather of the art of engraving itself, that has
-made him immortal.
-
-What, however, can seem more simple than this discovery? It is even
-difficult to understand why it was not made before, when we remember
-not only that the printing of blocks engraved in relief had been
-practised since the beginning of the fifteenth century, but that the
-niellatori themselves were in the habit of taking, first in clay and
-then in sulphur, an impression and a counter-impression of their work
-before applying the enamel. What should seem more simple than to have
-taken a direct proof on a thin elastic body such as paper? But it is
-always easy to criticise after the event, and to point out the road of
-progress when the end has been attained. Who knows if to-day there is
-not lying at our very hand some discovery which yet we never think of
-grasping, and if our present blindness will not be the cause of similar
-wonder to our successors?
-
-At any rate, Finiguerra had found the solution of the problem by 1452.
-This was put beyond doubt on the day towards the close of the last
-century (1797), when Zani discovered, in the Print-Room of the Paris
-Library, a niello by Finiguerra printed on paper of indisputable date.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 16.--FINIGUERRA.
-
-The "Pax" of the Baptistery of St. John at Florence.]
-
-This little print, or rather proof, taken before the plate was put in
-niello, of a "Pax"[17] engraved by the Florentine goldsmith for the
-Baptistery of St. John, represents the Coronation of the Virgin. It
-measures only 130 millimetres by 87. As regards its size, therefore,
-the "Coronation" is really only a vignette; but it is a vignette
-handled with such knowledge and style, and informed with so deep a
-feeling for beauty, that it would bear with perfect impunity the
-ordeal of being enlarged a hundred times and transferred to a canvas
-or a wall. Its claims as an archæological specimen, and the value that
-four centuries have added to this small piece of perishable paper,
-must assuredly neither be forgotten nor misunderstood by any one. Yet
-he would be ill-advised, on the other hand, who should regard this
-masterpiece of art as a mere historical curiosity.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 17.--ITALIAN NIELLO.
-
-(Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 18.
-
-ITALIAN NIELLO. (Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-The rare merits which distinguish Finiguerra's "Coronation" are to be
-seen, though much less conspicuously, in a certain number of works
-attributed to the same origin. Other pieces engraved at the same time,
-and printed under the same conditions by unknown Florentine workmen,
-prove that the example given in 1452 had at once created imitators. It
-must be remarked, however, that amongst such works, whether attributed
-to Finiguerra or to other goldsmiths of the same time and country,
-none belong to the class of engravings properly so called. In other
-words they are only what we have agreed to call nielli: that is,
-proofs on paper of plates designed to be afterwards enamelled, and
-not impressions of plates specially and finally intended to be used
-for printing. It would almost appear that the master and his first
-followers failed to foresee all the results and benefits of this
-discovery; that they looked upon it only as a surer test of work than
-clay or sulphur casts, as a test process suitable to certain stages of
-the labours of the goldsmith. In one word, from the time when he made
-his first success till the end of his life, Finiguerra probably only
-used the new process to forward his work as a niellatore, without its
-ever occurring to him to employ it for its own sake, and in the spirit
-of a real engraver.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 19.--ITALIAN NIELLO.
-
-(Fifteenth Century.)]
-
-Florentine engravings of the fifteenth century, other than in niello,
-or those at least whose origin and date are certain, are not only
-later than Finiguerra's working days, but are even later than the
-year of his death (1470). In Germany, from the very beginning, so
-to speak, of the period of initiation, the Master of 1466 and his
-disciples were multiplying impressions of their works, and profiting by
-the full resources of the new process. In Florence, on the contrary,
-there passed about twenty years during which the art seems to have
-remained stationary and confined to the same narrow field of practice
-as at first. You may visit the richest public or private collections
-without meeting (with the exception of works in niello) any authentic
-and official specimen of Florentine engraving of the time of which we
-speak.[18] You may open books and catalogues, and find no mention of
-any engraved subject that can be called a print earlier than those
-attributed to Baccio Baldini, or to Botticelli, which only appeared
-in the last quarter of the century. Yet it is impossible to find any
-explanation of this sterility--of this extraordinary absence of a
-school of engravers, in the exact acceptation of the word, outside of
-the group of the niellatori.
-
-[Illustration: FIG 20.--BACCIO BALDINI.
-
-Illustration from the "Divina Commedia" of 1481.]
-
-Some years later, however, progress had led to emancipation. The art
-of engraving, henceforth free, broke from its industrial servitude,
-deserted the traditions of enamelling and chasing, and took
-possession of its own domain. There are still to be remarked, of
-course, a certain timidity and a certain lack of experience in the
-handling of the tool, an execution at once summary and strangely
-careful, a mixture of naïve intentions and conventional modes of
-expression. But the burin, though only able as yet imperfectly to treat
-lines in mass and vary the values of shadows, has mastered the secret
-of representing life with precision and elegance of outline, and can
-render the facial expression of the most different types. Sacred and
-mythological personages, sybils and prophets, madonnas and the gods
-of Olympus, the men and women of the fifteenth century, all not only
-reveal at the first glance their close pictorial relationship to the
-general inclinations and habits of Florentine art of the fourteenth
-century, but show us these tendencies continued and confirmed in a
-fresh form. The delicacy which charms us in the bas-reliefs and the
-pictures of the time; the aspiration, common to contemporary painters
-and sculptors, of idealising and heightening the expression of external
-facts; the love of rare, exquisite, and somewhat subtle expression, are
-to be found in the works left by the painter-engravers who were the
-immediate followers of Finiguerra, no less clearly than in the painted
-and sculptured subjects on the walls of contemporary churches and
-palaces.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 21.--BACCIO BALDINI.
-
-Theseus and Ariadne.]
-
-Whatever we may suppose to have been the part due to Baccio Baldini, to
-Botticelli, to Pollajuolo, or to anybody else; with whatever acuteness
-we may discern, or think we discern, the inequalities of style and
-the tricks of touch in different men; all their works display a
-vigorous unity, which must be carefully taken into account, inasmuch as
-it gives its character to the school. Though we should even succeed in
-separately labelling with a proper name each one of the works which are
-all really dependent on one another, the gain would be small.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 22.--BACCIO BALDINI.
-
-The Prophet Baruch.]
-
-Provided that neither the qualities nor the meaning of the whole
-movement be understood, we may, as regards the distribution of minor
-parts, resign ourselves to doubt, and even ignorance, and console
-ourselves for the mystery which enshrouds these nameless talents: and
-this the more readily that we can with greater impartiality appreciate
-their merits in the absence of biographical hypothesis and the
-commentaries of the scholar.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 23.--BACCIO BALDINI.
-
-The Sibyl of Cumæ.]
-
-The prints due to the Florentine painter-engravers who followed
-Finiguerra mark a transitional epoch between the first stage of Italian
-engraving and the time when the art, having entered upon its period of
-virility, used its powers with confidence, and showed itself equal to
-any feat. The privileges of fruitfulness and success in this second
-phase no longer, it is true, belong wholly to Florence. It would seem
-that, after having again and again given birth to so much talent,
-Florentine art, exhausted by rapid production, reposed and voluntarily
-allowed the neighbouring schools to take her place. Even before the
-appearance of Marc Antonio, the most important proofs of skill were
-given outside of Tuscany; and if towards the beginning, or at the
-beginning, of the sixteenth century, the numerous plates engraved by
-Robetta still continued to sustain the reputation of the Florentine
-school, such a result was owing far less to the individual talent of
-the engraver, than to the charm and intrinsic value of his models.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 24.--PRINT BELONGING TO THE SET ENTITLED "THE GAME
-OF CARDS."]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 25.--MANTEGNA.
-
-The Virgin and the Infant Jesus.]
-
-Of all the Italian engravers who, towards the end of the fifteenth
-century, completed the popularisation in their country of the art whose
-first secrets and examples were revealed and supplied by Florence, the
-one most powerfully inspired and most skilful was certainly Andrea
-Mantegna. We need not here recall the true position of this great
-artist in the history of painting. Such of his pictures and decorative
-paintings as still exist possess a world-wide fame; and, though his
-engravings are less generally known, they deserve equal celebrity, and
-would justify equal admiration.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 26.--MANTEGNA.
-
-From the Print Representing a Battle of Sea-Gods.]
-
-The engraved work of Mantegna consists of only twenty plates, about
-half of which are religious, and the remainder mythological or
-historical. Though none of these engravings bears the signature or
-initials of the Paduan master, their authenticity cannot be doubted.
-It is abundantly manifest in certain marked characteristics of style
-and workmanship; in the delicate yet strong precision of the drawing;
-and in that somewhat rude elegance which was at the command of none of
-his contemporaries in the same degree. Every part of them, even where
-they savour of imperfection or of extravagance, bears witness to the
-indomitable will and independent genius of a master. His touch imparts
-a passionate and thrilling aspect even to the details of architectural
-decoration and the smallest inanimate objects. One would suppose that,
-after having studied each part of his subject with the eye of a man of
-culture and a thinker, Mantegna, when he came to represent it on the
-metal, forgot all but the burning impatience of his hand and the fever
-of the struggle with his material.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 27.--MANTEGNA.
-
-The Entombment.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 28.--MANTEGNA.
-
-Jesus Christ, St. Andrew, and St. Longinus.]
-
-And yet the handling alone of such works as the "Entombment" and the
-"Triumph of Cæsar" bears witness to the talent of an engraver already
-more experienced than any of his Italian predecessors and more alive to
-the real resources of his art. The burin in Mantegna's hand displays a
-firmness that can no longer be called stiffness; and, while it hardly
-as yet can be said to imitate painting, competes in boldness and
-rapidity at least with the effect of chalk or the pen. Unlike the
-Florentine engravers, with their timid sparse strokes which scarcely
-served to mark the outlines, Mantegna works with masses of shadow
-produced by means of closer graining, and seeks to express, or at any
-rate to suggest, internal modelling, instead of contenting himself
-with the mere outlines of the body. In a word, Mantegna as an engraver
-never forgot his knowledge as a painter; and it is this, combined with
-the rare vigour of his imagination, which assures him the first place
-amongst the Italian masters before the time of Marc Antonio.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 29.--MANTEGNA.
-
-From the Triumph of Julius Cæsar.]
-
-Mantegna had soon many imitators. Some of them, as Mocetto, Jacopo
-Francia, Nicoletto da Modena, and Jacopo de' Barbari, known as the
-Master of the Caduceus, though profiting by his example, did not push
-their docility so far as to sacrifice their own tastes and individual
-sentiment. Others, as Zoan Andrea and Giovanni Antonio da Brescia,
-whose work has been sometimes mistaken for that of Mantegna himself,
-set themselves not only to make his manner their own, but to imitate
-his engravings line for line.
-
-However strongly Mantegna's influence may have acted on the Italian
-engravers of the fifteenth century, or the early years of the
-sixteenth, it hardly seems to have extended beyond Lombardy, Venice,
-and the small neighbouring states. It was neither in Florence nor
-in Rome that the Paduan example principally excited the spirit of
-imitation. The works it gave rise to belong nearly all of them to
-artists formed under the master's very eyes, or in close proximity to
-his teachings, whether the manner of the leader of the school appeared
-in the efforts of pure copyists and imitators more or less adroit, or
-whether it appeared in a much modified condition in the works of more
-independent disciples.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 30.--MOCETTO.
-
-Bacchus.]
-
-It was in Verona, Venice, Modena, and Bologna that the movement which
-Mantegna started in art found its most brilliant continuation. As the
-engravers, emboldened by experience, gradually tended to reconcile
-something of their own inspirations and personal desires with the
-doctrines transmitted to them, assuredly a certain amount of progress
-was manifested and some improvements were introduced into the use or
-the combination of means; but in spite of such partial divergences,
-the general appearance of the works proves their common origin, and
-testifies to the imprudence of the efforts sometimes made to split
-into small isolated groups and infinite subdivisions what, in reality,
-forms a complete whole, a genuine school.
-
-The same spirit of unity is again found to predominate in all the works
-of the German engravers belonging to the second half of the fifteenth
-century. With respect to purpose and style, there is certainly a great
-difference between the early Italian engravings and those which mark
-the beginning of the art in the towns of High and Low Germany. But
-both have this in common: that certain fixed traditions once founded
-remain for a time almost unchangeable; that certain fixed methods of
-execution are held like articles of faith, and only modified with
-an extreme respect for the time-honoured principles of early days.
-The Master of 1466, and shortly after him, Martin Schongauer, had
-scarcely shown themselves, before their example was followed, and
-their teaching obediently practised, by a greater number of disciples
-than had followed, or were destined to follow, in Italy the lead of
-the contemporaries of Finiguerra or Mantegna. The influence exerted
-by the latter had at least an equivalent in the ascendancy of Martin
-Schongauer; while the Master of 1466, in the character of a founder,
-which belongs to him, has almost the same importance in the history
-of German engraving as the Florentine goldsmith in that of Italian
-engraving.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 31.--BATTISTA DEL PORTO, CALLED THE "MASTER OF THE
-BIRD."
-
-St. Sebastian.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 32.--MARTIN SCHONGAUER.
-
-The Virgin and the Infant Jesus.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 33.--MARTIN SCHONGAUER.
-
-St. John the Evangelist.]
-
-The Master of 1466 may, indeed, be regarded as the Finiguerra of
-Germany, because he was the first in his own country to raise to the
-dignity of an art what had been only an industrial process in the
-hands of talentless workmen. Like wood engraving, intaglio engraving,
-such as we see it in German prints some years before the works of
-the Master of 1466, had only succeeded in spreading abroad, in the
-towns on the banks of the Rhine, productions of a rude or grotesque
-symbolism, in which, notwithstanding recent attempts to exaggerate
-their value, a want of technical experience was as evident as extreme
-poverty of conception. These archæological curiosities can have no
-legitimate place amongst works of art, and we may without injustice
-take still less account of them, as the rapid progress made by the
-Master of 1466 throws their inferiority into greater relief. If the
-anonymous artist called the Master of 1466 be the true founder of the
-German school of engraving; if he show himself cleverer than any of
-the Italian engravers of the period--from the point of view only of
-practical execution, and the right handling of the tool--it does not
-necessarily follow that he holds the same priority in talent as he
-certainly holds in order of time before all other engravers of the
-same age and country. One of these, Martin Schongauer, called also
-"handsome Martin," or for short, "Martin Schon," may have a better
-right to the highest place. Endowed with more imagination than the
-Master of 1466, with a deeper feeling for truth and a clearer instinct
-for beauty, he displays at least equal dexterity in the conduct of the
-work and in the handling of the graver. Assuredly, if we compare Martin
-Schongauer's prints with the beautiful Flemish or French engravings of
-the seventeenth century, the combinations of lines which satisfied the
-German engraver cannot fail to appear insufficient, or even archaically
-simple; but if we compare them with the engraved work of all countries
-in the fifteenth century, it will be acknowledged that, even as a
-technical worker, the master of Colmar[19] exhibited a striking
-superiority over all his contemporaries. Such plates as the "Flight
-into Egypt," the "Death of the Virgin," the "Wise Virgins," and the
-"Foolish Virgins," are distinguished above all by power and by grace
-of expression; but to these ideal qualities there is added so much
-firmness of drawing, and so much decision of handling, that, in spite
-of all subsequent progress, they deserve to be numbered with those
-which most honour the art of engraving.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 34.--MARTIN SCHONGAUER.
-
-Jesus Betrayed by Judas.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 35.--MARTIN SCHONGAUER.
-
-The Entombment.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 36.--MARTIN SCHONGAUER.
-
-Figure from the set entitled "The Foolish Virgins."]
-
-Martin Schongauer, like the Master of 1466, at once raised up both
-imitators and rivals in Munich, in Mecheln in Westphalia, in Nuremberg,
-and in many other towns in the German States. His influence and
-reputation extended even beyond the borders of Germany; and it was not
-the artists of the Low Countries alone who sought to profit by his
-example. In Florence young Michelangelo did not disdain to study, nor
-even to copy him, for he painted a "Temptation of St. Anthony," after
-Schongauer's engraving. Italian miniature painters and engravers,
-Gherardo and Nicoletto da Modena, amongst others, reproduced many
-of his prints. The very figures and ornamentation which decorate
-the "Books of Hours," published by Simon Vostre and Hardouin at the
-beginning of the sixteenth century, show that in the France of that
-period a zeal for imitation of the master's manner was not always
-restrained by the fear of actual plagiarism. But the influence of
-Martin Schongauer on the progress of art and the talent of artists
-was more extended and decided in Germany itself. Amongst those who
-most obediently submitted to, and who best knew how to profit by,
-that example, we need only mention Bartholomew Schön, Franz von
-Bocholt, Wenceslas of Olmütz, Israel van Mechenen, Glockenton, and
-lastly, the engraver with the monogram "B M," whose most important
-work, the "Judgment of Solomon," was perhaps engraved from a picture
-by Martin Schongauer, who like Mantegna, like Pollajuolo, and indeed
-like the majority of early engravers, was not only a painter, but a
-singularly good one. His painted pictures still belonging to the town
-of Colmar, and, setting aside his rare talent as an engraver, even
-the little "Death of the Virgin," which has been the property of the
-London National Gallery since 1860, would be enough to establish his
-reputation.[20]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 37.--MARTIN SCHONGAUER.
-
-St. Anthony.]
-
-The importance of such an artist is in every respect that of the leader
-of a school and a master in the strictest acceptation of the word.
-Martin Schongauer in his own person, and through the talent he helped
-to foster, did so much, and so greatly honoured his country, that it
-is only just to regard him as one of the most glorious representatives
-of national art, and to place his name beside those of Albert Dürer
-and Holbein, as the three men in whom the essential qualities and
-characteristics of the German genius have been most typically
-represented.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-LINE ENGRAVING AND WOOD ENGRAVING IN GERMANY AND ITALY IN THE SIXTEENTH
-CENTURY.
-
-
-Thanks to the Master of 1466 and to Martin Schongauer, line engraving
-in Germany was marked by brilliant and unexpected advances, whilst wood
-engraving merely followed the humble traditions of early days. It is
-true that the latter process was no longer exclusively applied to the
-production of occasional unbound prints, or cheap religious pictures on
-loose leaves, of which we have a specimen in the "Saint Christopher"
-of 1423. In Germany, towards the end of the fifteenth century, the
-custom had spread of "illustrating" (as we now call it) type-printed
-books with wood engravings. To mention a few amongst many examples, we
-have the "Casket of the True Riches of Salvation" ("Schatzbehalter"),
-published at Nuremberg in 1491, and the "Chronicorum Liber" called the
-"Nuremberg Chronicle," printed in the same town in 1493, both of which
-contain numerous wood-cuts interpolated in the text.
-
-These cuts are not so bad as the earlier German work in the same
-process, yet they are far from good. They scarcely hold out a
-promise of the advance in skill made some years later by wood-cutters
-under the influence of Albert Dürer, and if they are compared with
-the illustrations which adorn Italian books of the same period--the
-"Decameron" of 1492, for instance, and especially the "Hypnerotomachia
-Poliphili" of 1499--they appear still worse. Though they are not of
-much value in themselves, the prints which accompany the writings in
-the "Casket" and the "Nuremberg Chronicle" deserve attention. They were
-done from designs supplied by Albert Dürer's master, Michael Wolgemut;
-and the gulf between the rather feeble talent of the older man, and the
-profound knowledge and powerful originality of his illustrious pupil,
-can thus be easily measured.
-
-Albert Dürer was the son of a Hungarian goldsmith established at
-Nuremberg. He tells us himself how, at the age of fifteen, he left his
-father's shop for Wolgemut's studio: not that he wished to free himself
-from parental authority, but simply to hasten the time when he might
-do his share towards satisfying the wants of a numerous family. "My
-father," says Albert Dürer, in his autobiographical notes, "could only
-supply himself, his wife, and children[21] with the strict necessaries
-of life; and spent his life in great hardship and severe hard work. He
-suffered in addition many adversities and troubles. Every one who knew
-him spoke well of him, for he led a worthy Christian life, was patient
-and gentle, at peace with every one, and always thankful to God. He
-did not seek worldly pleasures, was a man of few words, kept little
-company, and feared God. My dear father was very earnest about bringing
-up his children in the fear of God, for it was his greatest desire
-to lead them aright, so that they might be pleasing to God and man.
-And his daily injunction to us was that we should love God, and deal
-uprightly with our neighbour.... I felt at length more like an artist
-than a goldsmith, and I begged my father to let me paint; but he was
-displeased with the request, for he regretted the time I had lost in
-learning his trade. However, he gave in to me, and on St. Andrew's Day,
-1486, he apprenticed me to Master Michael."
-
-Albert Dürer's progress was indeed rapid, at least his progress in
-engraving, for he drew with remarkable talent before he entered
-Wolgemut's studio. The charming portrait of himself at the age of
-thirteen, still preserved at Vienna in the Albertine Collection,
-sufficiently proves that he required no lessons from his new master in
-the skilful handling of a pencil: the teaching of his own mind had been
-enough. But it was otherwise with engraving, where he had to advance
-by way of experiment, and gain capacity from practice. And it was not
-till about 1496, after many years of apprenticeship, that he ventured
-to publish his first engraved work. His early works, moreover, are very
-probably only copies from Wolgemut,[22] whereas the original works
-which followed, though retaining something of the traditional manner,
-bear nevertheless a stamp of independent feeling. Thus too, and at
-nearly the same time, the genius of Perugino's gifted pupil began to
-show itself under the borrowed forms of the only style permitted in the
-school; and the obedient hand which portrayed the "Sposalizio" in the
-manner and under the eyes of his master, in secret already obeyed the
-mind of Raphael.
-
-Meanwhile Albert Dürer, whose fame had begun to spread beyond the
-walls of Nuremberg, undertook a tour through Germany, and was absent
-for four years; and when he returned to settle in his native town, he
-married Agnes Frey, the daughter of a respectable and wealthy merchant
-in Nuremberg. If we may believe report, the union was unhappy, and
-darkened and shortened by cruel domestic troubles the life of the noble
-artist. The story has often been told how his imperious and greedy
-wife kept him continually at work, and how, as prints paid better
-than pictures, she would not allow him to sacrifice the burin to the
-brush. Dreading the reproaches and accusations of idleness to which
-she gave vent on the smallest provocation, Dürer bent beneath the yoke
-and rarely left his studio. One day, for instance, they relate that he
-was discovered in the street by his wife, whom he believed to be at
-the other end of the town, and was forced to return and to expiate
-his momentary idleness by working far beyond his usual time. The poor
-artist died at last of overwork and misery; and his hateful widow only
-regretted his death because it set a term to his earnings.
-
-Such is the account in all the books that deal with Dürer, from the
-work of the German Sandrart, in the seventeenth century, down to the
-biographical dictionaries published in our own time by French writers;
-such is the story which has served as text to so many denunciations
-of this new Xantippe, and to so many elegies upon her victim. But the
-facts of the case were not carefully examined. The result of Herr
-Thausing's scrupulous investigation of the subject, and the authentic
-testimony he has adduced, show, on the contrary, that Albert Dürer
-and his wife lived on pretty good terms till his death; so that we
-may banish as idle fables the torments which he was supposed to have
-suffered, and the sorrows that were said to have shortened his life.
-
-The story so frequently repeated after Vasari, of Dürer's quarrels with
-a certain forger of his works at Venice, where copies signed with his
-monogram were publicly sold as originals, rests on a surer basis. The
-said forger was a young man of no reputation who had conceived this
-idea of commanding a sale for his works, and of thus quickly realising
-a profit on the renown of Dürer and the simplicity of his customers.
-It was not long, however, before the fraud was discovered, when he
-tried, it is said, to turn it into a joke; but the German artist could
-not be brought to see it in that light. It was a case in which his wife
-was not concerned, and he could take his own part openly. He applied
-at once to the Senate, denounced the fraud, and obtained a decree
-condemning the offender thenceforth to affix to his plates no other
-name than his own. This name, destined to become celebrated, was no
-other than that of Marc Antonio Raimondi.
-
-In our own days the truth of this story has been more than once
-doubted, at least in so far as the legal consequences are concerned,
-for the forgery itself cannot be denied. The plates of the "Life of
-the Virgin," engraved by Marc Antonio from Albert Dürer, and bearing
-the monogram of the latter, are known to every one; but it has been
-objected as an argument against the sentence that, in the state of
-morals and legislation in the sixteenth century, to affix another
-person's signature to these plates did not constitute a misdemeanour;
-and that Marc Antonio, by appropriating the name and the works of
-Albert Dürer, did no worse than many imitators of Martin Schongauer had
-done before him, no worse, indeed, than was presently to be done with
-regard to his own works by imitators as unscrupulous as himself. This
-is quite true; but it is no less so that Albert Dürer's signature, so
-deliberately added by Marc Antonio to the copies he engraved of the
-"Life of the Virgin," is not to be found on the plates of the "History
-of the Passion," engraved later on by Marc Antonio in imitation of the
-German master. It is impossible not to suppose that in the meantime a
-judgment of some sort was passed, obliging the copyist to appear under
-his true colours.
-
-The just satisfaction accorded to the demands of Albert Dürer was
-not, however, to preserve him from the injury afterwards done him by
-imitators of another kind. Some Venetian painters followed the example
-of Marc Antonio, and, adding insult to injury, energetically abused the
-very man whose works they impudently copied. "If you saw these men,"
-wrote Dürer to his friend Pirkheimer, "you would take them for the best
-people in the world. For my part, I can never help laughing at them
-when they speak to me. They are quite aware that one knows all about
-their knavery; but they don't care. You may be sure I was warned in
-time not to eat and drink with them. There are painters in Venice who
-copy my works, clamouring loudly the while that I am ruining art by
-departing from the antique."
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 38.-HANS SEBALD BEHAM.
-
-The Jester and the Lovers.]
-
-Albert Dürer, however, found in the welcome he received from the most
-celebrated Italian artists a compensation for the bad conduct to
-which he was a victim. Old Giovanni Bellini himself overwhelmed his
-young rival with praise, and begged for one of his works, for which
-he declared himself "eager to pay well." Lastly, when Dürer was once
-more in his own country, and might have considered himself forgotten
-by the Italian painters, Raphael, the greatest of all, sent him as a
-token of his admiration some proofs of plates that Marc Antonio had
-just engraved under his own eye. What happened at Venice was nearly
-happening at Nuremberg. The German engraver did not dream of copying
-the works of his old imitator as a sort of _quid pro quo_; but, as he
-really appreciated them at their true value, he did not hesitate to
-show them to his pupils, and to recommend them to their imitation.
-Aldegrever, Hans Schaüflein, Baldung Grün, Hans Sebald Beham, indeed,
-the greater part of the so-called "Little Masters," who were destined
-all their lives to remain faithful to tradition, were content to admire
-without any thought of imitation; but those who were younger and
-less fixed simply took Albert Dürer at his word. Perhaps he scarcely
-welcomed such excessive docility. But their master having thus almost
-acknowledged a superior, these young men hurriedly left him to put
-themselves under the guidance of the conqueror. The deserters were
-numerous. Georg Pencz, Bartholomew Beham, and Jacob Binck, who had been
-the first to cross the Alps, succeeded in copying Marc Antonio well
-enough to cause several of the subjects they engraved to be mistaken
-for his own. When in their turn, and in Rome itself, they had educated
-German pupils, these latter returned to their own country to finish
-the revolution already begun, by spreading still further the taste for
-the Italian manner; so that the school of Dürer, the only one known in
-Germany some years before, was, after the second generation, almost
-entirely absorbed in that of the Italians.
-
-[Illustration: FIG 39.
-
-HANS SEBALD BEHAM.
-
-The Three Soldiers.]
-
-The engravings of Albert Dürer, even those produced in the full force
-of his talents, for a long time obtained but little favour in France
-and England. They now possess zealous admirers, and modern painting
-now and then shows signs of being affected by this enthusiasm; it
-is in the new German school, of which Cornelius and Kaulbach were
-the chiefs, that the Nuremberg master seems to have exerted the most
-important influence, and one which is, even in some respects, to be
-regretted. It would, however, be unjust to Dürer to saddle him with the
-burden of errors of which he was but the involuntary cause. However
-exaggerated may have been the reaction produced by his followers three
-centuries after his death, considered separately and apart from them,
-he remains, nevertheless, an eminent artist and the greatest of all
-his countrymen. Vasari considers that, as a painter and sculptor, "he
-would have equalled the great masters of Italy, if he had been born
-in Tuscany, and if the study of the antique had helped him to impart
-to his figures as much beauty and elegance as they have truth and
-delicacy;" as a mathematician he ranked among the first of his time in
-Germany; as an engraver--and it is as such only that we can look upon
-him here--he enormously advanced the progress of the art. No one before
-him ever handled the burin with the same skill and vigour; no one ever
-cut outlines on the metal with such absolute certainty, or so carefully
-reproduced every detail of modelling.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 40.--ALBERT DÜRER.
-
-Willibald Pirkheimer.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 41.--ALBERT DÜRER.
-
-The Holy Face.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 42.--ALBERT DÜRER.
-
-The Standard Bearer.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 43.--ALBERT DÜRER.
-
-The Ride.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 44.--ALBERT DÜRER.
-
-The Pommel of Maximilian's Sword.]
-
-The qualities which distinguished his talent and manner are found
-to nearly the same extent in all his work. As examples, however,
-peculiarly expressive of his delicate yet powerful talent, we
-may mention the hunting "St. Hubert"--or, more probably, St.
-Eustace--kneeling before a stag with a miraculous crucifix on its head,
-the "St. Jerome in his Cell," the print called the "Knight and Death,"
-and lastly the subject known as "Melancholia," which should rather
-be called "Reflection," but reflection in its gravest, darkest, one
-might almost say its most despairing, attitude. This piece, which even
-Vasari allows to be "incomparable," represents a woman seated, her head
-resting on one hand, whilst she holds in the other a compass with which
-she is trifling mechanically. As though to suggest the limitations and
-nothingness of human knowledge, an hour-glass and various scientific
-instruments are scattered about; whilst in the middle distance a child,
-doubtless an image of youthful illusions, is attentively writing, and
-contrasts in its serenity with the troubled countenance and despairing
-attitude of the principal figure. Had Dürer only engraved this one
-extraordinary plate, had he only produced this one work, as strikingly
-original in execution as in intention, it would be enough to mark
-his position for ever in the history of art, and to commend him to
-everlasting honour. But there are many other works from the same
-hand which might be also mentioned to confirm or to increase our
-admiration. There are many, besides the "Melancholia," where the almost
-savage energy of the style is allied to an extraordinary manipulative
-delicacy in the expression of details. Sometimes, indeed, his energy
-degenerates into violence and his precision into dryness; sometimes--as
-a rule, in fact--the general effect is impaired by a too detailed
-insistence on subordinate forms, while the beauty of these forms is at
-least affected by the minute care with which they have been separately
-studied and expressed. But these imperfections, or, if you like, these
-faults, may be attributed in part to the tendencies and prejudices of
-the period, and in part to that national taste for excessive analysis
-which has been a characteristic of the German mind in every age. That
-Dürer's merits, on the other hand, are entirely his own, may easily be
-seen by comparing his works not only with those of former engravers,
-but with those of foreign contemporary masters. Neither in Italy, nor
-anywhere else, is it possible to find in the sixteenth century an
-engraver of such original inspiration and possessing so much knowledge
-and technical skill. Even Marc Antonio, superior though he may be in
-sentiment and majesty of style, cannot dispossess Dürer of his lawful
-renown, nor take from his art its peculiar virtue and authority.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 45.--MARC ANTONIO.
-
-Lucretia. After Raphael.]
-
-Marc Antonio Raimondi was born at Bologna, where he studied in the
-school of the painter-goldsmith Francesco Francia, and was still only
-an unknown worker in niello, and the author of some rather indifferent
-plates engraved from his own or his master's designs,[23] when a
-journey to Venice and the careful study of Albert Dürer's engravings
-showed him the inmost possibilities of an art of which he had till then
-known little more than the mere mechanical processes. Unfortunately, as
-we have seen, the young engraver was not content with copying these,
-the best models of the day, for his own improvement, but, to secure
-a double profit, pushed his imitation a step further, and copied the
-signature with as much care as the style.
-
-Some years later he went to Rome, where Raphael, on the recommendation
-of Giulio Romano, allowed him to engrave one of his own designs, the
-"Lucretia." Other originals from Raphael's pencil were afterwards
-reproduced by Marc Antonio with so much success that these fac-similes
-of the ideas of the "divine Master" were soon in everybody's hands, and
-the best judges, even Raphael himself, were fully satisfied.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 46.--MARC ANTONIO.
-
-Poetry. After Raphael.]
-
-The nobility of feeling, and the purity of taste and execution, which
-shine in these now classic plates have never been surpassed. These
-are the qualities, and these only, which we must look for and admire
-unreservedly; to seek for more, as to regret its absence, would be
-superfluous. To complain of the absence of colour and of aërial
-perspective would be as unjust as to expect from Rembrandt the style
-and types of the Italian school. Rembrandt's prints are impregnated
-with poetry in their tone and in the harmony of their effects; those
-of Marc Antonio are models of beauty, as regards line and dignity of
-form. The two great masters of Bologna and of Leyden, so opposed to
-each other in the nature of their aspirations and the choice of their
-methods, have yet, each in his own way, proved their case and carried
-their point; and to each must be allotted his own peculiar share of
-glory.
-
-It would be idle to point out with regret, as some have done, what is
-lacking in the masterpieces of Marc Antonio, or to say that greater
-freedom in rendering colour or in managing light and shade would have
-lent them an additional charm.[24] Such qualities should be looked for
-elsewhere than in subjects engraved--not, it must be remembered, from
-pictures--but from pen or chalk drawings. In sixteenth century Italy
-they could scarcely come from the burin of one of Raphael's pupils:
-an epic burin, so to speak, and one contemptuous of qualities then
-considered of secondary importance. Moreover, the hand of him who held
-it was bold rather than skilful, vigorous rather than patient. To model
-a body in shadow, he employed unevenly crossed or almost parallel
-hatchings, drawn at different widths apart, and in subordination to
-the larger feeling of the form and movement he wished to express. Then
-lighter strokes led up to the half-light, and a few dots at unequal
-distances bordered on the light.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 47.--MARC ANTONIO.
-
-Apollo. After Raphael.]
-
-What could be simpler than such a method? Yet what more exact in its
-results, and what more expressive in drawing? The exact crossing of
-lines mattered little to Marc Antonio. What he was taken up with
-and wanted to make visible was neither the manner nor the choice of
-workmanship: that might be simple indeed, and he was satisfied if only
-the beauty of a head or the general aspect of a figure were striking
-at a first glance, if only the appearance of the whole was largely
-rendered and well defined. Sometimes one outline is corrected by a
-second, and these alterations, all the more interesting as we may
-suspect that they were ordered by Raphael himself, prove both the
-engraver's passion for correct drawing and his small regard for mere
-niceties of craftsmanship. The time was yet distant when, in this same
-Italy, the trifling search after common technicalities should take the
-place of such wise views; when men should set to work to reproduce
-the shadows of a face or a piece of drapery by lozenges containing
-a semicircle, a little cross, or even something resembling a young
-serpent; when engravers like Morghen and his followers should see, in
-the reproduction of masterpieces of the brush, only an opportunity for
-assembling groups of more or less complicated lines and parading their
-dexterity, and should gain by these tricks the applause of all men and
-the name of artists.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 48.--MARC ANTONIO.
-
-Portrait of Raphael.]
-
-The school founded by Marc Antonio soon became the most numerous and
-active of all. We have seen that the Germans themselves crowded to
-Rome, and surrounded the master who had caused them to forget Albert
-Dürer. Engravers came to learn or to perfect their knowledge in the
-same school from every part of Italy. There were Marco da Ravenna,
-Agostino Veniziano, Giovanni Caraglio da Verona, Il Vecchio da Parma,
-and Bonasone da Bologna. Some years later came the family of the
-Mantovani, a member of which, Diana Scultori, more often called Diana
-Ghisi, presented perhaps the first example, so common afterwards, of a
-female engraver. Many others, whose names and works have remained more
-or less celebrated, descend from Marc Antonio, whether they received
-his teaching directly or through his pupils.
-
-He, whilst so much talent was being developed under his influence,
-continued the kind of work in which he had excelled from the beginning
-of his stay in Rome, confining himself to the engraving of Raphael's
-compositions: that is, as we have already said, of his drawings. It is
-this which explains the difference, at first sight incomprehensible,
-between certain prints by Marc Antonio and the same subjects as
-painted by Raphael. The painter often submitted to the engraver pen
-or pencil sketches of subjects which he afterwards altered with his
-brush when transferring them to walls or panels: the "St. Cecilia,"
-the "Parnassus," the "Poetry," for instance, which are so unlike
-in the copy and in what wrongly appears to have been the original.
-Raphael often drew specially for engraving: as in the "Massacre of the
-Innocents," the "Judgment of Paris" the "Plague of Phrygia," &c.; but
-in either case Marc Antonio had but to find the means of faithfully
-rendering given forms with the graver, without troubling himself about
-those difficulties which the luminous or delicate qualities of colour
-would certainly have introduced.
-
-Raphael's death, however, deprived the engraver of an influence which,
-to the great advantage of his talent, he had obeyed submissively for
-ten years. Marc Antonio would not continue to work from the drawings of
-the master who could no longer superintend him; but he still continued
-to honour him in the person of his favourite pupil, Giulio Romano,
-to whom he attached himself, and whose works he reproduced almost
-exclusively.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 49.--MARC ANTONIO.
-
-The Three Doctors.]
-
-The connection of the two artists resulted in the publication of some
-fine engravings, amongst others the "Hercules and Antæus," but it
-unfortunately terminated in a disgraceful business. Giulio Romano,
-following the dissolute manners of the day, rather than the example
-and traditions of the noble leader of the school, stooped to design
-a series of boldly licentious subjects. Marc Antonio consented to
-engrave them, and Pietro Aretino helped still further to degrade the
-undertaking by composing an explanatory sonnet to be printed opposite
-to each plate. The result was a book whose title is still infamous.
-In publishing it the two artists took care not to sign their names.
-They were, however, discovered by the boldness of the style and the
-firmness of the line; for, surprising as it may seem, neither took
-the trouble to alter his usual manner: they merely profaned it. Here,
-assuredly, their wonted dignity of form and energy of workmanship
-appear somewhat incongruous qualities.[25] The culprits were soon
-discovered; and Clement VII. issued a warrant to pursue them, ordering,
-at the same time, that every copy of the work should be destroyed.
-Aretino fled to Venice, Giulio Romano to Mantua, and the only sufferer
-was the engraver. He was imprisoned for several months, and only set
-at liberty, thanks to frequent requests made by Giulio de' Medici and
-the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, from whose original, to prove his
-gratitude, he executed the beautiful "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," one
-of the masterpieces of Italian engraving.
-
-The rest of Marc Antonio's life is only imperfectly known. It is said
-that he was wounded and left for dead in the streets when Rome was
-sacked by the Spanish under the Constable de Bourbon; that he was then
-taken prisoner, and only recovered his liberty at the cost of a ransom
-large enough to ruin him; and that he then took refuge at Bologna,
-where it would appear he soon afterwards died: not, as has been
-alleged, murdered by the lawful possessor of one of his plates, which
-he had himself forged, but, so says Vasari, "nearly reduced to beggary"
-("poco meno che mendico"), and at any rate completely forgotten.
-
-Marc Antonio's death did not bring with it the ruin of line engraving
-in Italy. The numerous pupils he had educated, and in turn the pupils
-of these, handed down to the beginning of the seventeenth century
-the master's manner, and propagated his doctrines in neighbouring
-countries. We have spoken of the revolution which their works produced
-in German art; we shall presently see French art submitting in its turn
-to Italian influences. Meanwhile, and even during Marc Antonio's life,
-a particular sort of engraving was making rapid progress in Italy.
-It consisted in the employment of a process, popularised by Ugo da
-Carpi, for obtaining from several wooden blocks proofs of engravings in
-camaïeu: that is, as we explained at the beginning of this book, proofs
-in two, three, or four tones, offering almost the same appearance as
-drawings washed in with water-colour: a process which Ugo did not
-really invent, but only improved from the first attempts made at
-Augsburg in 1510 by Jobst Necker, which were destined to be still
-further improved by Nicolò Vicentino, Andrea Andreani, Antonio da
-Trento, and many others.
-
-A great number of pieces, executed in the same manner from Raphael and
-Parmigiano, prove the skill of Ugo da Carpi, who unfortunately took
-it into his head to introduce into painting even more radical changes
-than those he had first promoted in engraving. He conceived the strange
-idea of painting a whole picture with his finger, without once having
-recourse to a brush, and, the proceeding appearing to him praiseworthy,
-he perpetuated the recollection of it in a few proud words at the
-bottom of the canvas. Michelangelo, to whom the picture was shown as a
-remarkable curiosity, merely said that "the only remarkable thing about
-it was the folly of the author." What would he have thought of Luca
-Cambiaso, the Genoese, whose talent consisted in painting with both
-hands at once?
-
-The practice of engraving in camaïeu was not continued in Italy and
-Germany beyond the last years of the sixteenth century. Even before
-then wood engraving, properly so called, had reached a stage of
-considerable importance in both countries; and it had distinguished
-itself by decided enough progress to cause engraving in camaïeu to lose
-much of the favour with which at first it was welcomed.
-
-We said at the beginning of this chapter that a real regeneration in
-wood engraving took place in Germany under the influence of Albert
-Dürer. We have plates from the drawings of the master, engraved, if
-not entirely by himself, at any rate to a certain extent with his
-practical co-operation; we have others--for instance, the "Life of
-the Virgin" and the "Passion," to which we have referred in speaking
-of Marc Antonio's copies of them with the burin. But, in addition to
-these, we have a number of wood engravings, earlier than the second
-half of the sixteenth century, which prove the progress made in
-the art at this time in Germany, and the ability with which it was
-practised by the successors of Wolgemut. Wood engraving was no longer,
-as in the time of Wolgemut, a mere mode of linear imitation, and only
-fit to represent form by outlines; it was now capable of suggesting
-modelling and effect, not of course with that finished delicacy and
-freedom which can only be produced in true line engraving, but with an
-energetic exactness quite, in accordance with the special conditions
-and resources of the process. The "Triumphal Arch of the Emperor
-Maximilian," by Hans Burgkmair and to some extent by Albert Dürer;
-the "Theuerdannck," an allegorical history of the same prince by
-Hans Schaüfflein; the "Passion of Jesus Christ;" and the "Illustrium
-Ducum Saxoniæ Effigies," by Lucas Cranach, as well as many other
-collections published at Nuremberg, Augsburg, Weimar, or Wittenberg,
-deserve mention as remarkable examples of the peculiar skill of the
-German artists of the time. Indeed, when, a little later, the "Dance
-of Death," by Lützelburger, from Holbein, made its appearance, this
-masterpiece in wood engraving closed the period of progress which had
-gone on in Germany from the beginning of the sixteenth century, and
-marked in its general history the time when the art itself had told its
-last secret, and attained perfection.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 50.--LÜTZELBURGER.
-
-The Miser. After Holbein.]
-
-Whilst this regeneration in wood engraving was being accomplished in
-Germany, the art continued to be practised in Italy, and especially in
-Venice, with a feeling for composition, and that delicate reticence
-of handling, of which the cuts in the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,"
-published before the end of the fifteenth century (1499), and in
-other books printed some years later, are such striking examples. The
-Italian wood engravers of the sixteenth century, however, did not
-limit themselves so entirely to the national traditions as to stifle
-altogether any attempt at innovation. They had already tried to
-enliven even the execution of the illustrations intended to accompany
-letterpress by more decided suggestions of light and shade and general
-effect. This is the reason of the successful first appearance, and
-the present value, of so many beautiful volumes from the printing
-presses of Marcolini da Forli, Giolito da Ferrari and other printers
-established at Venice.
-
-[Illustration: PROVER. XXI.
-
-FIG. 51.--LÜTZELBURGER.
-
-The Rich Sinner. After Holbein.]
-
-Little by little, however, the domain of wood engraving widened, or
-rather the object which wood engravers set themselves to attain was
-changed. Instead of confining themselves, as in the past, to the part
-of commentators of authors and illustrators of books, they set to work,
-like the line engravers, to publish, in larger dimensions than the size
-of a book, prints reproducing separate drawings and sometimes even
-pictures. The works of Titian specially served as models to skilful
-wood engravers, some of whom, Domenico delle Greche and Nicolò Boldrini
-amongst others, are said to have worked in the studio, even under the
-master's own eye. According to the careful testimony of Ridolphi,
-confirmed by Mariette, Titian gave more than mere advice. He seems,
-more than once, to have sketched with his own hand on the wood the
-designs to be reproduced by the wood engravers; and amongst the prints
-thus begun by him, several "Virgins" in landscapes and a "Triumph of
-Christ" may be mentioned: the last "a work," says Mariette, "drawn with
-fine taste, in which the hatchings forming the outlines and shadows ...
-produce a softness and mellowness understood by Titian alone."
-
-However brief the preceding observations on the progress of engraving
-in the sixteenth century in Germany and Italy may appear, they will
-perhaps be sufficient to indicate the reciprocal influence then
-exercised by the engravers of both countries. Without ceasing to be
-Italian in their real preferences, their tastes, and their innate love
-of majesty of style, Marc Antonio and his disciples understood how to
-improve their practical execution by Albert Dürer's example, exactly
-as Dürer's pupils and their followers, while continuing to be German
-as it were in spite of themselves, tried to become Italianised as best
-they might.
-
-But it is time to speak of the school of the Low Countries, which
-appeared to stand aloof, as much from the progress in Germany initiated
-by Martin Schongauer and Albert Dürer, as from the more recent advance
-in Italy. Apparently unaffected by external influences, it was content
-to rely on its own powers, and to make use of its own resources, whilst
-awaiting the time, now close at hand, when it should in its turn supply
-example and teaching to those who had till then believed themselves to
-be the teachers.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-LINE ENGRAVING AND ETCHING IN THE LOW COUNTRIES, TO THE SECOND HALF OF
-THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
-
-
-The history of engraving in the Low Countries really dates but from the
-early years of the sixteenth century: that is, from the appearance of
-the prints of Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533). Before that time certain
-line engravers, such as the so-called _Maître aux Banderoles_, the
-"Master of the Streamers," and those other anonymous artists of the
-fifteenth century who composed the group called "the Dutch primitives,"
-had attempted to widen the domain of the art, till then confined to
-the wood-cutters who were the contemporaries or successors of the
-xylographists of the "Speculum Salvationis" and the "Biblia Pauperum."
-But, whilst the German and Italian engravers were distinguishing
-themselves by the brilliancy of their achievement, their contemporaries
-in the Low Countries were producing works little fitted to compete with
-those of the foreign masters. They only succeeded in showing themselves
-more or less able artisans. Lucas van Leyden was the first to use
-the burin artistically, or at least to handle it with a boldness and
-knowledge never foreshadowed in the timid essays of his predecessors.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 52.--ANONYMOUS ARTIST OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
-
-Hercules and Omphale.]
-
-While still a child Lucas van Leyden had already attracted the
-attention of his countrymen by his talent as a painter, and his sketch
-in distemper, the "Story of St. Hubert"--done, it is alleged, at the
-age of twelve--placed him at once amongst artists of repute. Some
-years later the publication of his prints brought him to the first
-rank. He maintained his place till the end of his life; and if, after
-his death, the Dutch and Flemish engravers still further perfected the
-art he had practised, they did but follow in his footsteps and draw
-more abundantly from the source he had discovered.
-
-The principal feature of the works of Lucas van Leyden, and in general
-of all those belonging to his school, is a keen feeling for the
-phenomena of light. Albert Dürer, and even Marc Antonio, despised or
-misunderstood this essential quality of art. In their works there is
-hardly any gradation of tone to suggest atmospheric distance, and we
-might mention engravings of theirs where objects consigned to the
-background are almost as distinct as those in the foreground. It was
-Lucas van Leyden who conceived the idea of perceptibly diminishing the
-values according to their distance, of giving to the shadows more or
-less of transparency or depth, as the case might be, and of endowing
-the lights and half-lights with relatively greater force or delicacy.
-Reasoning so valid--based as it was on the real appearances of
-nature--was the principal cause of the young Dutch master's success. In
-his numerous engravings, however, qualities of another order are added
-to the merit of this innovation. The variety of facial expression,
-the truth of attitude and gesture, are no less remarkable than the
-harmony of effect, and the attempts at what we may venture to call
-_naturalistic_ colour.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 53.--LUCAS VAN LEYDEN.
-
-Adam and Eve driven from Paradise.]
-
-Considered only from the point of view of execution, the pieces
-engraved by Lucas van Leyden are far from possessing the same largeness
-of design and modelling, and the same simplicity of handling, which
-the works of Marc Antonio exhibit, and, in a word, have none of that
-masterly ease in the rendering of form which characterises the Italian
-engraver. Nor do they exhibit the determination to pursue the truth
-even in minute details, and to sternly insist on the portrayal of
-such truth when recognised, which distinguishes the work of Albert
-Dürer. They are to be specially praised for delicacy of handling,
-and for the skilful application of the processes of engraving to the
-picturesque representation of reality. Thus, instead of surrounding
-with an invariably firm outline objects or bodies at a distance from
-one another, instead of treating alike the contour of a figure in the
-foreground, and that of a tree, or group of trees, in the background,
-Lucas van Leyden altered his work to suit the degree of relative
-clearness or uncertainty presented in nature by the forms of objects at
-different distances from the eye. An unbroken line is his method for
-giving the required boldness to such contours as, from the place they
-occupy, must be strongly defined and dominate the rest. When, on the
-contrary, he wishes to reproduce the half-veiled lines of a distant
-landscape, and to imitate that tremulous and floating aspect assumed by
-an object in proportion to its remoteness and the amount of intervening
-atmosphere, he changes his touch; and, instead of bounding by a single
-continuous line the object reproduced, employs a series of small broken
-lines, superimposed in a horizontal or oblique direction; and thus,
-instead of a dry definition of outline, he renders with deliberate
-hesitation that floating quality which is to be observed in nature.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 54.--LUCAS VAN LEYDEN.
-
-The Visitation.]
-
-Lucas van Leyden was the first amongst engravers who took into account
-with any measure of success the assumed distances of his models, in
-order to organise in their representation a varying value of tones and
-a general gradation of force. This important change he introduced from
-the beginning: that is to say, from 1508, the year of his first dated
-print, "The Monk Sergius Killed by Mahomet" (which, by the way, might
-be more appropriately entitled "Mahomet before the Body of a Hermit
-Murdered by One of his Servants").[26] Here, as in the master's other
-prints, the backgrounds are treated with so light a touch that their
-distance can be felt; the handling becomes less energetic, the burin
-ploughs the copper less heavily, as the objects recede from the front
-of the composition. Moreover, every subordinate form is observed and
-rendered with singular delicacy; every face and every detail of drapery
-bear testimony, by the way they are engraved, to the clear insight of
-the artist and his extraordinary skill of hand. His work is strictly
-realistic, his style precise and clear rather than loftily inspired;
-and we look almost in vain to him for taste, properly so called, the
-feeling for the beautiful, in fact, the understanding of the ideal
-conditions of art.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 55.--LUCAS VAN LEYDEN.
-
-Pyramus and Thisbe.]
-
-This it is which constitutes the principal difference, and clearly
-marks the distance, between the talent of Lucas van Leyden and that of
-Mantegna, of Marc Antonio, or of any other Italian engraver of the
-fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. Besides, neither the defects nor the
-merits of the master are entirely the result of his inclinations or
-his personal habits. The very spirit of Dutch art and the instinctive
-preferences of the future school of the seventeenth century are to
-be found in embryo in his works, which tend less to initiate us into
-the mysteries of the invisible, than to place before us the faithful
-image of what really exists. "It was the fate of Holland," as Eugène
-Fromentin has well said,[27] "to like _ce qui ressemble_, to return
-to it one day or other, to outlive all besides, and to survive and
-be saved itself by portraiture." Taking the word in its widest
-acceptation, Lucas van Leyden is already engraving "portraits." It is
-by the careful imitation of living nature or still-life that he means
-to interest us: even when his models are in themselves of little worth,
-or, as is sometimes the case, are the reverse of beautiful.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 56.--LUCAS VAN LEYDEN.
-
-Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian I.]
-
-In representing, for example, "David Calming the Fury of Saul,"
-with what simple good faith he makes use of the first type he comes
-across--a stout clodhopper whom he has picked up in the street or
-at the tavern! No more is wanted save a harp under his arm and a
-slashed doublet on his body; just as in picturing the most tragical
-scenes of the "Passion"--the "Ecce Homo," or the "Crucifixion"--he
-thinks it enough to surround his Christ with the Jew peddlers or the
-home-keeping citizens of his native town, without altering in any way
-their appearance or their dress. What could be more contrary to the
-traditions of Italian art and the principles which have governed it,
-from Giotto down to Raphael? What less unusual in the history of Dutch
-art? Later on Rembrandt himself was to work in the same way; but with
-what mighty powers of invention! What a startling expression of the
-inner meaning, the philosophy of a subject, is united in his fashion of
-treatment with the realistic ideals of the national genius! In truth,
-it is not merely the peculiar characteristic of an individual--the
-indifference to, or aversion from, conventional beauty of form which
-is apparent in this great master, so far-reaching in moral vision, so
-pre-eminently sagacious and profound among painters of the soul; it
-sums up and reveals the innate disposition and æsthetic temperament of
-a whole race.
-
-In his brief career Lucas van Leyden had the happiness to see his
-efforts rewarded and his credit universally established, and of this
-authority and influence he ever made the noblest use. Looked upon as
-a leader by the painters of his country; in friendly relations with
-the German engravers, who, like Albert Dürer, sent him their works, or
-came themselves to ask advice; possessing greater wealth than usually
-fell to the share of the artists of his time; he never employed his
-riches or his influence except in the interest of art, or of the men
-who practised it. He refused no solicitant of merit, however slight.
-The worthy master was careful to disguise his aid under pretext of
-some advantage to himself: he was always requiring drawings of some
-building or some artistic object, and thus he spared the self-respect
-of the person whom he wished to help, and whom he entrusted with
-the commission. More than once he went journeying through the Low
-Countries to visit engravers and painters far inferior to himself, whom
-he yet modestly called his rivals. He complimented them with words of
-praise and encouragement; gave entertainments in their honour; and did
-not leave them without exchanging his works for theirs, which were thus
-paid for a hundred times over.
-
-It was in one of these journeys, that to Flushing, that Lucas van
-Leyden was attacked with the disease which was destined to carry him to
-the grave. Some people have attributed to poison the suddenness of the
-attack; but of this there is no proof. Once back in his native town, he
-lingered on some time, worn out and sinking, yet refusing to condemn
-himself to idleness. Too feeble to rise, he yet continued to draw and
-engrave in bed, remaining faithful till the end to the noble passion
-of his life, to the art he had dignified, and to that nature which he
-had questioned more closely, and, in certain respects, perhaps better
-understood than any of his predecessors. It is said that a few hours
-before his death he desired to be taken up to a terrace of his house,
-that he might once more admire the setting sun; and there, absorbed
-in silent contemplation, surrounded by friends and pupils, he for the
-last time gazed on the place of his birth, and on that heaven from
-which the light was fading, even as life was ebbing from his bosom. It
-was a proper conclusion to so pure a life--to one, indeed, of the most
-irreproachable careers in the history of art. Lucas van Leyden died at
-thirty-eight, an age fatal to more than one great artist, and which
-was scarcely attained by three men with whom he seems linked by a
-similarity of genius, at least as regards early fertility and sincerity
-of inspiration: Raphael, Lesueur, and Mozart.
-
-The impetus given by Lucas van Leyden to the art of engraving was
-seconded, even during his life, by several Dutch artists who imitated
-his method more or less successfully. Amongst others, Alart Claessen,
-an anonymous engraver called the "Maître à l'Écrevisse," and Dirck
-Star, or Van Staren, generally called the "Maître à l'Étoile." The
-movement did not slacken after the death of the leader of the school.
-The engravers of the Low Countries, accentuating more and more the
-qualities aimed at from the beginning, soon surpassed their German
-rivals, and seemed alone to be gifted with the knack of dealing with
-light. Cornelius Cort, who engraved several of Titian's works in Venice
-in the great painter's studio, and the pupils he educated on his return
-to Holland, began to exhibit a boldness of touch not to be so clearly
-discovered in their predecessors; but this progress, real in some
-respects, was not accomplished without injury to truthful study and the
-exact interpretation of form, and certainly not without a deplorable
-exaggeration in the use of means.
-
-The workmanship of Hendrik Goltzius, for instance, and still more
-that of his pupil, Jan Müller, is strained and feeble owing to their
-affectation of ease. The constant use of bent and parallel lines
-unreasonably prolonged imparts to the plates of these two engravers
-an appearance at once dull and florid; they present something of the
-same aspect as those caligraphical specimens of the present day, in
-which the faces of Henri IV. or of Napoleon are drawn entirely with the
-curves of a single stroke. Still, in spite of this extremely affected
-workmanship, the prints of Goltzius, of Müller, and even of Saenredam,
-are characterised by a comparative intensity of tone, as well as by
-singular skill in cutting the copper. This abuse of method, however,
-had not yet become general in the schools of the Low Countries. Side
-by side with the intemperate or daring craftsmen we have mentioned,
-there were certain Flemish and Dutch engravers who imparted to their
-work a delicacy and a reticence of expression better suited to the
-traditions and the models bequeathed by Lucas van Leyden. These were
-Nicolas van Bruyn at Antwerp, the brothers Wierix at Amsterdam, and
-some few others, all of them disciples more or less faithful to the
-old teaching, and apparently more or less hostile to the effort at
-emancipation going on around them. When, however, Rubens took the
-reins, individual resistance and impulse ceased, and all controversy
-was at an end. Principles, method, and aim became the same for every
-one. Both Dutch and Flemish engravers openly set themselves to
-represent with the graver the infinite gradations of a painted canvas,
-the delicacy and the daring, the nicest punctilio and the most summary
-smearing, of the painter's brush.
-
-Never was the influence of a painter on engraving so direct or so
-potent as that of Rubens. The great master had shown by his drawings
-that it was possible to be as rich a colourist with black and white
-alone as with all the resources of the palette. He made choice amongst
-his pupils of those whom he believed to be capable of following his
-example in this matter; he obliged them to lay aside the brush, almost
-ordered them to become engravers, and so penetrated them with the
-secret of his method, that he seems to have animated them with his own
-inspiration. He assembled them in the vast house which he had built at
-Antwerp, and which he turned into a college of artists of all sorts.
-He made them sometimes labour beneath his eye; he carefully corrected
-their work;[28] and in this way he taught them that comprehension of
-effect which was specially his, and his own incomparable knowledge of
-the right tones with which to lay in, or to support, a mass of light or
-shadow.
-
-To recall the success of these efforts is to recall the names of
-Vorsterman, Bolswert, Paul Pontius, and Soutman: men boldly scientific
-in their art, who, at the first rush, carried to perfection that style
-of engraving which renders before all the relative richness and varied
-value of tones in a picture, and whose effects are identical in some
-sort with those of the painting itself. It is obvious that, in spite
-of its prodigious merits, this painting is not of so elevated a nature
-as that of Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael; but is it therefore less true
-that it is completely summed up, and its living image reflected,
-in contemporary engraving? Actuated by an idea of colour and effect
-analogous to that of Marc Antonio with regard to drawing, the Flemish
-engravers resolutely subordinated accessories to the importance and
-splendour of essentials; and in this way they succeeded in dissembling,
-by means of the breadth of the whole, the execution of details and even
-the laboriousness of the process. It would seem from the sparkling look
-and brilliant handiwork of these plates, that the engravers had thrown
-them off in a few hours of inspiration, so completely does their dash
-banish all idea of the time spent upon them, all sense of patience
-and toil. And yet these lights and shades, the sweep of the flesh,
-the sheen and shimmer of the fabrics, are all the result of lines
-laboriously ploughed; perhaps a thousand strokes have been needed to
-imitate an effect due to a single glaze, or given by two touches of the
-brush.
-
-The engravings of the Flemish school in Rubens' time are still
-widely distributed. There are few people who have not had the
-opportunity of admiring the "Thomiris," the "St. Roch Praying for the
-Plague-Stricken," or the "Portrait of Rubens," by Pontius; the "Descent
-from the Cross," by Vorsterman; the "Fall of the Damned," by Soutman;
-and a hundred other pieces as beautiful, all engraved from the master
-by his pupils. And who does not know that marvellous masterpiece, the
-"Crown of Thorns," engraved by Bolswert from Van Dyck? and those other
-masterpieces of Van Dyck himself--the etched portraits of artists or
-amateurs, the painter's friends, from the two Breughels to Cornelis,
-from Franz Snyders to Philip Le Roy?
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 57.--VAN DYCK.
-
-Etched by Himself.]
-
-The progress, however, by which the Flemish school of engraving had
-distinguished itself, soon had an equivalent in the movement of reform
-in Holland. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, and on from
-the beginning of the seventeenth, the Dutch engravers, by dint of
-insisting too strongly on the innovations of Lucas van Leyden, had
-almost succeeded in causing scientific ease of handling to degenerate
-into mere trickery, and spirit of design into inflation and turbulence.
-Amongst the first, and with greater authority than any, Cornelius
-Visscher set himself to stay the art of line engraving on its downward
-course.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 58.--CORNELIUS VISSCHER.
-
-The Seller of Ratsbane.]
-
-Most of the scenes represented by Visscher are assuredly not of a
-nature greatly to interest the imagination, still less to touch the
-heart. It would be somewhat difficult to be moved to any philosophical
-or poetic thought by the contemplation of such work as the
-"Frying-Pan," or the "Seller of Ratsbane;" but these, though the ideas
-by which they are suggested are trivial or commonplace, are treated
-with a deep feeling for truth, with admirable craftsmanship, and with
-an amount of sincerity and boldness which makes up for the absence of
-beauty, whether in thought or type. Considered only from the point of
-view of execution, the plates of Visscher are masterpieces; are such
-marvels, indeed, that they cannot be too carefully studied by all
-engravers, whatever the style of their work.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 59.--CORNELIUS VISSCHER.
-
-Giles Boutma.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 60.--PAUL POTTER.
-
-The Cow.]
-
-The same may be said in another order of art for those fine
-portraits--of "Boccaccio," of "Pietro Aretino," and of
-"Giorgione"--engraved by Cornelius Van Dalen, the best of Visscher's
-pupils. It is also on the same ground, that, in spite of most notable
-differences in handling, the plates engraved by Jonas Suyderhoef, after
-Terburg and Theodore de Keyse, command the attention of artists and
-amateurs. Finally, side by side with these works, in the execution
-of which etching was only resorted to as a preparatory process, or
-sometimes was not even used at all, a number of subjects entirely
-engraved with the needle--etchings, to speak strictly--make up a
-whole which is the more creditable to the Dutch school, inasmuch as
-it would be impossible at any time to find the like in the schools of
-other countries. French engraving had doubtless reason to be proud of
-the masterpieces of Claude Lorraine, or the clever and witty etchings
-of Callot and Israel Silvestre. In Italy after Parmigiano, Agostino
-Carracci, and certain other contemporary Bolognese, in Spain, Ribera,
-and afterwards Goya, acquired a legitimate renown as etchers. But
-whatever may be the merit of their individual work, these artists are
-unconnected in either of their native countries with any group wholly
-devoted to work of the same kind: with any artistic family of common
-origin, inclination, and belief.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 61.--J. RUYSDAEL.
-
-The Little Cornfield.]
-
-Now the skilful Dutch etchers do not come singly, nor at long
-intervals. They work in a body. It is within a few years, in fact
-almost simultaneously, that Adrian Brauwer and Adrian van Ostade
-publish their tavern scenes; Ruysdael and Jan Both their landscapes;
-Paul Potter and Berghem, Adrian van de Velde, Marc de Bye, Karel du
-Jardin, such a multitude of charming little subjects, their village
-scenes and village people, their flocks in the fields, or their single
-animals. Whilst emulating each other's talent, all are agreed to pursue
-one and the same object, all are agreed as to the necessity of devotion
-to the study of surrounding nature and everyday truth.
-
-Although the Dutch etchers display in the totality of their achievement
-the same ideal and the same tendency, each keeps, if only in the matter
-of workmanship, a certain distinction and character of his own. One,
-however, stands out from the group with matchless splendour, with all
-the superiority of genius over talent: that one is Rembrandt.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 62.--REMBRANDT.
-
-Portrait of Himself: _Rembrandt Appuye_.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 63.--REMBRANDT.
-
-Faust.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 64.--REMBRANDT.
-
-Joseph's Coat brought to Jacob.]
-
-Pains and patience have been wasted on the secret of Rembrandt's method
-of etching and printing; in trying to discover his tools and his manner
-of using them, so as to achieve with him those contrasts of soft shadow
-and radiant light. Vain quest of technical tricks where, really, there
-is no more than a style born of imagination, and, like it, inspired
-from above! It may be said that with Rembrandt, as with great musical
-composers, the harmonic system is so closely allied to the melodic
-idea, that analysis, if not impossible, is at least superfluous. It
-sometimes happens--before a Correggio, for instance--that the charm
-of the painting affects one in a manner abstract enough to produce
-a sort of musical sensation. Though it does not appear that the art
-of engraving could be endowed with a similar expansive force, yet
-Rembrandt's etchings may almost be said to possess it. They give the
-feeling of undefined aspirations rather than the limited likeness
-of things; the spectator is touched by the mysterious meaning of
-these passionate visions, rather than by the form in which they
-are conveyed. The impression received is so keen that it stifles
-any trivial wish to criticise, and certain details which would be
-painful elsewhere are here not even displeasing, inasmuch as no one
-would dream of requiring a mathematical explanation of the special
-conditions of the subject, or of the skill of workmanship which the
-artist has displayed Before the "Sacrifice of Abraham," the "Tobit,"
-the "Lazarus," and all the other soul-speaking masterpieces, who would
-pause to consider the strangeness or the vulgarity of the personages
-and their apparel? Only the critic, who, unwitting of the rest,
-would begin by examining with a magnifying glass the _workmanship_
-of the ray of light which illumines the "Hundred Guilder Piece," the
-"Annunciation," or the "Pilgrimage to Emmaus."
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 65.--REMBRANDT.
-
-Tobit's Blindness.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 66.--REMBRANDT.
-
-Jan Lutma.]
-
-Rembrandt's method is, so to speak, supersensuous. At times he lightly
-touches his plate, and at times he attacks as at a venture; at others
-he skims the surface and caresses it with an exquisite refinement, a
-magical dexterity. In his lights he breaks the line of the contour, but
-only to resume and boldly accentuate it in his shadows; or he reverses
-the method, and in the one, as in the other case, succeeds infallibly
-in fixing, satisfying, and convincing the attention. He uses engraver's
-tools and methods as Bossuet uses words, subduing them to the needs
-of his thought, and constraining them to express it, careless of fine
-finish as of trivial subtlety. Like Bossuet, too, he composes out of
-the most incongruous elements, out of the trivial and the lofty, the
-commonplace and the heroic, a style invariably eloquent; and from the
-mingling of these heterogeneous elements there springs an admirable
-harmony of result.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 67.--REMBRANDT.
-
-The Beggars.]
-
-The Flemish engravers formed by Rubens, and their Dutch contemporaries,
-had no worthy successors. The revolution they accomplished in the
-art was brief, and did not extend beyond the Low Countries. In
-Italy, Dutch and Flemish engravings were naturally despised. It is
-said--and it is easy to believe--that those accustomed to commune
-with Raphael and Marc Antonio esteemed them fitting decorations "for
-the walls of pothouses." In France and Germany, where Italian ideas
-in art had reigned since the sixteenth century, they experienced at
-first no better reception. When at length the consideration they
-really deserved was accorded them, the superiority of France was
-established, and her engravers could no longer be expected to descend
-to imitation. The movement in the schools of the Low Countries, before
-the second half of the seventeenth century, is thus, to speak truth,
-a mere episode in the history of the art, and its masterpieces had
-no lasting influence on engraving in general. For it to have been
-otherwise, the engravers of other countries must have renounced, not
-only the national traditions, but even the models they had at hand. The
-method of Bolswert or of Pontius could only be usefully employed to
-reproduce the works of Rubens and Van Dyck. The handling of Visscher
-and of Suyderhoef was only suitable to such pictures as were painted in
-Amsterdam and Leyden.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 68.--REMBRANDT.
-
-The Pancake-maker.]
-
-And meanwhile, when the schools of the Low Countries were shining with
-a lustre so brilliant and so transitory, what was doing in France? and
-how in France was the great age of engraving inaugurated?
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-    THE BEGINNING OF LINE ENGRAVING AND ETCHING IN FRANCE AND
-    ENGLAND. FIRST ATTEMPTS AT MEZZOTINT. A GLANCE AT ENGRAVING IN
-    EUROPE BEFORE 1660.
-
-
-The French were unable to distinguish themselves early in the art of
-engraving, as the conditions under which they laboured were different
-from those which obtained in Italy, Germany, and the Low Countries:
-the homes, all three of them, of schools of painting. From the
-thirteenth century onwards, the architects and sculptors of France had
-produced an unbroken succession of good things; but the origin of her
-school of painting is not nearly so remote, nor has it such sustained
-importance. Save for the unknown glass-painters of her cathedrals, for
-the miniaturists who preceded and succeeded Jean Fouquet, and for the
-artists in chalks whose work is touched with so peculiar a charm and so
-delicate an originality, she can boast of no great painter before Jean
-Cousin. And the art of engraving could scarcely have flourished when,
-as yet, the art of painting had scarcely existed.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 69.--NOEL GARNIER.
-
-Grotesques.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 70.--JEAN DUVET.
-
-The Power of Royalty.]
-
-Wood-cutting, it is true, was practised in France with a certain
-success, as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century, and even
-a little before that. The "Danses macabres"--those aids to morality
-so popular in mediæval times--the illustrated "Books of Hours," and
-other compilations besides, printed with figures and tail-pieces, in
-Lyons or Paris, give earnest of the unborn masterpieces of Geofroy
-Tory, of Jean Cousin himself, and of sundry other draughtsmen and
-wood-cutters of the reigns of François I. and Henri II. But, as
-practised by goldsmiths, such as Jean Duvet and Étienne Delaune, and
-by painters of the Fontainebleau school like René Boyvin and Geofroy
-Dumonstier, line engraving and etching were still no more than a means
-of popularising extravagant imitations of Italian work. The prints of
-Nicolas Beatrizet, who had been the pupil of Agostino Musi at Rome, and
-those of another engraver of Lorraine, whose name has been Italianised
-into Niccolò della Casa, appear to have been produced with the one
-object of deifying the spirit of sham, and converting French engravers
-to that religion to which French painters had apostatised with so much
-ill-fortune under the influence of the Italians brought in by Francis I.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 71.--ÉTIENNE DELAUNE.
-
-Adam and Eve driven from Paradise.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 72.--ÉTIENNE DELAUNE.
-
-Mirror.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 73.--ANDROUET DU CERCEAU.
-
-Ornamented Vase.]
-
-During the whole of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth
-centuries the French school of engraving had neither method nor bent of
-its own; but meanwhile it was a whim of fashion that every one should
-handle the burin or the point. From the days of Henri II. to those of
-Louis XIII., craftsman or layman, everybody practised engraving. There
-were goldsmiths like Pierre Woeiriot, painters like Claude Corneille
-and Jean de Gourmont, architects like Androuet du Cerceau; there
-were noblemen; there were even ladies--as, for instance, Georgette
-de Montenay, who dedicated to Jeanne d'Albret a collection of mottoes
-and emblems, partly, it was said, of her own engraving. All the world
-and his wife, in fact, were gouging wood and scraping copper. It
-must be repeated that the prints of this time are for the most part
-borrowed--are copies feeble or stilted, or both, of foreign originals.
-Not until after some years of thraldom could the French engravers shake
-off the yoke of Italian art, create a special style, and constitute
-themselves a school. The revolution was prepared by Thomas de Leu and
-Léonard Gaultier, engravers of portraits and of historical subjects;
-but the hero of the French school is Jacques Callot.
-
-There are certain names in the history of the arts which retain an
-eternal odour of popularity; we remember them as those of men of
-talent, who were also in some sort heroes of romance, and our interest
-remains perennial. Jacques Callot is one of these. He is probably the
-only French engraver[29] whose name is yet familiar to the general
-public. That this is so is hardly the effect of his work, however
-excellent: it is rather the result of his adventures; of his flight
-from home in childhood; his wanderings with the gipsies; and the luck
-he had--his good looks aiding--with the ladies of Rome, and even (it is
-whispered) with the wife of Thomassin his master.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 74.--THOMAS DE LEU.
-
-Henri IV.]
-
-We have said it is Callot's merit to have lifted the French school of
-engraving out of the rut in which it dragged, and to have opened for
-it a new path. He did not, however, accomplish the work with an entire
-independence, nor without some leanings towards that Italy in which
-he had been trained. After working in Florence under Canta-Gallina,
-whose freedom of style and fantastic taste could not but prove
-irresistible to the future artist of Franca Trippa and Fritellino, he
-had been obliged to return to Nancy. Thence he escaped a second time,
-and thither was a second time brought back by his eldest brother, who
-had been despatched in pursuit. A third journey took him to Rome; and
-there, whether glad to be rid of him or weary of debate, his family let
-him remain.
-
-It is probable that during his expatriation,[30] Callot never so much
-as dreamed of learning from the Old Masters; but he did not fail to
-make a close study of certain contemporaries who were masters so
-called. Paul V. was Pope; and the age of Raphael and Marc Antonio,
-of Julius II. and Leo X., was for ever at an end. The enfeebling
-eclecticism of the Carracci, and the profitless fecundity of Guido, had
-given currency to all sorts of second-rate qualities, and in painting
-had substituted prettiness for beauty. The result was an invasion of
-frivolity, alike in manners and beliefs, which was destined to find its
-least dubious expression in the works of Le Josépin, and later on in
-those of an artist of kindred tastes with the Lorraine engraver--the
-fantastical Salvator Rosa. When Callot settled in Rome in 1609, Le
-Josépin had already reached the climax of fame and fortune; Salvator,
-at an interval of nearly thirty years, was on the heels of his first
-success. Coming, as he did, to take a place among the dexterous and the
-eccentric, it seems that Callot could not have chosen a better time. It
-was not long before he attracted attention; for when he left Rome for
-Florence, where he produced some of his liveliest work, his name and
-his capacity were already in repute.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 75.--CALLOT.
-
-From the Set entitled "Balli di Sfessania."]
-
-At Florence his capacity was perfected under the influence of Giulio
-Parigi; and, thanks to the favour of Duke Cosmo II., which he easily
-obtained, his name soon became famous in the world of fashion as
-among connoisseurs. Unlike his countrymen, Claude Lorraine and the
-noble Poussin, who, some years later, were in this same Italy to live
-laborious and thoughtful lives, Callot freely followed his peculiar
-vein, and saw in art no more than a means of amusement, in the people
-about him only subjects for caricature, and in imaginative and even
-religious subjects but a pretext for grotesque invention. Like another
-French satirist, Mathurin Regnier, who had preceded him in Rome, he
-was addicted to vulgar types, to rags and deformities, even to the
-stigmata of debauchery. Thus, the works of both these two men, whom we
-may compare together, too often breathe a most dishonourable atmosphere
-of vice. With a frankness which goes the length of impudence, they give
-full play to their taste for degradation and vile reality; and yet
-their vigour of expression does not always degenerate into cynicism,
-nor is the truth of their pictures always shameless. The fact is, both
-had the secret of saying exactly enough to express their thoughts,
-even when these were bred by the most capricious fancy. They may be
-reproached with not caring to raise the standard of their work; but
-it is impossible to deny them the merit of having painted ugliness
-of every kind firmly and with elegant precision, nor that of having
-given, each in his own language, a definite and truly national form to
-that art of satire which had been hardly so much as rough-hewn in the
-caricatures and pamphlets of the League.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 76.--J. CALLOT.
-
-From the Set entitled "Les Gentilshommes".]
-
-Etching, but little practised in Germany after the death of Dürer,
-had found scarcely greater favour in Italy. As to the Dutch Little
-Masters, spoken of in the preceding chapters, the time was not yet
-come for most of their charming works. Claude Lorraine's etchings, now
-so justly celebrated, were themselves of later date than Callot's.
-The latter was, therefore, the real author of this class of work. In
-his hand the needle acquired a lightness and boldness not presaged
-in previous essays, which were at once coarse and careless. In his
-suggestions of life in motion, he imitated the swift and lively gait
-of the pencil, whilst his contours are touched with the severity of
-the pen, if not of the burin itself. In a word, he gave his plates an
-appearance of accuracy without destroying that look of improvisation
-which is so necessary to work of the kind; in this way he decided the
-nature and special conditions of etching. It was owing to his influence
-that French art first attracted the attention of the Italians: Stefano
-della Bella, Cantarini and even Canta-Gallina (who did not disdain to
-copy the etchings of his old pupil), Castiglione the Genoese, and many
-others, essayed, with more or less success, to appropriate the style
-of the master of Nancy; and when he returned to establish himself in
-France, where his reputation had preceded him, he found admirers, and
-before long a still greater following of imitators.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 77.--J. CALLOT.
-
-From the Set entitled "Les Gueux."]
-
-He was presented to Louis XIII., who at once commissioned him to
-engrave the "Siege of La Rochelle," and received at Court with
-remarkable favour, which was, however, withdrawn some years later,
-when he was bold enough to oppose the will of Richelieu. After the
-taking of Nancy (1633) from the Duke of Lorraine, Callot's sovereign,
-the great Cardinal, to immortalise the event, ordered the engraver to
-make it the subject of a companion print to that of the "Siege of La
-Rochelle," which he had just finished; but he was revolted by the idea
-of using his talents for the humiliation of his prince, and replied to
-Richelieu's messenger, "that he would rather cut off his thumb than
-obey." The reply was not of a kind to maintain him in the good graces
-of the Cardinal, and Callot felt it. He took leave of the king, and
-soon after retired to his native town, where he died at the age of
-forty-three.
-
-Really introduced into France by Callot, etching had become the fashion
-there. Abraham Bosse and Israel Silvestre helped to popularise it,
-the latter by applying it to topography and architecture, the former
-by using it for the illustration of religious and scientific books,
-and the embellishment of the fans and other elegant knick-knacks then
-selling in that "Galerie Dauphine du Palays" which is figured in one of
-his prints, and from which a play of Corneille's derives its name. He
-published besides an infinite number of subjects of all sorts: domestic
-scenes, portraits, costumes, architectural ornaments, almost always
-engraved from his own designs, and sometimes from those of the Norman
-painter, Saint-Ygny.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 78.--CLAUDE LORRAINE.
-
-"Le Bouvier."]
-
-Abraham Bosse is doubtless a second-rate man, but he is far from having
-no merit at all. He is an intelligent, if not a very delicate observer,
-who knows how to impart to his figures and to the general aspect of a
-scene an appearance of reality which is not altogether the truth, but
-which comes very near to having its charm. He certainly possesses the
-instinct of correct drawing, in default of refined taste and feeling;
-and finally, to take him simply as an engraver, he has much of the bold
-and firm handling of Callot, with something already of that cheerful
-and thoroughly French cleverness which was destined to be more and more
-developed in the national school of engraving, and to reach perfection
-in the second half of the seventeenth century.
-
-To Abraham Bosse are owing decided improvements in the construction of
-printing-presses, the composition of varnishes, and all the practical
-parts of the art; to him some technical studies are also due, the most
-interesting of which, the "Traité des Manières de Graver sur l'Airain
-par le Moyen des Eaux-fortes," is, if not the first, at least one of
-the first books on engraving published in France. We may add that the
-works of Abraham Bosse, like those of all other etchers of his time,
-show a continual tendency to imitate with the needle the work of the
-graver: a tendency worth remarking, though blamable in some respects,
-as its result is to deprive each class of work of its peculiar
-character, and from etching in particular to remove its appearance of
-freedom and ease.
-
-We have reached the moment when the French school of engraving entered
-the path of progress, no more to depart from it, and when, after having
-followed in the rear of foreign engravers, the French masters at
-length began to make up with and almost to outdistance them. Before
-proceeding, we must glance at the movement of those schools whose
-beginnings we have already traced.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 79.--CLAUDE LORRAINE.
-
-"Le Chevrier."]
-
-The line of really great Italian painters went out with the sixteenth
-century. Domenichino, indeed, Annibale Carracci, and a few others,
-glorified the century that followed; but their works, although full
-of sentiment, skill, and ability, are quite as much affected by the
-pernicious eclecticism of the period and by the general decline in
-taste. After them all the arts declined. Sculpture and architecture
-became more and more degraded under the influence of Bernini and
-Borromini. Athirst for novelty of any kind, people had gradually come
-to think the most extravagant fancies clever. To bring the straight
-line into greater disrepute, statues and bas-reliefs were tortured as
-by a hurricane; attitudes, draperies, and even immovable accessories
-were all perturbed and wavering. The engravers were no better than
-the painters, sculptors, and architects. By dint of exaggerating the
-idealistic creed, they had fallen into mere insanity; and in the midst
-of this degradation of art, they aimed at nothing save excitement
-and novelty, so that their invention was only shown in irregular
-or overlengthy lines, and their impetuosity in bad drawing. Daily
-wandering further from the paths of the masters, the Italian engravers
-at last attained, through the abuse of method, a complete oblivion of
-the essential conditions of their art; so that with few exceptions,
-till the end of the eighteenth century, nothing is to be found save
-barren sleight-of-hand in the works of that very school, which, in the
-days of Marc Antonio and his pupils, had been universally triumphant.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 80.--ABRAHAM BOSSE.
-
-From the Set entitled "Le Jardin de la Noblesse Française."]
-
-After the Little Masters, inheritors of some of the genius, skill, and
-renown of Albert Dürer, Germany had given birth to a fair number of
-clever engravers, the majority of whom had left their country. Some
-of them, indistinguishable to-day from the second generation of Marc
-Antonio's disciples, had, as we said, abandoned the national style for
-the Italian; others had settled in France or in the Low Countries. The
-Thirty Years' War accomplished the ruin of German art, which before
-long was represented only in Frankfort, where Matthew Mérian of Basle,
-and his pupils, with certain engravers from neighbouring countries, had
-taken refuge.
-
-Whilst engraving was declining in Italy and Germany, the English school
-was springing into being. Though at first of small importance, the
-beginnings and early essays of the school are such as may hardly pass
-without remark.
-
-For some time England had seemed to take little part in the progress of
-the fine arts in Europe, except commercially, or as the hostess of many
-famous artists, from Holbein to Van Dyck. There were a certain number
-of picture-dealers and print-sellers in London, but under Charles I.
-her only painters and engravers of merit were foreigners.[31] The
-famous portrait painter, Sir Peter Lely, whom the English are proud
-to own, was a German, as was Kneller, who inherited his reputation,
-and, as was Hollar, an engraver of unrivalled talent.[32] And while
-a few pupils of this last artist were doing their best to imitate his
-example, the taste for line engraving and etching, which processes were
-being slowly and painfully popularised by their efforts, was suddenly
-changed into a passion for another method, in which the principal
-success of the English school has since been won.
-
-Prince Rupert, so renowned for his courage and his romantic adventures,
-had the fortunate chance to introduce to London the process of
-engraving which is called mezzotint. In spite, however, of what has
-been alleged, the honour of the invention is not his. Ludwig von
-Siegen, a lieutenant-colonel in the service of the Landgrave of
-Hesse-Cassel, had certainly discovered mezzotint before the end of
-1642, for in the course of that year he published a print in this
-style--the portrait of the Princess Amelia Elizabeth of Hesse--the
-very first ever given to the public. Von Siegen for awhile refused to
-divulge his secret. "There is not," he wrote to the Landgrave of Hesse
-concerning this same portrait, "a single engraver, nor a single artist,
-who knows how this work was done."
-
-And, indeed, no one succeeded in finding out, and it was only after
-a silence of twelve years that Von Siegen consented to reveal his
-mystery. Prince Rupert, then at Brussels, was the first initiated. He,
-in his turn, chose for confidant the painter Wallerant Vaillant, who
-apparently did not think himself bound to strict silence, for, soon
-afterwards, a number of Flemish engravers attempted the process. Once
-made public, no one troubled about the man who had invented it. He was,
-in fact, so quickly and completely forgotten, that even in 1656 Von
-Siegen was obliged to claim the title, which no one any longer dreamed
-of giving him, and to sign his works: "Von Siegen, the first and true
-inventor of this kind of engraving." It was still worse in London
-when the plates engraved by Prince Rupert were exhibited, and when
-the English artists had learnt how they could produce the like. They
-set themselves to work without looking out for any other models, and
-were much more taken up with their own results than the history of the
-discovery, the whole honour of which was attributed to Rupert, the man
-who in reality had only made it public.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 81.--PRINCE RUPERT.
-
-Head of a Young Man (engraved in Mezzotint).]
-
-The talent of Rupert's first imitators, like that of the originator
-himself, did not rise above mediocrity. Amongst their direct
-successors, and the successors of these, there are few of much account;
-but in the eighteenth century, when Sir Joshua Reynolds undertook,
-like Rubens at Antwerp, to himself direct the work of engraving, the
-number of good English mezzotint engravers became considerable. Earlom,
-Ardell, Smith, Dickinson, Green, Watson, and many others deserving of
-mention, greatly increased the resources of the process, by applying
-it to the reproduction of the master's works. Mezzotint, at first
-reserved for portraits, was used for subjects of every sort: flower
-pieces, genre, even history; and step by step it attained to practical
-perfection, of which, at the beginning of the present century, the
-English still had the monopoly.
-
-The methods of mezzotint differ completely from those of line engraving
-and etching. With the graver and the needle the shadows and half-tones
-are made out on copper by means of incised lines and touches; with the
-mezzotint tool, on the contrary, the lights are produced by scraping,
-the shadows by leaving intact the corresponding portions of the plate.
-Instead of offering a flat, smooth surface, like the plates in line
-engraving, a mezzotint copper must be first grained by a steel tool
-(called the "rocker"), shaped like a chisel, with a semicircular blade
-which is bevelled and toothed. Sometimes (and this is generally the
-case in the present day) the "rocking" of the surface, on which the
-engraver is to work, is produced, not by a tool, but by a special
-machine.
-
-When the drawing has been traced in the usual way on the prepared
-plate, the grain produced by the rocker is rubbed down with the
-burnisher wherever pure white or light tints are required. The parts
-that are not flattened by the burnisher print as darks; and these darks
-are all the deeper and more velvety as they result from the grain
-itself--that is to say, from a general preparation specially adapted to
-catch the ink--and are by no means composed, as in line engraving, of
-furrows more or less crowded or cross-hatched.
-
-Mezzotint engraving has, in this respect, the advantage of other
-processes; in all others it is decidedly inferior. The rough grain
-produced on a plate by the rocker, and the mere scraping by which
-it is obliterated or modified, are technical hindrances to decided
-drawing: only with graver or point is it possible to make outlines of
-perfect accuracy. Again, precision, delicacy of modelling, and perfect
-finish in detail are impossible to the scraper. Mezzotint, in fine,
-is suitable for the translation of pictures where the light is scarce
-and concentrated, but is powerless to render work quiet in aspect and
-smooth in effect.
-
-English engravers, then, had begun to rank as artists. Callot, and,
-after him, other French engravers already remarkably skilful, had
-succeeded in founding a school which was soon to be honoured by
-the presence of true masters; Italy and Germany were deteriorating
-steadily. Meanwhile, what was going on elsewhere? In Spain there
-was a brilliant galaxy of painters, some of whom, like Ribera, have
-left etchings; but there were few or no professional engravers. In
-Switzerland, Jost Amman of Zurich (1539-1591) was succeeded by a
-certain number of illustrator-engravers, heirs of his superficial
-cleverness and of his commercial rather than artistic ideas: engravers,
-by the way, who are commonly confounded with the German masters of the
-same epoch. Lastly, the few Swedes or Poles who studied art, whether in
-Flanders or Germany, never succeeded in popularising the taste for it
-in their own countries; only for form's sake need they be mentioned.
-
-The first of the two great phases of the history of engraving ends
-about the middle of the seventeenth century. We have seen that the
-influence of Marc Antonio, though combated at first by the influence
-of Albert Dürer, easily conquered, and prevailed without a rival in
-Italy, Germany, and even France, until the appearance of Callot and
-his contemporaries. Meanwhile, in the Low Countries the art presented
-a physiognomy of its own, developed slowly, and ended by undergoing
-a thorough, but brief, transformation under the authority of Rubens.
-The Flemish school was soon to be absorbed in that of France, and the
-second period, which may be termed the French, to begin in the history
-of engraving.
-
-Were it permissible, on the authority of examples given elsewhere,
-to compare a multitude of men separated by differences of epoch and
-endowment, we might arrange the old engravers in the order adopted for
-a group of much greater artists by the painters of the "Apotheosis of
-Homer" and the "Hemicycle of the Palais des Beaux-Arts." Let us regard
-them in our mind's eye as a master might figure them. In the centre is
-Finiguerra, the father of the race; next to him, on the one side, are
-the Master of 1466, Martin Schongauer, and Albert Dürer; on the other,
-Mantegna and Marc Antonio, surrounded, like the three German masters,
-by their disciples, amongst whom they maintain an attitude of command.
-Between the two groups, but rather on the German side, is Lucas van
-Leyden, first in place, as by right, among the Dutchmen. Below these
-early masters, who wear upon their brows that expression of severity
-which distinguishes their work, comes the excited crowd of daring
-innovators, whose merit is in the spirit of their style--Bolswert,
-Vorsterman, Pontius, Cornelius Visscher, Van Dalen, and their rivals.
-Rembrandt muses apart, sombre, and as though shrouded in mystery.
-Lastly, in the middle distance, are seen the merely clever engravers:
-the Dutch Little Masters, Callot, Hollar, and Israel Silvestre.
-
-If, on the other hand, we must abandon this realm of fancy for the
-regions of fact, we might sum up the results of past progress by
-instancing a few prints of perfect beauty. Our own selection would be
-Mantegna's "Entombment;" Marc Antonio's "Massacre of the Innocents;"
-the "Death of the Virgin," by Martin Schongauer; Dürer's "Melancholia;"
-the "Calvary" of Lucas van Leyden; Rembrandt's "Christ Healing the
-Sick;" Bolswert's "Crown of Thorns;" the "Portrait of Rubens," by Paul
-Pontius, or the "Gellius de Bouma" of Cornelius Visscher; and finally,
-Callot's "Florentine Fair," or "Garden at Nancy," and the "Bouvier,"
-or, better still, the "Soleil Levant" of Claude Lorraine. Happy the
-owner of this selection of masterpieces: the man who, better inspired
-than the majority of his kind, has preferred a few gems to an overgrown
-and unwieldy collection.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-FRENCH ENGRAVERS IN THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV.
-
-
-We have followed through all its stages the progress of the art of
-engraving, from the time of its earliest more or less successful
-attempts, to the time when a really important advance was accomplished.
-However brilliant these early phases may have been, properly speaking
-they include but the beginnings of the art. The epoch we are now to
-traverse is that of its complete development and fullest perfection.
-
-We have seen that the schools of Italy and the Low Countries had, each
-in its own direction, largely increased the resources of engraving,
-without exhausting them. The quality of drawing would seem to have
-been carried to an inimitable perfection in the works of Marc Antonio,
-had not examples of a keener sense of form and an exactness even more
-irreproachable been discovered in those of the French masters of the
-seventeenth century. The engravings produced under the direct influence
-of Rubens only remained the finest specimens of the science of colour
-and effect until the appearance of the plates engraved in Paris by
-Gérard Audran. Finally, though the older engravers had set themselves
-the task of accentuating a certain kind of beauty, suitable to the
-peculiar tastes and capacities of the schools to which they belonged,
-none of them had sought, at least with any success, to present in one
-whole all the different species of beauty inherent in the art. It was
-reserved for the French engravers of the age of Louis XIV. to unite
-in one supreme effort qualities which till then had seemed to exclude
-each other. While they proved themselves draughtsmen as skilful and
-colourists as good as the best of their predecessors, they excelled
-them in their harmonious fusion of whatever qualities are appropriate
-to engraving, as also in the elasticity of their theory and the
-all-round capacity of their method.
-
-The works of the Louis XIII. engravers heralded this new departure,
-and prepared the way for the real masters. As soon as, with a view
-to securing a certain measure of independence, the French school
-of painting had begun to free itself from the spirit of systematic
-imitation, the art of line engraving proceeded resolutely along an open
-path, and marked its course by still more significant improvements. To
-say nothing of Thomas de Leu--who for that matter was not, perhaps,
-born in France[33]--and nothing of Léonard Gaultier, who, like De Leu,
-principally worked in the reign of Henri IV., Jean Morin, whose method,
-at once so picturesque and so firm, was the result of a peculiar
-combination of acid, dry-point, and the graver, Michel Lasne, Claud
-Mellan--in spite of the somewhat pretentious ease and rather affected
-skill of his handling--and other line engravers, variously capable,
-each after his kind, are found to owe nothing to foreign example.
-Their works already do more than hint at the new departure; but we are
-approaching the period when distinguished engravers become so common in
-the French school, that in this place we need only mention those whose
-names are still of special importance.
-
-Robert Nanteuil, one of the most eminently distinguished, and, taking
-them chronologically, one of the first, was destined for the bar, and
-in his youthful tastes showed none of that irresistible tendency to
-the arts which is the common symptom of great talent. Whilst studying
-literature and science at Rheims, where he was born in 1626, he also
-took up drawing and engraving, but with no idea of devoting himself
-steadily to either. It seems, however, that after having merely dallied
-in odd moments with the art which was one day to make him famous, he
-very soon concluded that he had served a sufficient apprenticeship;
-for at nineteen he set about engraving the frontispiece to his own
-philosophical thesis.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 82.--JEAN MORIN.
-
-Antoine Vitré. After Philippe de Champagne.]
-
-It was in those days the custom to ornament such writings with
-figures and symbols appropriate to the candidate's position, or to
-the subject of his argument. The most distinguished painters did not
-disdain to design originals, and the frontispieces engraved from
-Philippe de Champagne, Lesueur, and Lebrun, are not unworthy of the
-talent and reputation of those great men. Nanteuil, in emulation,
-was anxious not only to produce a masterpiece, but to invest it with
-an appearance of grandeur as little fitted to his position as to his
-slender acquaintance with the art. However that may have been, he
-sustained his thesis to the satisfaction of the judges; and, albeit an
-exceedingly bad one, his engraving was admired in the society which
-he frequented.[34] Some verses addressed to ladies[35] still further
-increased his reputation as a universal genius. Unfortunately, to all
-these public successes were added others of a more purely personal
-nature, which were soon noised abroad; and it would appear that, fresh
-adventures having led to a vexatious scandal, Nanteuil, who shortly
-before had married the sister of the engraver Regnesson, was compelled
-to leave, almost in secrecy, a place where once he had none save
-admirers and friends. By a fatal coincidence the fugitive's family was
-ruined at the same time: it became imperative for him to live by his
-own work, and to seek his fortune in the practice of draughtsmanship.
-
-Abandoning the law, he therefore set out for Paris, where he arrived
-poor and unknown, but determined to succeed. The question was,
-how without introductions to gain patrons? how to make profitable
-acquaintances in the great city? After losing some days in quest of a
-good opening, it is said that he hit upon a somewhat strange device. He
-had brought with him from Rheims some crayon portraits, as specimens
-of his ability; he chose one of these, and waited at the door of
-the Sorbonne till the young divinity students came out of class. He
-followed them into a neighbouring wine shop, where they were wont
-to take their meals, and pretended to be looking for some one whose
-portrait he had taken (he said) the week before. He knew neither the
-name nor address of his sitter, but thought that if his fellow-students
-would look at the drawing, they might be able and willing to help
-him. It is superfluous to say that the original of the portrait was
-not recognised; but the picture passed from hand to hand, and was
-admired; the price was asked, the artist was careful to be moderate in
-his demands, and some of the young men were so taken by the smallness
-of the sum, that they offered to sit for their portraits. The first
-finished and approved, other students in their turn wanted their
-portraits for their families and friends. This gave the young artist
-more remunerative work. His connection rapidly increased, and before
-long he was entrusted with the reproduction, on copper, of drawings
-commissioned by distinguished parliament men and persons of standing
-at the Court. At last the king, whose portrait he afterwards engraved
-in different sizes--as often as eleven times--gave him a number of
-sittings, after which Nanteuil received a pension and the title of
-Dessinateur du Cabinet.[36]
-
-Louis XIV. was not satisfied with thus rewarding a talent already
-recognised as superior; he was also desirous of stimulating by general
-measures the development of what he had himself declared a "liberal
-art."[37] Engravers were privileged to exercise it without being
-subjected to "any apprenticeship, or controlled by other laws than
-those of their own genius;" and seven years later (1667) the royal
-establishment at the Gobelins became virtually a school of engraving.
-Whilst Lebrun, its first director-in-chief, assembled therein an army
-of painters, draughtsmen, and even sculptors, and wrought from his own
-designs the tapestries of the "Éléments" and the "Saisons," Sebastien
-Leclerc superintended the labours of a large body of native and foreign
-engravers, entertained at the king's expense.
-
-One of these, Edelinck, had been summoned to France by Colbert. Born at
-Antwerp in 1640, and a contemporary of the engravers trained by the
-disciples of Rubens himself, he was distinguished, like them, by his
-vigour of handling and knowledge of effect. Once settled in Paris, he
-supplemented these Flemish characteristics with qualities distinctively
-French, and was soon a foremost engraver of his time. Endowed with
-singular insight and elasticity of mind, he readily assimilated, and
-sometimes even improved upon, the style of those painters whom he
-reproduced, and adopted a new sentiment with every new original. He
-began, in France, with an engraving of Raphael's "Holy Family," the
-so-called "Vierge de François I.," which is severe in aspect, and
-altogether Italian in drawing; and he followed this up with plates of
-the "Madeleine" of Lebrun, his "Christ aux Anges," and his "Famille de
-Darius," all of them admirable reproductions, in which the defects of
-the originals are modified, while their beauties are increased by the
-use of methods which make their peculiar and essential characteristics
-none the less conspicuous. In interpreting Lebrun, Edelinck altered
-neither his significance nor his style; he only touched his work with
-fresh truth and nature: as, when dealing with Rigaud, he converted that
-artist's pomposity and flourish into a certain opulence and vigour.
-When, on the contrary, he had to interpret a work stamped with calm and
-reflective genius, his own bold and brilliant talent became impregnated
-with serenity, and he could execute with a marvellous reticence such a
-translation as that from Philippe de Champagne--the painter's portrait
-of himself--a favourite, it is said, with the engraver, and one of the
-masterpieces of the art.
-
-When Edelinck arrived in Paris, Nanteuil, his senior by some fifteen
-years, had a studio at the Gobelins, close to the one where he himself
-was installed. This seeming equality in the favour accorded to two men,
-then so unequal in reputation and achievement, would be astonishing
-unless we remember the object which brought them together, and the very
-spirit of the institution.
-
-Things went on in the Gobelins almost as they did in Florence, in
-the gardens of San Marco, under Lorenzo de' Medici. Artists of
-repute worked side by side with beginners: not indeed together, but
-near enough for the master continually to help the student, and for
-the spirit of rivalry, the excitement of example, to keep alive a
-universal continuity of effort. French art had been lately honoured
-by three painters of the highest order--Poussin, Claude,[38] and
-Lesueur; but the first two lived in retirement, and far from France;
-whilst the third had died leaving no pupils, and, consequently, no
-tradition. It seemed urgent, therefore, in order to perpetuate the
-glory of the school, to gather together both men of mature talent
-and men whose talent was yet young and unformed, and to impel them
-all towards a common object on a common line of work. Colbert it was
-who conceived and executed the plan, who assembled all the great
-masters in painting, sculpture, and engraving, whose services he could
-command, without omitting any younger men who might seem worthy of
-encouragement. He quartered them all at the Gobelins, and put over them
-the man best fitted to play the part of their organiser and supreme
-director. "There was a pre-established harmony between Louis XIV. and
-Lebrun," says M. Vitet,[39] "and when the painter died (1690), neither
-he nor his master had as yet permitted any encroachment upon their
-territory." Lebrun might have appropriated a famous saying of the king,
-applied it to his own absolute supremacy, and said, with truth, that
-he alone was French art. Everything connected with the art of design,
-whether directly or indirectly, from statues and pictures for public
-buildings down to furniture and gold plate, were all subject to his
-authority, and were all moulded by his influence. It was an unfortunate
-influence in some respects, for it made the painting and sculpture
-of the epoch monotonously bombastic; but to engraving, under whose
-auspices contemporary pictures were sometimes transformed into real
-masterpieces, it cannot be said to have been unfavourable.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 83.--JEAN PESNE.
-
-The Entombment. After Poussin.]
-
-When Lebrun was called to the government of the arts, the number of
-practical engravers in France was already considerable. Jean Pesne, the
-special interpreter of Poussin, had published several of those vigorous
-prints which even now shed honour on the name of the engraver of the
-"Évanouissement d'Esther," of the "Testament d'Eudamidas," and of the
-"Sept Sacrements." Claudine Bouzonnet, surnamed Claudia Stella, who
-by the force of her extraordinary gift has won her way to the highest
-rank among female engravers, Étienne Baudet, and Gantrel--all these,
-like Jean Pesne, applied themselves almost exclusively to the task of
-reproducing the compositions of the noble painter of Les Andelys. On
-the other hand, François de Poilly, Roullet, and Masson (the last so
-celebrated for his portrait of Count d'Harcourt, and his "Pilgrims
-of Emmaus," after Titian), and many others equally well known, had
-won their spurs before they devoted themselves to the reproduction
-of Lebrun. Finally, Nanteuil, who only engraved a few portraits from
-originals by the director, was already widely known when Colbert
-requested him to join, among the first, the brotherhood which he had
-founded at the Gobelins. As soon as in his turn Edelinck was admitted,
-he hastened to profit by the advice of the master whom it was his
-privilege to be associated with; and, aided by Nanteuil's example,
-and under Nanteuil's eye, he soon tried his hand in the production of
-engraved portraits.
-
-No one indeed could be better fitted than Nanteuil to teach this
-special art, in which he has had few rivals and no superior. Even now,
-when we consider these admirable portraits of his, we are as certain
-of the likeness as if we had known the sitters. Everybody's expression
-is so clearly defined, the character of his physiognomy so accurately
-portrayed, that it is impossible to doubt the absolute truth of the
-representation. There is no touch of picturesque affectation in the
-details; no exaggerated nicety of means; no trick, nor mannerism
-of any sort; but always clear and limpid workmanship, and style
-so reticent, so measured, that at first glance there is a certain
-indescribable appearance of coldness, no hindrance to persons of taste,
-but a pitfall to such eager and hasty judgments as, to be conquered,
-must be carried by storm. Nanteuil's portraits come before us in all
-the outward calm of nature; possibly they seem almost inartistic
-because they make no parade of artifice; but, once examined with
-attention, they discover that highest and rarest form of merit which is
-concealed under an appearance of simplicity.
-
-If the "Turenne," the "Président de Bellièvre," the "Van Steenberghen"
-(called the "Avocat de Hollande"), the "Pierre de Maridat," the
-"Lamothe Le Vayer," the "Loret," and others, are masterpieces of
-refinement in expression and drawing, they also prove, as regards
-execution, the exquisite taste and the marvellous dexterity of the
-engraver. But to discern the variety of method they display, and to
-perceive that the handling is as sure and fertile as it is learned and
-unpretentious, they must be closely studied.
-
-As a rule, Nanteuil employs in his half-lights dots arranged at varying
-distances, according to the force of colouring required, in combination
-with short strokes of exceeding fineness. Sometimes--as, for instance,
-in the "Christine de Suède," altogether engraved in this manner--the
-process suffices him not only to model such parts as verge upon his
-lights, but even to construct the masses of his shadows. The "Edouard
-Molé" is, on the contrary, in pure line. The soft silkiness of hair
-he often expresses by free and flowing lines, some of which, breaking
-away from the principal mass, are relieved against the background,
-breaking the monotony of the workmanship, and suggesting movement
-by their vagueness of contour. Often, too, certain loose lines,
-either broken or continued without crossing in different directions,
-admirably distinguish the natures of certain substances, and imitate
-to perfection the soft richness of furs or the sheen of satin. Yet it
-sometimes happens that in the master's hand the same method results in
-the most opposite effects: a print, for instance, may exemplify in its
-treatment of the textures of flesh a method applied elsewhere, and with
-equal success, to the rendering of draperies. In a word, Nanteuil does
-not appropriate any particular process to any predetermined purpose.
-While judiciously subordinating each to propriety, he can, when he
-pleases, make the most of all; and whatever path he follows, it always
-appears that he has taken the best to reach his end.
-
-It was not only to the teaching of Nanteuil that Edelinck had recourse;
-he still further improved his style by studying his countryman, Nicolas
-Pitau (whom Colbert had also summoned from Antwerp to the Gobelins),
-and afterwards by acquiring the secret of brilliant handling from
-François de Poilly. To which of these engravers he was most indebted
-is a point which cannot be exactly determined. After investing himself
-with qualities from each, he did not imitate one more than another; he
-found his inspiration in the examples of all three.
-
-Nanteuil and Edelinck, first united by their work, were soon fast
-friends, in spite of the difference of their ages, and the still
-greater difference of their tastes. The French engraver sent for his
-wife from Rheims as soon as he found himself in a fair way to success
-and fortune; but he had also in some degree returned to the habits
-of his youth. A shining light in society, and as intimate with the
-cultured set at Mlle. de Scudéry's as with the devotees of pleasures
-less strictly intellectual, his career of dissipation in the salons
-and fashionable taverns of the day contrasts strangely with the sober
-quality of his talent, and increases our surprise at the number of
-works which he produced. Even his declining health did not change his
-habits. Till the end he continued to divide his time between his work
-and the world; and at his death, in 1678, at the age of fifty-two, he
-left nothing, or almost nothing, to his wife, in spite of the large
-sums he had made since he came to Paris.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 84.--JEAN PESNE.
-
-Nicolas Poussin.]
-
-Edelinck's fate was very different. He lived in seclusion, given
-over to his art and to the one ambition of becoming churchwarden
-(_marguillier_) of his parish: a position refused him, it is said,
-as reserved for tradesmen and official personages, and with which
-he was only at length invested by the condescending interference of
-the king. It was probably the only favour personally solicited by
-Edelinck, but it was by no means the first he owed to the protection of
-Louis XIV. Before the churchwardenship he held the title of "Premier
-Dessinateur du Cabinet." Like Lebrun, like Mansart and Le Nôtre, he
-was a Knight of St. Michael, and the Academy of Painting elected him
-as one of its council. His old age, like the rest of his days, was
-quiet and laborious; and when he died (1707) his two brothers and his
-son Nicolas, who had all three been his pupils, inherited a fortune as
-wisely husbanded as it had been honourably acquired.
-
-Edelinck survived the principal engravers of the reign of Louis XIV.
-François de Poilly, Roullet, Masson, and Jean Pesne, had more or less
-closely followed Nanteuil to the grave. At the Gobelins, once so rich
-in ability of the first order, students had taken the place of masters,
-and clever craftsmen succeeded to artists of genuine inspiration.
-Van Schuppen had followed Nanteuil, as Mignard had Lebrun, from
-necessity rather than right. And last of all, Gérard Audran, the most
-distinguished engraver of the time--whom, for the sake of clearness in
-our narrative, we have not yet mentioned--had died in 1703; and though
-members of his family did honour to the name he had distinguished, none
-of them were able to sustain the full weight of its glory.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 85.--GÉRARD AUDRAN.
-
-"La Noblesse." After Raphael.]
-
-One would hardly venture to say that Gérard Audran was an engraver
-of genius, because it does not seem permissible to apply the term to
-one whose business it is to interpret the creations of others, and
-subordinate himself to models he has not himself designed; yet how else
-can one characterise a talent so full of life, so startling a capacity
-for feeling, and a method at once so large, so unstudied, and so
-original? Do not the plates of Gérard Audran bear witness to something
-more than mere superficial skill? Do they not rather reveal qualities
-more subtle--a something personal and living, which raises them to the
-rank of imaginative work? Their real fault, perhaps--at least the fault
-of those after Lebrun or Mignard--is that they are not reproductions
-of a purer type of beauty. And even these masters are so far dignified
-by the creative touch of their translator as almost to seem worthy of
-unreserved admiration. We can understand the mistake of the Italians,
-who thought, when they saw the "Batailles d'Alexandre," in black and
-white, that France, too, had her Raphael, when, in reality, allowing
-for difference of manner, she could only glory in another Marc Antonio.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 86.--GÉRARD AUDRAN.
-
-"Navigation." After Raphael.]
-
-Gérard Audran was born in Lyons in 1640, and there obtained from his
-father his first lessons in art. Afterwards he went to Paris, and
-placed himself under the most famous masters of the day, by whose
-aid he was soon introduced to Lebrun, and at once commissioned to
-engrave one of Raphael's compositions. When Audran undertook the work,
-he had not the picture before him, as Edelinck had when he engraved
-the "Vierge de François I." His original was only a pencil copy
-which Lebrun had brought back from Italy; hence no doubt the modern
-character and the French style which are stamped on the engraving.
-Feeling dissatisfied with his work, the young artist did not publish
-it, but determined to study the Italians in Italy, to educate himself
-directly from their works, and thenceforth to engrave only those
-pictures of which he could judge at first-hand without the danger
-of an intermediary. He set off therefore for Rome, and remained there
-for three years, during which time he produced several copies painted
-at the Vatican, many drawings from the antique, several plates after
-Raphael, Domenichino, and the Carraccis, and the engraving of a ceiling
-by Pietro da Cortona, which last he dedicated to Colbert.
-
-By this act of homage he acquitted himself of a debt of gratitude to
-the minister who had favoured him ever since his arrival in Paris, and
-who, at Lebrun's request, had supplied the means of his sojourn in
-Italy. On Colbert's part it was only an act of justice to recall Audran
-to France, and to entrust him with the engraving of the lately finished
-series of the "Batailles d'Alexandre," for the great publication called
-the "Cabinet du Roi." To the engraver, then twenty-seven years old, a
-pension was granted, with a studio at the Gobelins, then the customary
-reward of talents brilliantly displayed. It may be added that six years
-(1672-1678) sufficed him to finish the stupendous task.
-
-Treated as a friend, and almost on an equal footing, by Lebrun, who for
-no one else departed from the routine of his official supremacy, Audran
-exerted over the king's chief painter a considerable, if a secret,
-influence. In spite of all that has been said,[40] Lebrun was not the
-kind of man to openly question his own infallibility, nor to advertise
-his deference to the advice of an artist so much younger than himself,
-his pupil, so to speak, and consequently without the authority of any
-higher degree; yet he frequently consulted him, and took his advice,
-in private. Also (and this is significant) when the engravings of
-the "Batailles" appeared--engravings to a certain extent unfaithful,
-inasmuch as they differed decidedly from the originals--the fact that
-the painter made no complaint points to his recognition in Audran
-of the right to correct, and to his implicit submission to Audran's
-corrections.
-
-In this respect Lebrun conducted himself as a man of the world, and
-one well able to understand the true interests of his reputation.
-He had everything to gain by giving full liberty to an engraver by
-whose perfect taste the blunders of his own were corrected, and who
-harmonised his frequently harsh and heavy colouring, and strengthened
-in modelling and design his often undecided expression of form. Thus
-the plates of the "Batailles," in addition to the high quality of
-the composition of the originals, present, alike in general aspect
-and in detail, a decision which belongs to Audran alone. Force and
-transparency of tone, largeness of effect, and, above all, a distinctly
-marked feeling for characteristic truths, are conspicuous in them.
-Not a single condition of art is imperfectly fulfilled. Marc Antonio
-himself drew with no more certainty; the Flemings themselves had no
-deeper knowledge of chiaroscuro; the French engravers, not excepting
-even Edelinck,[41] have never treated historical engraving with such
-ease and _mäestria_. In a word, none of the most famous engravers of
-Europe have been, we believe, so richly endowed with all artistic
-instincts, nor have better understood their use.
-
-The "Batailles d'Alexandre" finished, Audran engraved Lesueur's
-"Martyre de Saint Protais;" several Poussins, amongst others the
-"Pyrrhus Sauvé," the "Femme Adultère," and the radiant "Triomphe de
-la Vérité," one of the most beautiful (if not the most beautiful)
-historical engravings ever published; and, after Mignard, the "Peste
-d'Égine," and the paintings in the cupola at Val-de-Grâce.
-
-These several works, where elevation of taste and sentiment are no less
-triumphantly manifest than in the "Batailles" themselves, are also
-finished examples of engraving in the literal sense of the word. Audran
-disdained to flaunt his skill, and to surprise the eye by technical
-display, but he understood to the utmost all the secrets and resources
-of the craft, and employed them with more ability than any competitor.
-Associating engraving with etching, he deepened with powerful touches
-of the burin those strokes of the needle which had merely served to
-suggest outlines, masses of shadow, and half-tints. On occasion, short
-strokes, free as a pencil's, and seemingly drawn at random, with dots
-of different sizes, distributed with apparent carelessness, sufficed
-for the modelling of his forms; at others, he proceeded by a consistent
-system of cross-hatching. Here rough etching work is tumbled about
-(so to speak) in wild disorder; there a contrary effect is produced
-by nearly parallel furrows scooped in the metal with methodical
-exactness; but everywhere the choice and progress of the tools are
-based on conditions inherent in the nature of the several objects, and
-their relative positions and distances. Audran did not try to attract
-attention to any of the methods he employed; he made each heighten the
-effect of the other, and combined them all without parade of ease, and
-yet without confusion.
-
-So many admirable works secured for Audran a fame such as Edelinck, as
-Nanteuil himself, had never obtained. The Academy of Painting, which
-had welcomed him after the publication of his first plates, elected him
-as one of its council in 1681. The school of engraving which he opened
-grew larger than any other, and many of his pupils became notable even
-in his company, and helped to increase the renown of the master who had
-trained them.[42]
-
-Towards the close of his life Audran laid by the burin for the pen.
-Following Albert Dürer's example, he proposed to put together, in the
-form of treatises, his life-long observations on the art he had so
-successfully practised. Unfortunately, this task was interrupted by
-his death; and, excepting a "Recueil des Proportions du Corps Humain,"
-nothing is left us of those teachings which the greatest engraver, not
-only of France, but perhaps of any school, had desired to hand on to
-posterity.
-
-By their works, Nanteuil, Audran, and the other masters of the reign
-of Louis XIV., had popularised historical and portrait engraving
-in France. The taste for prints spread more and more, and amateurs
-began to make collections. At first they confined themselves to real
-masterpieces; after which they began to covet the complete achievement
-of peculiar engravers. The mania for rare prints became fashionable;
-and we learn from La Bruyère that, before the end of the century,
-some amateurs had already come to prefer engravings "presque pas
-tirées"--engravings "fitter to decorate the Petit-Pont or the Rue Neuve
-on a holiday than to be hoarded in a collection"--to the most perfect
-specimens of the art. Others were chiefly occupied with the bulk of
-their collections, and treasured up confused heaps of all sorts of
-plates, good, bad, and indifferent. Others there were who only cared
-about such as did not exceed a certain size; and it is told of one
-devotee of this faith that, inasmuch as he would harbour nothing in his
-portfolios but round engravings of exactly the same circumference, he
-was used to cut ruthlessly to his pattern whatever came into his hands.
-We must add that, side by side with such maniacs, intelligent men
-like the Abbé de Marolles and the Marquis de Béringhen increased their
-collections to good purpose, and were content to bring together the
-most important specimens of ancient engraving and such as best served
-to illustrate the more modern progress of the art.
-
-In France, however, it was not only the best expressions of engraving
-that were considered. On the heels of the great engravers there
-followed a crowd of second-rate workmen. Besides history and portrait,
-every variety of print was published: domestic scenes, architecture and
-topography, costumes, fêtes, and public celebrations. The engraving
-of maps greatly improved under the direction of Adrian and Guillaume
-Sanson, sons of the famous Geographer in Ordinary to Louis XIII.
-
-Jacques Gomboust, the king's Engineer in Ordinary for the "drawing
-up of plans of towns," published, as early as 1652, a map of Paris
-and its suburbs in nine sheets, much more exact and more carefully
-engraved than those of former reigns. Fashion plates were multiplied
-_ad infinitum_; and a periodical called _Le Mercure Galant_ steadily
-produced new modes in apparel and personal ornaments. Certain
-collections also, destined to perpetuate the remembrance of the events
-of the reign, or the personal actions of the king, were published "by
-order, and at the expense of His Majesty," with a luxury justified at
-any rate by the importance of the artists participating in the work.
-The very almanacs bear the stamp of talent, and are not unfrequently
-inscribed with the names of celebrated engravers, such as Lepautre,
-François Spierre, Chauveau, Sébastien Leclerc, and De Poilly.
-
-In the days of Henri IV. and Louis XIII. almanacs were printed on a
-single sheet, with a border sometimes of allegorical figures, but,
-more often, composed simply of the attributes of the seasons. It was
-under Louis XIV. that they at first appeared on larger paper, and then
-in several sheets, wherein were represented the most important events
-of the year, or, it might be, some ceremony or court fête. In one is
-pictured the Battle of Senef, or the signing of the Treaty of Nimeguen;
-in another, perhaps, the king is represented dancing the Strasbourg
-minuet, or offering a collation to ladies. Of course the majority of
-these prints are valueless in point of execution, and are, moreover,
-of an almost purely commercial character; but those which are poorest
-from an artistic point of view are still worthy of interest, since they
-afford indisputable information concerning the people and the habits
-and manners of the time.
-
-Whilst many French artists were devoting themselves to the engraving of
-subjects of manners or domestic scenes, or to the illustration of books
-and almanacs, others were making satirical sketches of current events
-and popular persons. The engraving of caricatures, though it only dates
-from the middle of the seventeenth century, had been practised long
-before in France and other countries.
-
-To say nothing of the "Danses macabres," a sort of religious, or at
-any rate philosophical, satire, we might mention certain caricatures
-published even before the Carracci in Italy; in the Low Countries
-in the time of Jerome Bosch and Breughel; in Germany in the reign of
-Maximilian II.; and finally in France, in the reign of Charles IX. But
-all these are either as stupidly licentious as those afterwards made
-upon Henri III. and his courtiers, or as heavily grotesque as those of
-the time of the League, towards the end of the reign of Henri IV.
-
-When Louis XIII. came to the throne, the wit of the caricaturists
-was little keener, if we may judge by the coarse pictorial _lazzi_
-inspired by the disgrace and death of the Maréchal d'Ancre, and the
-Dutch and Spanish prints designed in ridicule of the French; but some
-years later, when Callot had introduced into the treatment of burlesque
-a keenness and delicacy which it could hardly have been expected to
-attain, the comic prints assumed under the burin of certain engravers
-an appearance of greater ingenuity and less brutality.
-
-It is needless to remark that at the beginning of the reign of Louis
-XIV.--indeed, during the whole time of the Fronde and the foreign
-occupation of a part of French territory--it was Mazarin and the
-Spaniards who came in for all the epigrams. In the caricatures of the
-day the Spaniards were invariably represented with enormous ruffs, in
-tatters superbly worn, and, to complete the allusion to their poverty,
-with bunches of beetroot and onions at their belts. There is nothing
-particularly comic, nor especially refined, in the execution of the
-prints. In piquancy and truth, these jokes about Spanish manners and
-Spanish food recall those presently to be made in England about
-Frenchmen, who are there invariably represented as frog-eaters and
-dancing-masters. Yet comparing the _facetiæ_ of that period with the
-exaggerated or obscene humours which preceded them, it seems as though
-the domain of caricature were even then being opened up to worthy
-precursors of the lively draughtsmen of the eighteenth and nineteenth
-centuries: in fact, as though some Attic salt were already penetrating
-to Boeotia.
-
-This advance is visible in the satires published towards the end of the
-reign of Louis XIV. The "Procession Monacale," a set of twenty-four
-engravings which appeared in Holland (where many Protestants had taken
-refuge), attacked with considerable vigour the revocation of the Edict
-of Nantes, and the principal persons who had participated in that
-measure. Louvois, Mme. de Maintenon, and all the privy councillors
-of Louis XIV., are represented under the cowl, and with significant
-attributes. Even the king figures in this series of heroes of the New
-League; he is in a monk's frock like the others, but a sun, in allusion
-to his lofty device, serves for his face, and this hooded Phoebus bears
-in his hand a torch to light himself through the surrounding darkness.
-The prints that make up this set, as well as many more in the same
-style, are designed and engraved with a certain amount of spirit. They
-serve to prove that in the frivolous arts, as well as in the comic
-literature of the day, the object was to make "decent folk" laugh, and
-to keep joking within bounds. In a word, in comparison with former
-caricatures, they are as the vaudevilles of the Italian comedy to the
-farces once played on the boards of strolling theatres.
-
-Every sort of engraving being cultivated in France with more success
-than anywhere else, under Louis XIV. the trade in prints became one of
-the most flourishing branches of French industry. The great historical
-plates, it is true--those at any rate which, like the "Batailles
-d'Alexandre," were published at the king's cost--were chiefly sold in
-France, and were not often exported, save as presents to sovereigns and
-ambassadors. But portraits, domestic scenes, and fashion plates, were
-shipped off in thousands, and flooded all parts of Europe. Before the
-second half of the seventeenth century, the chief printsellers (for
-the most part engravers themselves and publishers of their own works)
-were established in Paris on the Quai de l'Horloge, or, like Abraham
-Bosse, in the interior of the Palace. Rather later than this, the most
-popular shops were to be found in the neighbourhood of the Church of
-St. Sèverin. If we examine the prints then published in Paris, we may
-count as many as thirty publishers living in the Rue St. Jacques alone,
-and amongst the number are many famous names: as Gérard Audran, "at the
-sign of the Two Golden Pillars;" François de Poilly, "at the sign of
-St. Benedict," and so forth.
-
-Hence, we may mention, in passing, the mistake which attributes to
-engravers of the greatest talent the production of bad plates, to
-which they would never have put finger except to take proofs. For
-instance, the words "_Gérard Audran excudit_," to be found at the
-bottom of many such, do not mean that they were engraved by the master,
-but only published by him. Often, too, pseudonyms--not always in the
-best possible taste--concealed the name of the publisher and the place
-of publication: a precaution easily understood, as it was generally
-applied to obscenities, and particularly to those called "pièces à
-surprise," which were then becoming common, and continued to increase
-indefinitely during the following century. True art, however, is
-but little concerned with such curiosities; and it is best to look
-elsewhere for its manifestations.
-
-The superior merit of the engraving of the masters of the French
-school had attracted numbers of foreign artists to Paris. Many took
-root there, amongst them Van Schuppen and the Flemings commissioned
-to engrave the "Victoires du Roi," painted by Van der Meulen; others,
-having finished their course of study, returned to their own countries,
-the missionaries of French doctrine and of French manner. The result
-of this united influence was an almost exact similarity in all the
-line engravings produced, by men of whatever nationality or from
-whatever originals. Thus, the portraits engraved by the German Johann
-Hainzelmann from Ulrich Mayer and Joachim Sandrart, scarcely differ
-from those he had formerly engraved from French artists: the "Michel
-Le Tellier," for instance, and the "Président Dufour." The historical
-plates published about the same time in Germany prove the same lively
-zeal in imitation. In them art appears as, so to speak, a French
-subject; and Gustave Ambling, Bartholomew Kilian,[43] and many more of
-their countrymen--pupils, like these two, of François de Poilly--might
-be classed amongst the engravers of the French school, if the style of
-their work were the only thing to be considered.
-
-An examination of the prints published by Flemish and Dutch artists
-later than the school of Rubens and Van Dalen, would justify a like
-observation. We may fairly regard Van Schuppen only as a clever pupil
-of Nanteuil, and Cornelius Vermeulen as an imitator, less successful,
-but no less subservient. And when we turn to the Italian engravers of
-the seventeenth century, we find that, as a rule, their work is marked
-by so impersonal a physiognomy, is so much the outcome of certain
-preconceived and rigid conventions, that one could almost believe them
-inspired by the same mind, and done by the same hand.
-
-Whilst French influence reigned almost supreme in Germany and the Low
-Countries, and Italian art became more and more the slave of routine,
-English engraving had not yet begun to feel the influence of the
-progress elsewhere achieved since the beginning of the century. The
-time was, however, at hand when, in the reign of Louis XV., London
-engravers who came to study in Paris should return to their own
-country to practise successfully the lessons they had learned. We
-must, therefore, presently turn to them; but, before speaking of the
-pupils, we must briefly mention the achievements of the masters, and
-narrate the story of French engraving in France after the death of the
-excellent artists of the age of Louis XIV.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-    ENGRAVING IN FRANCE AND IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES IN THE
-    EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. NEW PROCESSES: STIPPLE, CRAYON, COLOUR, AND
-    AQUATINT.
-
-
-Morin, Nanteuil, Masson, and the other portrait engravers of the
-period, in spite of the variety of their talent, left their immediate
-successors a similar body of doctrine and a common tradition. Now
-the works of the painter Rigaud, whose importance had considerably
-increased towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV., made certain
-modifications of this severe tradition necessary on the part of the
-artists employed to engrave them. Portraits, for the most part bust
-portraits, relieved against an almost naked background, were no longer
-in fashion. To render a crowd of accessories which, while enriching
-the composition, frequently encumbered it beyond measure, became the
-problem in engraving. It was successfully solved by Pierre Drevet, his
-son Pierre Imbert, and his nephew Claude Drevet, this last the author,
-amongst other plates now much prized, of a "Guillaume de Vintimille"
-and a "Count Zinzendorff."
-
-The first of these three engravers--at Lyons the pupil of Germain
-Audran, and at Paris of Antoine Masson--engraved, with some few
-exceptions, only portraits, the best known of which are a full-length
-"Louis XIV.," "Louis XV. as a Child," "Cardinal Fleury," and "Count
-Toulouse;" they attest an extreme skill of hand, and a keen perception
-of the special characteristics of the originals. The second, the
-similarity of whose Christian name has often caused him to be mistaken
-for his father, showed himself from the first still more skilful and
-more certain of his own powers. He was only twenty-six when he finished
-his full-length "Bossuet," in which the precision of the handling,
-the exactness and brilliancy of the burin work, seem to indicate a
-talent already arrived at maturity. In this plate, indeed, and in some
-others by the same engraver--as the "Cardinal Dubois," the "Adrienne
-Lecouvreur," and others--there are parts, perhaps, that seem almost
-worthy of Nanteuil himself. It is impossible to imitate with greater
-nicety the richness of ermine, the delicacy of lace, and the polish
-and brilliancy of gilding; but the subtle delicacy of physiognomy, the
-elasticity of living flesh which animated the portraits of the earlier
-masters, will here be looked for in vain. Such work is the outcome of
-an art no longer supreme, albeit of a very high order still.
-
-As much may be said of the best historical plates engraved in France
-under the Regency, and in the first years of Louis XV. The older
-manner, it is true, was still perceptible, but it was beginning to
-change, and was soon to be concealed more and more under a parade of
-craftsmanship amusingly self-conscious, and an elegance refined to the
-point of affectation.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 87.--LAURENT CARS.
-
-"L'Avare." From Boucher's "Molière."]
-
-The French engravers of the time of Louis XV. may be divided into two
-distinct groups: the one submitting to the authority of Rigaud, and
-partially preserving the tradition of the last century; the other, of
-greater numerical importance, and in some respects of greater ability,
-but, in imitation of Watteau and his followers, seeking success in
-attractiveness of subject, grace of handling, and the expression of a
-general prettiness, rather than in the faithful rendering of truth.
-
-As we know, the manners of the time were not calculated to discourage
-a like tendency, which, indeed, grew more and more general amongst
-artists during the whole course of the eighteenth century, until it
-ended in a revolution, as radical in its way as the great political
-one: namely, the exclusive worship of a somewhat barren simplicity and
-of the antique narrowly understood.
-
-In 1750 (that is to say, almost at the very time of the birth of David,
-the future reformer of the school) the public asked nothing more of
-art than a passing amusement. The immediate successors of Lebrun
-had brought the historical style into great disrepute. People had
-wearied of the pompous parade of allegory, the tyranny of splendour,
-the monotony of luxury; they took refuge in another extreme--in the
-exaggeration of grace and all the coquetries of sentiment. Pastorals,
-or would-be pastorals, and subjects for the most part mythological,
-took the place of heroic actions and academical apotheoses. They had
-not a whit more nature than these others, but they had at any rate
-more interest for the mind, and greater charm for the eye.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 88.--LAURENT CARS.
-
-"Le Dépit Amoureux." From Boucher's "Molière."]
-
-From the point of view of engraving alone, the prints published
-in France at this time are for the most part models of spirit and
-delicacy, as those of the Louis XIV. masters are of learned execution
-and vigorous conception. Moreover, under the frivolous forms affected
-by French engraving in the eighteenth century, something not
-unfrequently survives of the masterly skill and science of the older
-men. It is to be supposed that Laurent Cars remembered the example
-of Gérard Audran, and, in his own way, succeeded in perpetuating it
-when he engraved Lemoyne's "Hercule et Omphale," and "Délivrance
-d'Andromède." Even when he was reproducing such fantasies as the "Fête
-vénitienne" of Watteau, or scenes of plain family life, like Chardin's
-"Amusements de la Vie privée," and "La Serinette," he had the art of
-supplementing from his own taste whatever strength and dignity his
-originals might lack. Was it not, too, by appropriating the doctrine,
-or at least the method, of Audran--his free alliance of the burin with
-the needle--that Nicolas de Larmessin, Lebas, Lépicié, Aveline, Duflos,
-Dupuis, and others, produced their charming transcripts of Pater,
-Lancret, Boucher himself--in spite of his impertinences of manner and
-his unpleasant falseness of colour--and, above all, Watteau, of all
-the masters of the eighteenth century the best understood and the most
-brilliantly interpretated by the engravers? A while later, Greuze had
-the honour to occupy them most; and some among them, as Levasseur
-and Flipart, did not fail to acquit themselves with ability of a task
-rendered peculiarly difficult by the flaccid and laboured execution of
-the originals.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 89.--CHEDEL.
-
-"Arlequin Jaloux." After Watteau.]
-
-However summary our description of the progress of French engraving
-during the whole of the reign of Louis XV., or the early years of
-Louis XVI., it is scarcely possible not to mention, side by side
-with historical and genre engraving, the countless illustrations--of
-novels, fables, songs, and publications of every description--the
-general aspect of which so strongly bears witness to the fertility and
-grace of French art at that time. It is difficult to omit the names of
-those agreeable engravers of dainty subjects, not seldom of their own
-design: those _poetæ minores_, the vaudevillists of the burin, who,
-from the interpreters of Gravelot, Eisen, and Gabriel de St. Aubin to
-Choffard, from Cochin to Moreau, have left us so much work steeped in
-the richest, the most varied imagination, or informed by an exquisite
-natural perception. Ready and ingenious above all others, delicate even
-in their most capricious flights, witty before everything, they are
-artists whose accomplishment, in spite of its appearance of frivolity,
-is not to be matched for delicacy and science in the work of any other
-epoch, or the school of any other country.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 90.--COCHIN.
-
-"La Main Chaude." After De Troy.]
-
-Placed, in some sort, at an equal distance from the contemporary
-historical engravers and the engravers of illustrations, and divided,
-as it were, between the recollections of the past and the examples of
-the present, Ficquet, and some years later, Augustin de St. Aubin,
-produced the little portraits which are as popular now as then. The
-portraits of Ficquet are prized above all; though those of St. Aubin,
-in spite of their small size, exhibit a largeness and firmness of
-modelling not to be found in work that is sometimes preferred to
-them. What is more, Ficquet's plates are generally only reductions of
-prints already published by other engravers, Nanteuil, Edelinck, and
-the rest; whilst the portraits of St. Aubin have the merit of being
-directly taken from original pictures or drawings. As a rule, however,
-these portraits are relieved on a dead black ground, without gradation
-or variety of effect; and it is probably to the somewhat harsh and
-monotonous aspect thus produced that we must attribute the comparative
-disfavour with which they are regarded.
-
-It is also permissible to suppose that Ficquet's almost microscopic
-prints, like those of his imitators, Savart and Grateloup, owe much
-of their popularity to their extreme finish. When the mind is not
-exercised in discerning the essential parts of an art, the eye is apt
-to look upon excessive neatness of workmanship as the certain evidence
-of perfection. As people insensible to the charm of painting fall
-confidingly into raptures over the pictures of Carlo Dolci, Gerard
-Dow, and Denner, so, it maybe, certain admirers of Ficquet esteem his
-talent in proportion to the exaggerated cleanness and carefulness of
-his plates. Yet his real merit does not entirely rest on such secondary
-considerations. Many of his small portraits, most of them intended as
-illustrations, are remarkable for firm drawing and delicate facial
-expression; and if the work were generally simpler and less crowded
-with half-tints, it might be classed, as miniature in line, with
-Petitot's enamels.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 91.--AUGUSTIN DE ST. AUBIN.
-
-Rameau. After Caffieri.]
-
-The analogy, however, can only be supported with regard to their
-talent; their dispositions differ in every point. The painter Petitot,
-a fervent Calvinist, whose life presents a curious contrast with
-the worldly character of his work, had the honour to attract the
-attention of Bossuet, who, it is said, attempted to convert him. He was
-imprisoned at For-l'Evêque after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
-and only quitted it to devote himself to solitude and study. Ficquet,
-for his part, took no interest whatever in religious questions, and
-gave up every spare moment to the pursuit of pleasure; he was, besides,
-for ever short of money, and was perpetually hunted by his creditors,
-who, weary of struggling, usually ended by installing him in their own
-houses to finish a plate for them.
-
-It was in this way that he came to spend nearly two months at St.
-Cyr, in the very heart of which community he engraved his "Mme. de
-Maintenon," after Mignard. This portrait, paid for long previously to
-the last farthing, made no progress whatever; and the Mother Superior,
-having exhausted prayers and reproaches, and despairing of seeing it
-finished, addressed herself to the metropolitan. From him she obtained
-permission to introduce the artist into the convent, and to keep him
-there till the accomplishment of his task. But things went on no
-better. Ficquet, bored to death in his seclusion, simply slept out the
-time, and never touched his graver. One day he sent for the Superior,
-and told her that if he stayed at St. Cyr to all eternity, he could
-not work in the solitude they had made for him; amusement he must and
-would have, and in default of better, it must be the conversation of
-the nuns; he added, in a word, that he refused to finish the portrait
-unless some of them came every day to keep him company. His conditions
-were accepted; and to encourage him still further, some of the pupils
-accompanied the nuns, and played and sang to him in his room. At
-length the long-expected plate was ready; but Ficquet, disgusted
-with the work, destroyed it, and would only consent to begin again
-on the promise of instant liberty and a still larger sum. By these
-means the nuns of St. Cyr at last became possessed of the likeness of
-their foundress, and the little "Mme. de Maintenon"--which is perhaps
-Ficquet's masterpiece--made up to them for the strange exactions with
-which they had had to comply.
-
-As the habit of employing etching in the execution of their works had
-gained ground among artists, the temptation to have recourse to this
-speedy process had vanquished one person after another, even those
-who seemed least likely to yield, whether from their position in
-society, or their former methods. There were soon as many amateur as
-professional engravers; and learning the use of the needle well enough
-to sketch a pastoral was soon as fashionable as turning a madrigal.
-Among the first to set the example was the Regent; he engraved a set of
-illustrations for an edition of "Daphnis et Chloe," and his initiative
-was followed by crowds of all ranks: great lords like the Duc de
-Chevreuse and the Marquis de Coigny; gentlemen of the gown, like the
-Président de Gravelle; financiers, scholars, and men of letters, like
-Watelet, Count Caylus, and D'Argenville.[44] Court ladies and the wives
-of plain citizens joined the throng; from the Duchesse de Luynes and
-the Queen herself, to Mme. de Pompadour and Mme. Reboul (who afterwards
-married the painter Vien), there were scores of women who amused
-themselves by engraving, to say nothing of the many who made it a
-profession.
-
-The drawback of such pastimes, innocent enough in themselves, was
-that they degraded art into a frivolous amusement, and promulgated
-a false view of its capabilities and real object. This is what very
-generally happens when, on the strength of a certain degree of taste,
-mistaken for talent, people aspire to compass, without reflection or
-study, results only to be attained by knowledge and experience. The
-authors of such hasty work think art easy, because they are ignorant
-of its essentials; and the public, in its turn mistaken as to these,
-accepts appearances for reality, becomes accustomed to the pretence of
-merit, and loses all taste for true superiority. Every art may be thus
-perverted; and in our own days, amateur water colours, statuettes, and
-waltzes are as injurious to painting, sculpture, and music, as, in
-former days, the amusement of print-making was to engraving.
-
-Moreover, it was not art only that these prints began to injure.
-Prompted by gallantry, as understood by the younger Crébillon and
-Voisenon when they wrote their experiences, they often presented to
-the eyes of women scenes to the description of which they would not
-have listened: as a certain lady is reported to have asked Baron de
-Besenval, during the relation of an embarrassing adventure, to "draw
-a picture-puzzle of what he couldn't tell her." Often, however,
-engraving, as practised in the salons, appealed to quite another
-order of passions and ideas. In support of the great cause of the
-day--philosophy--all weapons seemed fair, and the needle was used to
-disseminate the new evangel. When Mme. de Pompadour, in her little
-engraving, the proofs of which were fought for by her courtiers,
-attempted to show "The Genius of the Arts Protecting France," she set
-no very dangerous example, and only proved one thing--that the said
-Genius did not so carefully protect the kingdom as to exclude the
-possibility of platitude. But when the _habitués_ of Mme. d'Épinay
-and D'Holbach set themselves in their little prints to attack certain
-so-called mental superstitions, they unconsciously opened the door to
-people of a more radical turn of mind. Before the end of the century
-prints a good deal more crudely energetic appeared on the same subject;
-and the pothouse engravers, in their turn, illustrated the _Père
-Duchêne_, as the drawing-room engravers had illustrated the "Essai sur
-les Moeurs" and the "Encyclopédie."
-
-Although the engraving of illustrations, or at least "light" subjects,
-was, in the eighteenth century, almost the only sort practised in
-France, even by the most eminent artists, some of these imparted to
-their productions a severer significance, and an appearance more in
-harmony with that of former work. Several--pupils of Nicolas Henri
-Tardieu, or of Dupuis--resisted with much constancy the encroachment of
-the fashionable style, and passed on to their scholars of all nations
-those teachings they had received in their youth. The Germans, Joseph
-Wagner, Martin Preisler, Schmidt, John George Wille; the Italian,
-Porporati; the Spaniards, Carmona and Pascal Molés; the Englishmen,
-Strange, Ingram, Ryland, and others, came, at close intervals, for
-instruction or improvement in this school. In Paris they published
-plates of various degrees of excellence; but, in the greater part of
-these, the nationality and personal sentiment of their authors are
-obliterated in acquired habits of taste and handling.
-
-Wille's prints, for instance--those even which have most contributed
-to his fame, "Paternal Instruction," after Terburg, or the "Dutchwoman
-Knitting," after Mieris--might just as well, for anything one sees
-to the contrary, have been the work of a French engraver of the same
-period. They only differ from plates bearing the name of Beauvarlet or
-of Daullé in a certain Teutonic excess of coldness in the handling; in
-a somewhat staid, and, as it were, metallic stiffness of arrangement.
-Carmona's "François Boucher," and his "Colin de Vermont," after Roslin,
-and Porporati's "Tancrède et Clorinde," after Carle Vanloo, have
-still less of the stamp of originality.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 92.--PORPORATI.
-
-Susannah. After Santerre.]
-
-Finally, with the exception of Ryland, by reason of the particular
-process he employed, and of which we shall presently have to
-speak--and especially of Strange, who has his own peculiar mode of
-feeling, and a sort of merit peculiar to himself--none of the English
-engravers trained in the French school fail to show the signs of close
-relationship. Engravers of more original talent must be looked for
-neither amongst historical nor portrait engravers, nor even amongst
-engravers of genre. For information as to the state of the art outside
-of France, and apart from the French school, we must rather turn to
-the illustrations of books and almanacs engraved by Chodowiecki at
-Dantzic or Berlin, or to the vast plates from ancient Roman monuments
-etched--not without a certain rhetorical emphasis--by Piranesi.
-
-As for other second or third rate foreign engravers of the period,
-as for those _ragionevoli_ (as Vasari would have called them) whose
-work, if undeserving of oblivion, is likewise undeserving of attentive
-examination, we shall have done our part if we mention certain amongst
-them: as J. Houbraken, who worked at Dordrecht; Domenichino Cunego, of
-Rome; Weirotter, of Vienna; and Fernando Selma, of Madrid.
-
-Meanwhile, in France and other countries, by royal command, or at
-the expense of rich amateurs, important series of prints were being
-published in commemoration of public events, or in illustration of
-famous collections of painting and sculpture. The first of the latter
-order was the "Galerie de Versailles," begun by Charles Simoneau,
-continued by Massé, and only finished in 1752 after twenty-eight
-consecutive years of labour. It was speedily succeeded by the "Cabinet
-de Crozat" and the "Peintures de l'Hôtel Lambert;" and a little later
-the example of France was followed by other countries, and one after
-the other there appeared, in Italy, Germany, and England, the "Museo
-Pio Clementino," the "Dresden Gallery," the catalogue of the Bruhl
-collection, and the publications of Boydell--all such magnificent works
-as do honour to the second half of the eighteenth century. Finally,
-thanks to Vivarès and Balechou, the engraving of landscape began to
-rival historical engraving, to which it had before been considered
-as merely accessory. The honour of having created it belongs to the
-French. It is too often forgotten that they were the first to excel
-in it, and that but for the practice of Vivarès, England to whom the
-merit of initiative is usually attributed might never have boasted of
-Woollett and his pupils.
-
-Since Claude Lorraine and Gaspard Dughet, the French school had
-produced few painters of pure landscape--none of first-rate ability.
-The first to restore to the neglected art a something of its pristine
-brilliance was Joseph Vernet. An observer, but one rather clever than
-sincere, he is certainly wanting in the strength and gravity which
-are characteristics of the great masters. In his work there is more
-intelligence than deep feeling, and more elegance than true beauty.
-Like the descriptive poetry of the time, it shows us Nature a trifle
-too sleek and shiny, and a little over-emphasised; she is rather a
-theme for discourse than a model to be lovingly studied as a source
-of inspiration. Yet even where the truth is thus arbitrarily treated,
-it retains under Vernet's brush sufficient charm, if not to move, at
-least to interest and to please; so that the success of this brilliant
-artist, and the influence he exerted on the French school and on public
-taste, are easily understood.
-
-In the lofty position which his talent had won him, Joseph Vernet was
-more capable than any other painter of giving a happy impulse to the
-art of engraving; and, indeed, the landscape engravers formed by him
-were masters of the genre. We have mentioned Balechou and Vivarès. The
-former, at first a pupil of Lépicié, began by engraving portraits, the
-best known of which, a full-length of Augustus III., King of Poland,
-brought upon its author the shame of a fitting punishment. Convicted
-of having detained a certain number of the first proofs for his own
-profit; Balechou was struck off the list of the Académie, and obliged
-to retire to Arles, his native town, and thence to Avignon, where
-he took to landscape engraving. There it was that he executed after
-Joseph Vernet his "Baigneuses," his "Calme," and his "La Tempête."
-In his latter years he returned to history, and executed after Carle
-Vanloo his tiresome "Sainte Geneviève," which was once so loudly
-vaunted, which even now is not unadmired, and which really might be a
-masterpiece, if technical skill and excessive ease of handling were
-all the art. Though, unlike Vivarès, he did not teach the practice of
-landscape in England, Balechou contributed enormously by his works
-to the education of the English engravers; and the best of them,
-Woollett, confessed that he produced his "Fishing" with a proof of the
-Frenchman's "La Tempête" always before his eyes.
-
-As for Vivarès, he engraved in Paris a number of plates after Joseph
-Vernet and the Old Masters, and then, preceding De Loutherbourg and
-many others of his nation, he migrated to London. He took with him a
-new art, as Hollar had done a century before, and founded that school
-of landscape engravers whose talents were destined to constitute, even
-to our own time, the chief glory of English engraving.
-
-But before his pupils and imitators could take possession after him of
-this vast domain, engraving in England had developed considerably, in
-another direction, under the influence of two distinguished artists,
-Hogarth and Reynolds, born at an interval of twenty-five years from
-one another. The son of a printer's reader, who apprenticed him to a
-goldsmith, William Hogarth spent almost all his youth in obscurity
-and poverty. At twenty he was engraving business cards for London
-tradesmen; some years later he was sign-painting, and was wearing
-himself out in work entirely unworthy of him, when he forced the
-attention of the public by the publication of a satirical print, the
-heroes of which were well known and easily recognised. His success
-being presently confirmed by other compositions of the same sort, he
-profited by the fact to apply his talent to more serious work. He soon
-acquired a reputation, enriched himself by marrying the daughter of Sir
-James Thornhill, the king's painter, and remained till his death (1764)
-one of the most eminent men of his country.
-
-Both as painter and engraver Hogarth was a deep student of art, on
-which he has left some commendable writings; but he never succeeded
-in fulfilling all its conditions. Extravagantly pre-occupied with the
-philosophical significance with which he purposes to endow his work,
-he does not always see when he has gone far enough in the exposition
-of his idea: he darkens it with commentary; he becomes unintelligible
-by sheer insistence on intelligibility. There are allegories of his in
-which, still striving after ingenuity, he has piled detail upon detail
-till the result is confusion worse confounded.
-
-But when no excess of analysis has decomposed his primary idea to
-nothingness, by directing the attention elsewhere, Hogarth strikes
-home, and compasses most powerful effects. His series of prints, in
-which are storied the actions of one or more persons--his "Marriage à
-la Mode," his "Rake's Progress," his "Harlot's Progress," his "Industry
-and Idleness"--the last a sort of double biography representing the
-different lives of two apprentices, one of whom becomes Lord Mayor of
-London, whilst the other dies at Tyburn--all these engraved by himself,
-partly in etching and partly in line, are, as regards the execution, by
-no means irreproachable; are frequently, indeed, not even good: but in
-expression and gesture they are nearly always of startling truth, while
-the moral meaning, the innermost spirit of every scene, is felt and
-rendered with the keenest sagacity. At the very time when the genius of
-Richardson was working a like revolution in literature, Hogarth--and
-herein lies his chief merit--was introducing domestic drama into
-art. In England and elsewhere the painter-engraver and the novelist,
-both creators of the style in which they worked, have had a crowd of
-imitators; but they cannot be said to have met with rivals anywhere.
-
-The genius of Sir Joshua Reynolds is of a totally different order. In
-the sense of consisting in the sentiment of effect and the masterly
-arrangement of tones it is essentially _picturesque_, and presents
-such a boldness of character as engravers could easily appreciate and
-reproduce. There is no far-fetched significance, no accessories tending
-to destroy the unity of the whole. On the contrary, the work proceeds
-by synthesis; it is all largely schemed, and built up in masses where
-the details are scarcely indicated. The expression lies not so much in
-niceties of physiognomy as in the whole attitude of the sitters and the
-characteristic pose and contour of the faces represented. The painter's
-imagination is brilliant rather than delicate; sometimes, indeed, it
-degenerates into bad taste and eccentricity. But far more frequently
-it gives his attitudes an air of ease and originality, and the general
-aspect of his portraits breathes a perfect dignity. The vigorous
-contrasts, the freedom and wealth of colour which are their primary
-characteristics, as they are those of Gainsborough's work likewise,
-are qualities to whose translation the free and flowing stroke of the
-graver is hardly fitted, but which mezzotint would naturally render
-with ease and success. And, as we have said before, it is to the
-influence of the famous painter that must be attributed the immense
-extension of the latter process in England during the latter part of
-the eighteenth century.
-
-The landscape and mezzotint engravers began, therefore, to vitalise
-the English school: the former especially lent it real importance
-by their talent. From 1760 or thereabouts Woollett published, after
-Richard Wilson or after Claude, those admirable works which, on account
-of their suave harmony of effect, their transparency of atmosphere,
-and their variableness of colour, are less like engravings than
-pictures.[45] Shortly afterwards he completed his fame by work of
-another sort: the reproduction, first, of West's "Death of Wolfe," and
-then of his "Battle of La Hogue," the American's best picture, and
-the finest historical plate ever engraved in England. Lastly about
-the same time, Robert Strange, a pupil of Philippe Le Bas, engraved
-in line, after Correggio and Van Dyck, the "Saint Jerome" and the
-"Charles I.;" as well as other prints after these masters, which are
-quite as charming, and should, indeed, be unreservedly admired if the
-correctness of their drawing were only equal to their elegance of
-modelling and flexibility of tone.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 93.--WOOLLETT.
-
-Landscape. After G. Smith.]
-
-So much progress accomplished in so few years attracted the attention
-of statesmen and of the English Government. They saw it was time to
-cease from paying tribute to the superiority of French engravers, and
-to allow those talents to develop in London which had till then been
-sent to school in Paris. George III. had just founded the Royal Academy
-(Jan., 1769), with Reynolds for its first President. He determined
-still further to strengthen the impulse of art by countenancing great
-undertakings in engraving; and as he wished the country to reap as much
-commercial benefit as honour in the matter, he granted bounties on the
-exportation of English engravings, while the importation of French work
-was taxed with enormous duties.
-
-In this way the progress of national art became a political question,
-and every one hastened to second the king's views. Woollett's plates
-had been largely subscribed for before publication, and the illustrated
-editions of the travels of Cook and Sir Joseph Banks were taken up in
-a few days. Finally, when it was proposed to engrave Copley's "Death
-of Chatham," the subscription at once ran up to £3,600; and when, the
-first proofs having been taken, the plate was returned to the engraver,
-he made almost as much more in less than two years. Nor did the fever
-of protection in any wise abate for that. On the contrary, it called
-a number of talents into being, and attracted to London a crowd of
-foreigners, all sure of the encouragement which began to fail them
-elsewhere. Cipriani, Angelica Kauffmann, Catherine Prestel, the Swiss
-Moser and his daughter, and a hundred other painters or engravers, came
-in one after another to contribute to the success of the school and the
-spread of English trade.[46]
-
-Amongst these adventurers there was one--the Florentine
-Bartolozzi--whose works at once became the fashion, less, perhaps,
-for any intrinsic merit than because of the novelty of his method.
-The process called "stipple engraving" excluded the use of lines and
-cross hatchings, and consisted in the arrangement of masses of dots
-more or less delicate in themselves, and more or less close in order,
-and designed in proportion to their relative distance or nearness, to
-render nice gradations of tone, depth of shadow, and even completeness
-of outline.
-
-Speaking exactly, this was but an application to the general execution
-of a work of a process adopted long before by etchers and line
-engravers as a means of partial execution. Jean Morin, Boulanger,
-Gérard Audran himself, and many others, had habitually made use of
-dots to supplement the work of the burin or the needle, or to effect
-transitions between their lights and shadows, or the larger of their
-outlines and subtler details of their modelling. Moreover, before their
-time, Jan Lutma, a Dutch goldsmith, invented a method of "engraving in
-dots," which, produced by means of his etching needle and aquafortis,
-were deepened and enlarged with chisel and hammer: whence the name of
-_opus mallei_ bestowed on his results. Bartolozzi, therefore, and the
-English engravers who, like Ryland, made use of stippling, did but
-revive and extend in their own way the boundaries of a method already
-known. They displayed remarkable skill, it is true, but their work,
-like the rest of its kind, displays a feebleness of form that is almost
-inevitable, and is touched with a coldness inherent in the very nature
-of the process.
-
-In stipple engraving, the burin and the dry point are used alternately,
-according to the degree of vigour or delicacy required. The parts that
-are to come light in proof are done with the dry-point; while those to
-come dark are covered with dots ploughed deeper with the burin. Round
-the edge of these, by the mere act of ploughing, there is raised a rim,
-or rampart--technically called a "burr"--which the engraver, to regain
-the ground thus lost, has to rub down with the burnisher. In this way
-he goes on dotting and burnishing till he gets a close enough grain.
-
-Immensely successful during the last years of the eighteenth century,
-stipple engraving soon went out of fashion, not only in France, where
-it scarce survived the first attempts of Copia, but even in England,
-where the example of Bartolozzi and Ryland had been followed with such
-eager diligence. Such, too, somewhat later, was the fate of a somewhat
-similar process--the "crayon engraving," of which Gilles Demarteau,
-born in Liège, but bred and trained in Paris, may be considered, if
-not the inventor, at least the most active, skilful, and popular
-practitioner.[47]
-
-The object of crayon engraving is to imitate the effect of red or black
-chalk on a coarse-grained paper, which, by the very roughness of its
-surface, retains no more than an uneven, and as it were a disconnected,
-impression of the strokes or hatchings laid upon it. In common with
-stipple engraving, it renders the loose and broken lines of the
-originals by substituting a mass of dots for the ordinary work of the
-burin or the needle. It differs, however, from stipple engraving in
-the method of working, and even in the nature of the tools employed.
-The outlines are traced on the varnished copper with a toothed or
-multi-pointed needle, while the inner hatchings are made either with
-the needle in question, or with what is called a roulette, which is
-a steel cylinder bristling with small, jagged teeth, and running on
-a fixed axis. The roulette, which is provided with a handle, is so
-directed that the teeth are brought to bear directly, and with more
-or less effect, on the varnished copper. Then the plate is bitten in;
-and when the aquafortis has done its part, the work, if necessary, is
-resumed with the same tools on the bare metal.
-
-The first specimens of crayon engraving were presented in 1757 to
-the Académie Royale de Peinture, which, an official document informs
-us,[48] "highly approved of the method, as being well fitted to
-perpetuate the designs of good masters, and multiply copies of the best
-styles of drawings." For the reproduction of drawings, the new process
-was certainly better than etching, at least as practised to that end
-by the Count de Caylus and the Abbé de Saint-Non. The misfortune was,
-that in the eighteenth century as in the first years of the nineteenth,
-the crayon engravers appear to have thought far less of "perpetuating
-the designs of good masters" than of suiting their choice of originals
-to the prevailing fashion. As a matter of fact, however skilful they
-were in execution, the only cause served by Demarteau's innumerable
-fac-similes was that of the Bouchers and Fragonards, and of kindred
-experts in "the most distinguished school of drawing." Reproduced by
-engraving, the crayon studies of these persons became the ordinary
-means of instruction in academies and public schools; and from the
-first the popularity of these wretched models was such that, even after
-the revolution effected in art by David, on through the Empire, and as
-late as the Restoration, art students generally remained subject to the
-regimen adopted for their predecessors in the days of Louis XV. and XVI.
-
-Then lithography made its appearance, and in no great while was
-applied to the production of drawing-copies, once the monopoly of
-crayon engraving. Nor was this the only quarter from which the method
-of François and Demarteau was assailed. By degrees it fell out of use
-for the production not only of drawing-copies, but of fac-similes of
-drawings by the masters for artists and amateurs; or, if occasionally
-practised, it was--as in the subjects engraved some thirty years
-back from drawings in the Louvre and the Musée de Lille--with so
-many modifications, and in combination with such a number of other
-processes, as reduced it from supremacy to the rank, till worse should
-befall, of a mere auxiliary. In our own time it has had its death-blow
-in the advance of photography; and as, after all, its one object was
-the presentation of an exact likeness, the absolute effigy, of its
-original, the preference of a purely mechanical process of reproduction
-is, if we consider the certainty of the results, no more than natural.
-In proportion as, by its very nature, photography is powerless to take
-the place of engraving, when the work to be reproduced, be it picture
-or mural decoration, presupposes in the interpreter, in whatsoever
-degree, the power of translating what is before him, just so far is it
-capable of fulfilling the one condition imposed upon the copyist of a
-drawing or an engraving--that of perfect fidelity in imitation.
-
-The object attempted by François, Demarteau, Bonnet, and others--the
-production by engraving of a sort of optical illusion, the exact
-fac-simile of a drawing--had been started before them by Jean
-Christophe Leblond, an artist born of French parents at Frankfort,
-who, moreover, had sought to extend to the imitation of colour
-what his successors were content to restrict to the imitation of
-monochrome. Very early in the eighteenth century, Leblond succeeded
-in producing prints in several tints, by a method which he called
-"pastel engraving," and to which custom has given the more general
-name of "colour engraving." For the second half of this title, it
-might, perhaps, have been better to use the word "printing." What is
-called "colour engraving" is not really a special engraving process.
-Its whole originality consists in the production of a single proof
-from several plates (generally four), in the preparation of which the
-rocker, the roulette, and sometimes even the burin, have been used.
-From these plates, each inked with a single colour, the effect of which
-is relieved or modified by the subsequent addition of those tints with
-which the other three are covered, there results in the proof, by the
-use of points of correspondence, an _ensemble_ in colour which is
-similar in appearance to that of painting in pastel, in water-colour,
-or in gouache. This was pretty much the process, and the results were
-in some sort comparable with those obtained by chromo-lithography. The
-older method had, however, the advantage of the other in that, by the
-very variety of the preparation to which the plate was subjected, its
-results were not so liable to present the appearance, either coarse or
-dull, of common hand-tinted work.
-
-Some of Leblond's engravings, particularly a large, half-length
-"Louis XV.," enable us to estimate to the full the capacities of his
-invention. Leblond, indeed, must be counted an inventor, inasmuch as
-it was his to discover a secret which, before him, had been only dimly
-foreseen, or at most half-guessed. Still, the essays in the first years
-of the seventeenth century of the Dutchman Lastmann, and a little later
-of Seghers the Fleming, should not be completely overlooked; nor would
-it be just to refuse recognition to the practical improvements made
-in colour engraving, after Leblond, by Gautier Dagoty, in Paris, and
-by Taylor, in London. In proportion to the relative importance of the
-two discoveries, Leblond played the same part in the history of the
-colour process as Daguerre in the history of heliography. They each
-effected so great an advance as to close the period of groping and
-darkness, and to some extent determine the course of progress. But it
-does not follow, therefore, that they owed nothing to the attempts of
-their predecessors; and if their claim to inventors' honours is fairly
-established, it is because they solved a problem they were by no means
-the first to attack.
-
-Leblond, indeed, got nothing from his discovery but the honour of
-making it. He sought in vain to turn it to account in London, and
-succeeded no better in Paris. In the latter city he lived for some
-years in great distress, and in 1741 he died there, in the hospital.
-
-Some years after the invention of colour engraving, another sort of
-engraving, or rather another sort of pictorial reproduction, the method
-called "au lavis," was invented, and very skilfully used from the
-outset, by Jean Baptiste Leprince; and in no great while the series of
-innovations in the practice of the art, from the end of the seventeenth
-century, was completed by the invention of aquatint.
-
-The first of these two processes is apparently of extreme simplicity.
-The line once engraved and bitten in, as in ordinary etching, it
-only consisted in brushing the plate with acid, as a draughtsman
-washes in on paper with sepia or Indian ink. The preliminary work,
-however, required a great deal of care and skill, and even a certain
-amount of scientific knowledge. The particular quality of the
-copper, the composition of the varnishes and acids, and many other
-conditions impossible to discuss in detail, made the new process
-somewhat difficult of employment; and before long the ardour of those
-practitioners who had essayed to imitate Leprince's results was very
-sensibly diminished.
-
-In spite of the value of these results, and the personal skill of the
-inventor; in spite, too, of the technical explanations contained in
-the "Plan du Traité de la Gravure au Lavis" presented by him (1750) to
-the Académie Royale, it was evident that the French engravers thought
-lightly of Leprince's discovery, and did not care to investigate
-its capabilities. It only got a fresh start in France when, notably
-modified and improved by the initiative of foreign engravers, it had
-been transformed in London into what is known as aquatint engraving.
-Then, however, in the hands of Debucourt,[49] and of Jazet later on,
-it acquired a popularity all the greater that its productions, by
-their very nature and quality, were more intimately in harmony with
-the inspiration and style of fashionable art. Jazet, for instance,
-contributed greatly to the triumph of aquatint in France, by applying
-it, from the first years of the Restoration, to the interpretation
-of the works of Horace Vernet. Such plates as "Le Bivouac du Colonel
-Moncey," the "Barrière de Clichy," the "Soldat Laboureur," and many
-others, were tolerated among Frenchmen for the sake of the associations
-they awakened at least as much as for their artistic merit.
-
-It is possible that since then the engraver has reckoned a little too
-much on the world-wide reputation of his painter; or it may be that he
-has been somewhat too conscious of the advantages of a rapid and facile
-method, and has sacrificed the ideal of delicacy and correctness to the
-enhancement of a reputation for fertility. Certain it is that Jazet,
-as is proved by his early engravings, and especially the "Barrière de
-Clichy," was more capable than any one else of raising work in aquatint
-to the level of art; and it is much to be regretted that his somewhat
-careless ease should have hindered the full development of his talent.
-It is still more to be regretted that, in spite of the laudable efforts
-of Messrs. Prévost, Girard, and others to maintain the process in the
-better way, it should have been dishonoured and deprived of all but a
-purely commercial importance by the production of multitudes of plates,
-whose only merit is their cheapness. If we consider the so-called
-Biblical scenes done in aquatint for exportation, the heroines of
-romance, the half-naked women described (by way of commentary) as
-"Love," "Souvenir," "Pleasure," "Desire," and all the terms of the
-erotic vocabulary, it is hard to say whether the intention or the
-execution is the more unpleasant. What is certain is that such things
-have nothing to do with art except as examples of its degradation and
-destruction. That section of the public sensible of their charm is
-certainly not that which is impressed by beauty, and it is useless to
-care about winning its approbation; but when ugliness is everywhere
-it is to be feared that everybody may grow used to the sight, and
-forget to look elsewhere. The danger to which pure line engraving is
-thus exposed by the deplorable exigencies of competition is not the
-only one which threatens the art. A glance at its several phases since
-1800 and at its present state is enough to show that the line of
-talents has never once been interrupted; that those of to-day are every
-whit as vigorous and accomplished as those of the past; but that for
-opportunities of displaying their full power, and being appreciated at
-their true worth they have not seldom to wait in vain.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-ENGRAVING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
-
-
-At the beginning of the nineteenth century some of the most celebrated
-artists of the French school of painting belonged, by the nature
-of their talent as well as by the date of their chief successes,
-to the ante-revolutionary period. Greuze, Fragonard, Moreau, Mme.
-Vigée-Lebrun, Vien even, notwithstanding his intentions of reform,
-Regnault and Vincent, in spite of their influence as professors on the
-new generation--all seemed rather to recall the past than to herald the
-future. One man, Louis David, personified the progress of the epoch.
-His pictures, "Les Horaces," and the "Brutus," had appeared some years
-before, and the approaching exhibition of "Les Sabines" was impatiently
-expected. At this time the younger artists and the public unanimously
-regarded David as the regenerator of national art and a master justly
-supreme. Architecture, painting, furniture, even fashion in dress, were
-all subjected to his absolute sway; everything was done in imitation of
-the antique, as understood and interpreted by him. Under the pretexts
-of pure beauty and a chaste style, nothing but a soulless body, a sort
-of coloured statue, was represented on canvas; while sculpture became
-no more than an imitation of Greek or Roman statuary. Since Lebrun,
-indeed, no single influence had so completely tyrannised over French
-taste.
-
-Engraving, though fated like the other arts to accept the dictatorship
-of David, was at any rate the first to throw off his yoke. Before
-the Restoration, whilst the painter of Marat, then painter to the
-Emperor, was still in the fulness of his power, the great Italians,
-whose pictures crowded the Louvre, had already been interpreted with
-more respect for the memory of the old manner than submission to the
-requirements of the newer style.
-
-The most talented of these new artists, Boucher-Desnoyers, when working
-at his "Belle Jardinière," after Raphael, or his "Vierge aux Rochers,"
-after Leonardo, probably thought much less of contemporary work than of
-the French engravers of the seventeenth century; while on their part
-Bervic and Tardieu, who had long before given proof of their power,
-faithfully maintained the great traditions: the one in an austerity of
-execution and a firmness of touch hereditary in his family, the other
-in his scientific ease of handling. These three were of the race of
-the older masters, and their work, unjustly forgotten some years later
-during the rage for the English manner, deserves a better fate than to
-be confounded with the cold and formal prints published in the France
-of the First Empire. The engravings after David, by popularising his
-work, obtained some success in their day, but have failed to secure a
-lasting reputation. The fault, however, is not altogether with the
-engravers: in spite of the apparent conscientiousness of the painter,
-his real indecision of method must count for something in the mediocre
-achievements of his interpreters.
-
-Free to impose his own system on all other artists, David might have
-enforced his artistic authority on his contemporaries; and even if
-it were beyond his power to restore the French school of engraving,
-he might at least have regenerated its principles, and, combining
-separate efforts under the synthesis of his own personal conception,
-have breathed into it a fresh spirit of unity. This he never attempted;
-and it is even hard to guess at what he expected from his engravers.
-It might be supposed that his own fondness for precision of form would
-have led him to require from them insistence as to the drawing, and not
-much attention to colour and effect; yet most of the prints after his
-pictures--amongst others those by Morel and Massard--are heavy in tone
-and feeble in drawing. There is in them no trace either of the precise
-manner of David, or of the large method of the old school; it is
-therefore not in these commonplace works, and still less in the barren
-engravings composing the great "Commission d'Égypte," that we must look
-for signs of such talent as then existed in France.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 94.--ALEXANDER TARDIEU.
-
-The Earl of Arundel. After Van Dyck.]
-
-The few painters who, like Regnault, were more or less independent
-of David's influence, or, like Prud'hon, had ventured to create an
-entirely original method, were admired by so small a public that their
-pictures were not generally reproduced in engraving, and thus could
-do little for the progress of the art. Some, however, of Prud'hon's
-drawings and pictures met, under the Directory and the Empire, with
-excellent interpreters in Copia and in Barthélemy Roger; while in the
-last years of the eighteenth century Bervic's engraving of Regnault's
-"Éducation d'Achille" had obtained at least as much success as the
-original had won in the Salon of 1783. To give a companion to this
-justly celebrated piece, Bervic soon after published his "Enlèvement de
-Déjanire," after Guido. This work, to which the judges of the Decennial
-Competition awarded the prize in preference to any engraving published
-in France from 1800 to 1810, by confirming the engraver's reputation,
-caused his fellow-craftsmen to return once more to the old path of
-progress.
-
-It must not, however, be supposed that Bervic did not himself diverge
-somewhat from the way of the masters: it may even be said that he was
-always more inclined to skirt it than to follow it resolutely. At the
-outset he was not sufficiently alive to the perils of facility; and
-later on he was apt to attach too much importance to certain quite
-material qualities. Yet it must be added that he never went so far as
-to entirely sacrifice essentials to accessories, and that more than
-once--in his fine full-length of Louis XVI. for instance--he displayed
-an ability all the more laudable as the original was by no means
-inspiring.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 95.--BERVIC.
-
-"L'Éducation d'Achille." After Regnault.]
-
-From the engraving it is hard to suspect the mediocrity of Callet's
-picture. This, now at Versailles, is insipidly coloured and loosely
-and clumsily drawn; the print, on the contrary, is to be admired for
-its solid appearance, and its easy yet unostentatious handling. Lace,
-satin, velvet, all accessories, indeed, are treated with a largeness
-of touch by no means at variance with delicacy, and the general tone
-is harmoniously luminous. Here and there, however, is already visible
-a certain artifice of manner which threatens to degenerate into an
-unwise cultivation of fine line, and end in an abuse of skill. This,
-indeed, is what happened. Bervic, henceforth, thought of little else
-but dexterity, and ended in his "Laocoon," perhaps the best known of
-all his works, by a display of common technical fireworks, to a certain
-extent surprising, but by no means to be unreservedly admired. The care
-with which he set himself to imitate the grain of marble by minute
-workmanship is only trifling with his subject; and though a group
-of statues cannot be treated in the same way as figures painted on
-canvas, it was more important, and more desirable in every respect, to
-reproduce the character and style of the original than to imitate the
-substance in which it was wrought.
-
-Moreover, in the attempt so to interpret his model, Bervic has defeated
-his own purpose. By a multitude of details, and an abuse of half-lights
-intended to bring out the slightest accidents of form and modelling, he
-has only succeeded in depriving the general aspect of brilliancy and
-unity.
-
-Far removed, indeed, was such a method from that of the Old Masters,
-and Bervic lived long enough to change his mind. "I have missed
-the truth," he declared in his old age, "and if I could begin life
-again, I should do nothing I have done." There he wronged himself.
-As happens often in tardy repentances, he remembered past errors only
-to exaggerate them; but we must be juster to the engraver of the
-"Louis XVI." and "L'Éducation d'Achille" than he was to himself, and
-not forget that much of his work should be excluded from the sweeping
-condemnation which he launched upon the whole.
-
-Whilst Bervic was counted the greatest French engraver, Italy boasted
-of a man, his inferior in reality, but whom, in the existing dearth
-of talent, his countrymen agreed to thrust into the glorious eminence
-of a master. Like Canova, his senior by a few years only, Raphael
-Morghen had the good fortune to be born at the right time. Both
-second-rate artists, they would have passed almost unnoticed in a more
-favoured century; as it was, in the absence of contemporary rivals,
-their compatriots accepted their accidental superiority as a proof of
-absolute merit. Moreover, by merely submitting in some sort to the
-dictates of opinion and of public taste, their popularity and success
-were easily assured. The writings of Winckelmann and Raphael Mengs had
-brought antique statues and Italian pictures of the sixteenth century
-once more into favour; so that Canova, by imitating the former more or
-less cleverly, and Morghen by engraving the latter, could neither of
-them fail to please, and it is especially to their choice of subjects
-that we must attribute the great reputation they both enjoyed.
-
-Morghen, the pupil and son-in-law of Volpato, whose weak engravings
-from the "Stanze," in the Vatican, are known to every one, shared with
-that feeble artist, and with Longhi, the privilege of reproducing
-admirable paintings, which had either never been engraved, or not
-since the time of the masters. This alone gives a certain value to his
-plates, faulty as they are. Assuredly, for instance, the engraving of
-Leonardo's "Last Supper" reproduces no more than the general lines of
-the composition and the attitude of the figures. We look at it as we
-might listen to an inferior actor reading verses from "Polyeucte" or
-"Athalie," because the inspiration of the master is still to be felt,
-in spite of the intermediary of expression; only the sort of beauty
-inherent in the conception and arrangement of the original remains in
-this piece of Morghen's. What can be said of the head of the Saviour,
-like those of the Apostles, _restored_ by the engraver, and unillumined
-by the faintest glimmer of sentiment? How is it possible, examining the
-work in detail, not to be offended by the arrogance of the technique
-and the display of mere mechanical facility, when one remembers the
-incomparable accuracy of Leonardo and his perfection of style?
-
-But in thus substituting his own manner, and the caprices of his
-individual taste, for the manner and the taste of the painter of
-"The Last Supper," Morghen only treated this great master as he was
-in the habit of treating others. Whether it was his lot to interpret
-Raphael or Poussin, Andrea del Sarto or Correggio, he had but one
-uniform method for the most conflicting types; and to his tricks of
-hand he subjected, without remorse, the inspired grace or the noble
-energy of whatever he copied. Once, however, it was given him to
-entertain higher aspirations, and to study more conscientiously the
-particular characteristics of the work he was to reproduce. It would be
-impossible without deliberate injustice to avoid recognising merit in
-his plate from Van Dyck's "Francesco de Moncada," as much on the score
-of intelligent fidelity as of skilful execution. But, for his other
-works, could one, without equal injustice, condone the inadequacy of
-expression and drawing, the systematic contempt of all effort, the many
-evidences of vain and self-confident ease which refuses to be humbled
-even in the presence of genius?
-
-Morghen preserved till the end the brilliant reputation which his
-extreme fertility and the complacent patriotism of the Italians had won
-for him at the outset. Born in Naples, he settled in Florence, whither
-he had been allured by the Grand Duke Ferdinand III., and where he
-remained during the French occupation, and, much less resentful than
-Alfieri, repulsed neither the homage nor the favour of the foreigner.
-On the return of the Grand Duke, his old protector, he was still less
-ready to yield to the Neapolitans, who coveted the honour of recalling
-the renowned artist to his native country. When at length he died in
-1833, all Italy was stirred at the news, and innumerable sonnets, the
-usual expression of public regret or enthusiasm, celebrated "the
-undying glory of the illustrious engraver of 'The Last Supper.'"
-
-Johann Godard Müller, who early in life had had nearly as widespread
-a recognition in Germany as Morghen in Italy, departed this world in
-lonely misery three years before the Neapolitan. Beyond the walls
-of Stuttgart, scarce any one remembered the existence or the brief
-renown of the engraver of the "Madonna della Sedia" and the "Battle of
-Bunker's Hill." For he had long ceased to trouble about his work or
-his reputation, and lived only to mourn a son, who in 1816 died at the
-very time when, in his turn, he was about to become one of the most
-distinguished engravers of his country.
-
-From childhood this son, Christian Frederick Müller, had been devoted
-to his father's art. His first attempts were successful enough to
-warrant his early admittance to the school of engraving recently
-founded at Stuttgart by Duke Charles of Wurtemberg. We have seen that
-during the second half of the eighteenth century many German engravers
-came to Paris for training, and that many remained there. Expelled from
-France, their adopted country, by the Revolution, they returned to
-Germany, and the institution of a school of engraving in Stuttgart was
-one result of their expulsion. But by 1802 many of the fugitives were
-already back in Paris, and the studios, closed for ten years, once more
-opened their doors to numerous pupils. Frederick Müller, then barely
-twenty, followed his father's example, and in his turn went to perfect
-himself under French masters.
-
-Commended to the good offices of Wille, then past eighty, who felt it
-an honour to have taught Johann Godard Müller, and introduced by him,
-the young man was soon in relation with Bervic, Tardieu, and Desnoyers;
-and without constituting himself a thorough-going imitator of these
-fine craftsmen, he yet borrowed enough from them to be considered,
-if not their rival, at least one of their most faithful disciples.
-The plates he engraved for the "Musée Français," published by Laurent
-and Robillard,[50] show laudable submission to the principles of the
-masters and an already sound experience of art; but it is in the
-"Madonna di San Sisto," in which he seems to have arrived at maturity,
-that his talent may be fully measured. Before undertaking this plate,
-the young engraver went to Italy to study other work by the "Divine
-Painter," and to prepare himself for the interpretation of the picture
-in the Dresden Gallery by drawing from the Vatican frescoes. On his
-return to Germany, he at once applied himself to the task, and pursued
-it with such ardour that, towards the end of 1815, that is in three
-years, he had brought it to an end. The "Madonna di San Sisto" deserves
-to rank with the finest line engravings of the beginning of the
-century. It has long been popular; but renown came too slowly for the
-engraver, and unhappily he lacked the patience to await its coming.
-
-When Müller had finished his work, he determined to publish it himself,
-hoping to gain not only honour but legitimate profit. He was exhausted
-by hard work, but he trusted to meet with the reward which he felt to
-be due to such continual effort, and to meet with it at once. Time
-passed, however, and the young engraver, a prey to feverish anxiety,
-began to rail at the indifference of his contemporaries. He had soon to
-make arrangements with a publisher, that the fruit of his labours might
-not be altogether lost. Several amateurs then bought proofs, but there
-was as yet no general popularity for a print the appearance of which,
-in the expectation of its author, should have had all the importance
-of a public event. So many disappointments completed the ruin of his
-health, and at last affected his reason. In a paroxysm of excitement,
-Müller stabbed himself with a burnisher. Shortly after his "Sistine
-Madonna" obtained that great success which the poor artist had fondly
-anticipated. The publisher grew rich upon the proofs; and the name of
-the young engraver who had made too great haste to sell them was with
-justice acclaimed throughout Europe.
-
-The works of Bervic, of Desnoyers, of Morghen and of Müller, may be
-said to represent the state of engraving in France, in Italy, and in
-Germany during the early years of the nineteenth century. They show
-that at that time the three schools professed the same doctrines,
-or, at least, followed the same masters; but this seeming conformity
-was not destined to be of long duration. The principles of art were
-soon modified by the influence of new ideas, and the German engravers
-(taking the lead in this change of aim) entered the path which they are
-still following.
-
-At the time of Müller's death, the influence of Goethe and Schiller
-on German literature had begun to extend to the pictorial arts.
-Passionate study of the Middle Ages took the place of the worship of
-antiquity, and whilst the classical dictionary was still the only
-gospel for French painters, those beyond the Rhine were already
-drinking inspiration from Christian tradition and national legend. This
-was a happy reaction in so far as it reinvested art with that ethereal
-character which is indispensable to its higher developments; but, on
-the other hand, rapidly degenerating into mere archæology, the movement
-ended by oppressing and imprisoning talent under invariable formulas.
-A few years sufficed to reduce German art to such a condition that
-asceticism became the established rule. Since then Overbeck, Cornelius,
-and Kaulbach have added the weight of their authority and example,
-and continued and perfected the tradition of their forerunners; and
-this reformation has been as thorough in Germany as the far different
-revolution accomplished by David in France.
-
-The German painters having thus laid aside a part of their material
-resources, the German engravers have been obliged to confine themselves
-to a translation of the ideal sentiment of their originals. In this
-task it must be allowed they have perfectly succeeded. They reproduce
-with singular completeness that generative thought, and religious,
-philosophical, or literary imagination, which, far more than any
-pictorial idea, inspires the German painter.
-
-Strictly speaking, they do not produce engravings: that is, they do
-not produce works in which the burin has sought to render the value
-of tone, colour, chiaroscuro, or any constituent of a picture save
-composition and drawing; they are satisfied to cut in the copper, with
-a precision frequently approaching dryness, the outlines of simple
-forms; while, by way of concession to the true pictorial spirit,
-they think it enough to throw in here and there a few suggestions of
-modelling and light masses of shadow. Among the numerous specimens of
-this extreme reticence of execution, it is sufficient to mention the
-"Apostolical Scenes" engraved, after Overbeck, by Franz Keller, Ludy,
-and Steinfensand; the plates after Cornelius, published at Carlsruhe
-and Munich, by Schäffer, Merz, and others; and lastly, Thaeter's big
-"Battle of the Huns," after Kaulbach.
-
-Although subdivided into smaller classes, the modern German school is
-composed--at least, in so far as historical painting and engraving
-are concerned--of a group of kindred talents, inspired by abstract
-reflection rather than the study of reality. Nevertheless this main
-idea has not everywhere been carried out with the same logical rigour.
-The Düsseldorf engravers, for instance, have not always confined
-themselves, like those of Munich, to the representation of figures and
-their accessories, as mere silhouettes, strengthened, if at all, by
-the palest of shadows. Even more elastic principles have prevailed
-elsewhere. Felsing of Darmstadt, Mendel of Berlin, and Steinla of
-Dresden, have proved by their engravings after Fra Bartolommeo,
-Raphael, and Holbein, that they have no notion of denying themselves
-any of the methods used by the masters of engraving for imitating
-in the highest perfection the relief and life of objects figured on
-canvas. But these and other efforts must be considered exceptional. As
-we have said, the dominant tendency of German art since the reform is
-rather towards deliberate, even systematic, conception than spontaneous
-expression of sentiment: it is, in fact, the mortification of the eye
-for the intelligence. In a word, German engravers trust too much to
-logic and analysis, and too little to their senses. It is only natural
-that they should. The qualities lacking in their works are also lacking
-in the pictures and drawings from which these are engraved. Still,
-their main principle once admitted, we must allow that it could not
-well be pushed to a more logical conclusion. In Germany, separate and
-independent talents do not exist, as in Belgium, Austria, Switzerland,
-and Russia. The end is the same for all, and is obtained by all in
-nearly the same degree. In England, also, engraving, considered as a
-whole, presents an incontestable unity; nevertheless, the difference
-between the schools is great. A trifle hypochondriacal by dint of
-privations and penance, German art is sustained by a feverish faith
-which lends to it the animation of life; while in spite of its
-flourishing looks, English art is really decayed in constitution.
-Its health is only apparent, and the least study of its vital sources
-compels the recognition of its frailty.
-
-It has frequently been said that the arts are the expression of
-the moral tendency of a people. This is doubtless true; at all
-events, it is true of those people for whom the arts have always
-been a necessity--of Greece and Italy, for example, where they have
-been as it were endemic. Where, however, art has been diffused by
-contagion--as an epidemic--it may remain quite distinct from national
-tendencies, or only represent a part of them, or even suggest the
-presence of quite antagonistic influences. Strictly speaking, a
-school of painting has only existed in England since the eighteenth
-century; surely its characteristics, past and present, are in nowise a
-spontaneous expression of national feeling? Are all its most important
-achievements--the portraits of Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence, and
-the landscapes of Turner--inspired by that practical wisdom, that
-spirit of order and love of exactness in everything, which characterise
-the English equally in private and in public life? On the contrary,
-the quest of spurious brilliancy and effect, exaggerated at the
-expense of accurate form and precision of style, is the one tradition
-of the English school of painting; and in spite of the inventive and
-tasteful work produced in the first half of the century by artists like
-Wilkie, Smirke, and Mulready, as of the more recent efforts of the
-Pre-Raphaelites, it would seem as if the school were neither able nor
-willing to change.
-
-The æsthetic formula accepted and used, from one generation to another,
-by the English painters has influenced--and, perhaps naturally, with
-still more authority--their compatriots the engravers. Just now English
-engraving seems careless of further effort. It is as though its
-innumerable products had nothing whatever to reveal to those who buy
-them, and were bought from habit, and not from taste.
-
-It has been seen that George III. did his utmost to encourage line
-engraving, and that the exportation of prints soon became a source of
-revenue. How could the country neglect those wares which abroad were
-made so heartily welcome? The aristocracy set the example. Men of
-high social position thought it their duty to subscribe to important
-publications. In imitation, or from patriotism, the middle class in
-their turn sought to favour the growth of engraving; and when, some
-years later, it became the fashion to illustrate "Keepsakes" and "Books
-of Beauty" with steel engravings, their cheapness put them within
-everybody's reach. People gradually took to having prints in their
-houses, just as they harboured superfluities of other kinds; and,
-the custom becoming more and more general, engravers could be almost
-certain of the sale of any sort of work. This is still the case. In
-London, every new print may reckon on a certain number of subscribers.
-Hence the facility of production, and the constant mechanical
-improvements tending to shorten the work; hence, too, unfortunately,
-the family likeness and purely conventional charm of the English prints
-of the last half-century.
-
-A glance at any recent aquatints and mezzotints or into a new book of
-etchings, discovers nothing one does not seem to have seen a hundred
-times before. There are the eternal conflicts of light and darkness,
-the eternal contrasts between velvety and pearly textures. In its
-needless formality, this trickery resembles that of uninspired and
-styleless singers. A brief _piano_ passage is followed by a crashing
-_forte_; the whole thing consists in abruptness of contrast, and
-depends for success entirely upon surprise. In both cases this element
-is soon exhausted by too frequent use. The novelty of their appearance
-might at first impart a certain charm to English engravings; but the
-unending repetition of the same effect has destroyed their principal
-merit, and it is difficult to regard them with attention or interest.
-
-It would be unjust, however, to confine ourselves to the consideration
-of the abuse of general methods, and to say nothing of individual
-talents. England has produced some remarkable engravers since those
-in mezzotint formed by Reynolds and the landscape artists who were
-Woollett's pupils. Abraham Raimbach, for instance, was a fine workman,
-and a better draughtsman than most of his compatriots; his plates
-after Wilkie's "Blind Man's Buff," "The Rent-Day," and "The Village
-Politicians," deserve to be classed amongst the most agreeable works
-of modern engraving. Samuel William Reynolds, in his portraits
-after many English painters, and his plates from Géricault, Horace
-Vernet, and Paul Delaroche, and Samuel Cousins, in his engravings of
-Lawrence's "Master Lambton," "Pius VII.," and "Lady Gower and her Son,"
-have succeeded in getting a good deal more from mezzotint than the
-eighteenth century masters.
-
-In spite of the dissimilarity of their talents, Raimbach and Cousins
-may yet be compared as the last English engravers who attempted to
-invest their work with a character in conformity with the strict
-conditions of the art. Since them the London craftsmen have practised
-more or less skilfully an almost mechanical profession. They have
-only produced either the thousands of engravings, which every year
-proceed from the same source, or the prints that deal with still less
-ambitious subjects--animals, attributes of the chase, and so forth--on
-an absurdly large scale. They have, indeed, gone so far as to represent
-life-size dogs, cats, and game. There is even a certain plate, after
-Landseer, whose sole interest is a parrot on its perch, and which is
-much larger than the plates that used to be engraved from the largest
-compositions of the masters. To say the least, here are errors of taste
-not to be redeemed by improvements in the manufacture of tools, nor
-even by ingenious combinations of the different processes of engraving.
-However skilful contemporary English engravers may be in some respects,
-they cannot properly be said to produce works of art; because they
-insist on technique to an inordinate degree, and in like measure reduce
-almost to nothing the proportions of true art and sentiment.
-
-One might, with still greater reason, thus explain the mediocrity
-of American prints in the present day. Few as they are, they do not
-rivet attention as the manifestations of an art which, young and
-inexperienced, is yet vital in its artlessness; on the contrary, they
-are depressing as the products of an art fallen into the sluggishness
-of old age. It is as though engraving in the United States had begun in
-decay--or rather, it may be, negatively, with no tendency to change,
-and no impulse to progress. Mostly mezzotints or aquatints, the prints
-sold in New York and New Orleans suggest that their authors only wished
-to appropriate as best they could the present fashions and methods of
-English engraving. As for work in line, it is almost entirely confined
-to the embellishment of bank notes and tradesmen's cards. Some of its
-professors are not without technical knowledge and a sort of skill; and
-if it were absolutely necessary to find a characteristic specimen of
-American art it should, perhaps, be sought amongst works of this sort.
-In any case, it is best to reserve a definitive opinion, and simply to
-state what American engraving is, and must be, till a master arise by
-whose influence and example it may be animated and renewed.
-
-If, after considering the condition of engraving at the beginning of
-the present century, one should wish to become acquainted with its
-subsequent phases, assuredly one has to admit the pre-eminence of
-French talent. It may even be advanced that French engravers have
-maintained, and do still maintain, almost unaided the art of engraving
-within those limits from which it cannot deviate without the risk of
-becoming, as in Germany, a language of pure conventionality, or, as in
-England, the hackneyed expression of mere technical dexterity.
-
-Without doubt, evidences of broader and more serious talent were not
-lacking even in that school which some years earlier seemed to have
-gone to decay. After Volpato and Morghen, and in opposition to their
-example, there were Italian engravers who worked to such purpose as to
-redeem the honour of the school. The plates by Toschi and his pupils,
-from pictures and frescoes by Correggio at Parma; Calamatta's "Voeu de
-Louis Treize," after Ingres; Mercuri's "Moissonneurs," after Léopold
-Robert, and many prints besides, either by the same artists or others
-of their race, assuredly deserve to rank with the most important
-achievements of French engraving in the first half of the nineteenth
-century. But the years that have lapsed since their publication,
-while barren for Italy, have brought a continued harvest to France.
-After the engravers who made their appearance in the last years of
-the Restoration their pupils became masters in turn; and, in spite of
-adverse circumstances, the indifference of a section of the public,
-and the increasing popularity of photography, their zeal seems no more
-likely to diminish than the value of their work.
-
-Once, it is true, at the most brilliant period of English engraving,
-the French school was not without a moment of hesitation on the part
-of some, of disloyalty on that of others. During the First Empire,
-the existence of the art movement in London in the last years of
-the active rule of George III. and the beginning of the Regency was
-unsuspected in France. The cessation of commercial relations between
-the two countries left the French in such complete ignorance that,
-until 1816, the only English prints they knew were those by Strange,
-Ryland, and Woollett: those, in fact, published before the end of the
-eighteenth century. And when, after the Restoration, English work first
-came under the eyes of French engravers, the fascination of its novelty
-dazzled them more than the splendour of its merit.
-
-Those who, like Tardieu and Desnoyers, were especially concerned
-with loftiness of style and masculine vigour of execution, were but
-little moved by such innovations, if we may judge by the nature of
-their subsequent publications. The "Ruth and Boaz," engraved by the
-former after Hersent, the divers "Madonnas" and the "Transfiguration,"
-engraved by the latter after Raphael, do not testify that their belief
-in the excellence of the old French method was at all shaken. But
-others, either younger or less stable of conviction, were soon seduced.
-Like the English engravers, they attempted to unite all the different
-processes of engraving in their plates; and they sought, to the
-exclusion of all besides, the easiest way of work, piquancy of result,
-and prettiness everywhere, even in history. These imitations became
-more numerous by reason of their first success, till they threatened
-the independence of French engraving, which had not been encroached
-upon since the seventeenth century.
-
-The fever, however, soon cooled. A happy reaction set in soon after
-1830, and continued during the following years; and infatuation having
-everywhere been succeeded by reflection, the misleading qualities of
-the English manner were finally recognised. The French school takes
-counsel with none save itself, its past, and its traditions. To this
-just confidence in its own resources are owing its present superiority
-to, and independence of, other schools, and, what is more important
-still, its place apart from that mechanical industry which, with its
-spurious successes, its raids upon a territory not its own, and its
-pretentious efforts to occupy the place of art, would seize upon those
-privileges, which, do all it may, it can never hope to confiscate.
-
-Of all the engravers who have honoured our epoch not in France
-alone, but also in other countries, the first in genius, as in the
-general influence he has exerted for nearly half a century, is
-certainly Henriquel--as he called himself in the early part of his
-career--Henriquel-Dupont in the second half. But he too, it would seem,
-had his hours of indecision. Perhaps, in some of his early works,
-certain traces may be discovered of a leaning towards the English
-manner, certain tendencies of doubtful orthodoxy; but, at any rate,
-they have never developed into manifest errors: they have, at the most,
-resulted in venial sins, which themselves have been abundantly atoned.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 96.--HENRIQUEL.
-
-Cromwell (Etching). After Paul Delaroche.]
-
-Henriquel is a master in the widest acceptation of the word: a master,
-too, of the stamp of those in the past of whom the French have the
-greatest right to be proud. The masters of the seventeenth century have
-scarcely left us plates at once so largely and so delicately treated,
-as his "Hémicycle du Palais des Beaux-Arts," his "Moïse Exposé sur
-le Nil," and his "Strafford," after Paul Delaroche; his admirable
-sketch in etching of the "Pilgrims of Emmaus," after Veronese; and
-the portrait of M. Bertin, after Ingres; and these are but a few. We
-have, besides the Van Dyck, "Une Dame et sa Fille," engraved some
-years before the "Abdication de Gustave Wasa," after Hersent, and the
-"Marquis de Pastoret," after Paul Delaroche; the "Christ Consolateur,"
-engraved rather later, after Scheffer; and, among less important,
-though certainly not less meritorious works, the portraits engraved
-now with the scientific ease of the burin, now with the light and
-delicate touch of the needle: the "Pasta," the botanist "Desfontaines,"
-"Desenne" the draughtsman, the "Brongniart," the "Tardieu," the "Carle
-Vernet," the "Sauvageot," the "Scheffer," the "Mansard et Perrault,"
-the "Mirabeau à la Tribune," the "Rathier," and, latest of all, the
-charming little "Père Petétot."
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 97.--HENRIQUEL.
-
-The Marquis de Pastoret. After Paul Delaroche.]
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 98.--HENRIQUEL.
-
-Alexander Brongniart. After a Drawing by the Engraver.]
-
-In these--and in how many besides? for the work of the master does
-not fall short of ninety pieces, besides lithographs and a great deal
-in pastel and crayon--Henriquel proves himself not only a trained
-draughtsman and finished executant, but, as it were, still more a
-painter than any of his immediate predecessors. Bervic--whose pupil
-he became, after some years in the studio of Pierre Guérin--was able
-to teach him to overcome the practical difficulties of the art, but
-the influence of the engraver of the "Laocoon" and the "Déjanire" went
-no further than technical initiation. Even the example of Desnoyers,
-however instructive in some respects, was not so obediently followed by
-Henriquel as to cause any sacrifice of taste and natural sentiment. By
-the clearness of his views, as much as by the elevation of his talent,
-the engraver of the "Hemicycle" is connected with the past French
-school and the masters who are its chief honour; but by the particular
-form of expression he employs, by a something extremely unexpected
-in his manner and extremely personal in his acceptance of tradition,
-he stands to a certain extent apart from his predecessors, and may
-be called an innovator, though he by no means advertises any such
-pretension. As we have just remarked, his use of means is so versatile
-that he paints with the graver or the needle, where just before him
-others, even the most skilful--men like Laugier and Richomme--could
-only engrave; and the influence he has exerted--whether by direct
-teaching, or by his signed work--has had the effect of rejuvenating
-engraving in France in more than one particular, and of awakening
-talents, some of which, though plainly betraying their origin, have
-none the less a weight and an importance of their own, and deserve an
-honourable place in the history of contemporary art.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 99.--HENRIQUEL.
-
-Alexander Tardieu. After a Drawing by Ingres.]
-
-Several of his most distinguished pupils are dead: Aristide Louis,
-whose "Mignon," after Scheffer, won instant popularity; Jules François,
-who is to be credited, among other fine plates, with a real masterpiece
-in the "Militaire Offrant des Pièces d'Or à une Femme," after the
-Terburg in the Louvre; and Rousseaux, perhaps the most gifted engraver
-of his generation, whose works, few as they are, are yet enough to
-immortalise him. Who knows, indeed, if some day the "Portrait d'Homme"
-from the picture in the Louvre attributed to Francia, and the "Madame
-de Sévigné" from Nanteuil's pastel, may not be sought for with the
-eagerness now expended on the search for the old masters of engraving?
-
-The premature death of these accomplished craftsmen has certainly been
-a loss to the French school. Fortunately, however, there remain many
-others whose work is of a nature to uphold the ancient renown of French
-art, and to defy comparison with the achievement of other countries.
-Where, save in France could equivalents be found, for instance, of
-the "Coronation of the Virgin," after Giovanni da Fiesole, and the
-"Marriage of Saint Catherine," after Memling, by Alphonse François;
-of the "Antiope," by Blanchard, after Correggio; of the "Vierge de la
-Consolation," after Hébert, by Huot; of Danguin's "Titian's Mistress,"
-or Bertinot's "Portement de Croix," after Lesueur; of several other
-plates, remarkable in different ways, and bearing the same or other
-names? What rivalry need Gaillard fear, in the sort of engraving of
-which he is really the inventor, and which he practises with such
-extraordinary skill? Whether he produces after Van Eyck, Ingres, or
-Rembrandt, such plates as the "Homme à l'OEillet," the "OEdipus," and the
-"Pilgrims of Emmaus," or gives us, from his own drawings or paintings,
-such portraits as his "Pius IX." and his "Dom Guéranger," he, in
-every case, arrests the mind as well as surprises the eye, by the
-inconceivable subtlety of his work. Even when translating the works of
-others he shows himself boldly original. His methods are entirely his
-own, and render imitation impossible because they are prompted by the
-exceptional delicacy of his perceptions; but, with all the goodwill in
-the world, it would be no less difficult to appropriate his keenness of
-sentiment or to gain an equal degree of mental insight.
-
-In France, then, line engraving has representatives numerous enough,
-and above all meritorious enough, to put to rout the apprehensions
-of those who believe, or affect to believe, the art irretrievably
-injured by the success of heliography. We have only to glance at the
-feats accomplished in our own day in engraving of another kind, and
-to examine those produced in France by contemporary French etchers,
-to be reassured on this question also. Might we not, even, without
-exaggeration, apply the term renaissance to the series of advances
-effected in the branch of engraving formerly distinguished by Callot
-and by Claude Lorraine? When, since the seventeenth century, has the
-needle ever been handled in France by so many skilful artists, and
-with so keen a feeling for effect and colour? But let none mistake the
-drift of our praise. Of course, we do not allude here to the thousands
-of careless sketches scrawled on the varnish, with a freedom to be
-attributed to simple ignorance, far more than to real dash and spirit;
-nor to those would-be "works of art," for which the skill of the
-printer and the tricks of printing have done the most. To the dupes of
-such blatant trickeries they shall be left. Still, it is only just to
-acknowledge, in the etchings of the day, a singular familiarity with
-the true conditions of the process, and generally a good knowledge
-of pictorial effect, solid enough and sufficiently under control to
-maintain a mean between pedantry and exaggerated ease.
-
-Many names would deserve mention, were we not confined to general
-indications of the progress and the movement they represent. It is,
-however, impossible to omit that of Jacquemart, the young master
-recently deceased, who, in a kind of engraving he was the first to
-attempt, gave proof of much ingenuity of taste and of original ability.
-The plates of which his "Gemmes et Joyaux de la Couronne" is composed,
-and his etchings of similar models--sculpture and goldsmith's work,
-vases and bindings, enamels and cameos--all deserve to rank with
-historical pieces of the highest order; even as the still-life painted
-by Chardin a century ago still excites the same interest, and has a
-right to the same attention, as the best pictures by contemporary
-allegorical or portrait painters.
-
-The superiority of the French school, in whatever style, has, moreover,
-been recently recognised and proclaimed in public. It has not been
-forgotten that the jury entrusted with the awards at the International
-Exhibition of 1878 unanimously decreed a principal share to the
-engravers of France. Without injustice this share might perhaps have
-been even greater if the jury, chiefly composed of Frenchmen, had
-not thought right to take full account of the special conditions of
-the competition, and the readiness with which the artists of other
-countries had responded.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 100.--JULES JACQUEMART.
-
-Henri III. After a Sixteenth Century Bronze.]
-
-Since then the position of art in Europe, and the relative importance
-of talents in different countries of Europe, have not changed. If,
-to understand the state of contemporary engraving, it be thought
-desirable to confine our attention to the present moment, there can
-be no doubt whatever that the most cursory examination of the works
-representing the different processes of engraving must justify the
-above observations. These we should wish briefly to recapitulate.
-
-We have said that etching has, within the last few years, returned so
-much into favour, that probably at no other time have its products
-been more numerous, or in more general demand. This is but fair; and
-it is not in France only that the public taste for etched work, large
-and small, is justified by the talent of the artists who publish it.
-To quote a few names only among those to be commended, in different
-degrees, for their many proofs of sentiment and skill, we have Unger in
-Austria; Redlich and Massaloff in Russia; Gilli in Italy; and Seymour
-Haden in England. By their talents they assist in the reform which
-the French engravers began, and which they now pursue with increasing
-authority and exceptional technical knowledge.
-
-[Illustration: FIG. 101.--JULES JACQUEMART.
-
-Tripod, by Gouthière.]
-
-Mezzotint and aquatint have been not nearly so fortunate. The former
-appears to have fallen, almost everywhere, into disuse. Even in
-England, where, as soon as Von Siegen's invention was imported, a
-school was founded to cultivate its resources--in England, where, from
-Earlom to S. W. Reynolds and Cousins, mezzotint engravers so long
-excelled--it is a mere chance if a few are still to be found supporting
-the tradition. In other countries, France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy,
-mezzotint is, to speak strictly, scarcely practised at all. It has
-been replaced by aquatint, which itself, as we mentioned in a former
-chapter, is only used for purely commercial requirements, except by
-engravers of real talent in combination with the needle and the graver.
-
-Wood engraving has made, in certain respects, considerable progress
-in the course of the last few years. In France and England it is
-producing results that not only confirm its advances, but are as the
-prophecy of still better things. Amongst recent prints, those of
-Robert, for instance, do more than promise; they realise the hopes
-which others only hold out. All the same, it is commonly the case with
-wood engravers that, clever though they be, they are apt to deceive
-themselves as to the special conditions of their art, and too often
-to forget that it is not their province to imitate the appearance of
-line engraving. Instead of attempting to copy the complicated results
-of the graver, they should rather, in accordance with the nature of
-the process at their disposal, be satisfied with rapid suggestions
-of effect and modelling and a summary imitation of form and colour.
-The illustrations after Holbein, by Lützelburger and other Germans of
-the sixteenth century, and the portraits and subjects cut on wood by
-Italian artists, or by Frenchmen of the same epoch, as Geofroy Tory and
-Salomon Bernard, are models to which the engravers of our own day would
-do well to conform, instead of entering, under pretext of improvements,
-upon attempted innovations as foreign to the true nature of the process
-as to its objects and real resources.
-
-Though the practice of line engraving is more scientific in France
-than anywhere else, it has nevertheless distinguished representatives
-in other countries. Besides the French, the German, and the Italian
-engravers we have mentioned, Weber, in Switzerland; De Kaiser, in
-Holland; Biot and Franck, in Belgium; Jacobi, Sonnenleiter, and Klaus,
-in Austria, are working manfully for the cause so well supported by
-Henriquel and his followers. But everywhere the perseverance of zeal
-and talent is unfortunately insufficient to overcome the prejudices
-of the public, and its exaggerated confidence in the benefits of
-mechanical discovery.
-
-Since the progress accomplished by science in the domain of
-heliographic reproduction, since the advantages with regard to
-material exactness that photography and the processes derived from it
-have offered, or seem to offer, line engraving, of all the different
-methods, is certainly the one that has suffered most from the supposed
-rivalry. A mistake, all the more to be regretted as it seems to be
-general, gave rise to the idea that it was all over with the art of
-engraving, simply because, as mere copies, its products could not have
-the infallible fidelity of photographic images, and that, however
-painstaking and faithful the engraver's hand, it could never produce
-that exact fac-simile, that ruthless imitation of the thing copied.
-
-Nothing could be truer than this, if the only object of line engraving
-were to give us a literal copy, a brutal effigy of its original. But
-is it necessary to mention again that, happily, it has also the task
-of interpretation? Owing to the very limited field in which he works,
-as it were in monochrome, the engraver is compelled to choose and to
-combine the best means of rendering by analogy the various colours of
-his original, to organise its general effect, and to bring out both the
-character and the style, now by the simplification of certain details,
-now by applying the principle of selection to certain others. We have
-no longer here the stupid impartiality, or, if it be preferred, the
-unreasoning veracity of a mechanical apparatus, but the deliberate use
-of feeling, intelligence, and taste--of all those faculties, indeed,
-which mould and enter into the talent of an artist.
-
-Now as long as there are men in the world capable of preferring idea to
-matter, and the art which appeals to the mind to the fact which speaks
-to the eyes, line engraving will retain its influence, however small
-it may be supposed, however limited it may really be. In any case,
-those who in these days, in spite of every obstacle, are determined to
-pursue in their own way the work of such men as Edelinck and Nanteuil,
-will have deserved recognition from their contemporaries, and will have
-averted, so far as they could, the complete decay, if it must come,
-of art properly so called, when sacrificed to the profit of chance
-manufacture and mere technique.
-
-
-
-
-A CHAPTER ON
-
-ENGLISH ENGRAVING.
-
-BY WILLIAM WALKER.
-
-
-England appears at first only to have participated in the European
-movement amongst the fine arts by the trade which it carried on in
-foreign productions, and the hospitality and the patronage which it
-gave to many celebrated artists. Thus the country was enriched with
-foreign works, and examples were obtained, not perhaps worthy of being
-slavishly followed, but at all events capable of stimulating native
-talent. At the persuasion of Erasmus, Holbein, in 1526, came to try
-his fortune in England, and was followed afterwards by Rubens and Van
-Dyck, as well as De Bry, Vorsterman, and the indefatigable Hollar, the
-latter an engraver unrivalled in his own style, and perhaps the most
-unfortunate in worldly circumstances who ever practised the art.
-
-As early as 1483 wood-cuts were used for illustration in Caxton's
-"Golden Legend," and subsequent printers adopted the same practice in
-issuing their publications. In like manner, copperplate engravings
-appeared first as illustrations for books, notably in one called "The
-Birth of Mankind," dedicated to Queen Catherine, and published by
-Thomas Raynalde in 1540, and in a translation of Vesalius' "Anatomy,"
-published in 1545 by Thomas Geminus, who not only did the literary
-work, but copied the original wood-cuts on copper. In the middle of the
-century, the Hogenbergs took advantage of the method for portraiture,
-Francis engraving in 1555 a portrait of Queen Mary, and his brother
-Remigius in 1573 one of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, who
-seems to have retained the engraver in his service.
-
-About the same period appeared William Rogers, who was born in London
-in 1545, and may be considered as the earliest English engraver
-worthy of mention. His series of portraits are of considerable merit,
-especially a whole length, taken from a drawing by Isaac Oliver, of
-Queen Elizabeth, standing with orb and sceptre, and clothed in a rich
-embroidered and puffed dress. This print bears at the bottom the name
-of the engraver, and was afterwards reduced in size all round, turning
-the figure of the Queen into a three-quarter length, and cutting away
-Rogers' name, which was not reinserted in the later publication. Both
-sizes of the print are scarce, especially the original, and indeed for
-a considerable time the reduced impression was considered anonymous,
-until the appearance of the larger engraving and its comparison with
-the smaller established the identity of the two. The elder Crispin de
-Passe engraved a plate from the same drawing of smaller size, and with
-different accessories in the background.
-
-De Passe, a native of Utrecht, and his family, William, Simon, and
-a daughter Magdalen, came over to England at the beginning of the
-seventeenth century, and engraved many prints of much interest in a
-style peculiarly their own. Reginald Elstracke (born 1620) and Francis
-Delaram flourished about the same period.
-
-But nothing was accomplished by any English engraver of great artistic
-value, or which could be fairly compared with the work in other
-countries, until the middle of the century. It was then that William
-Faithorne, by his series of portraits, full of colour and executed in
-a clear and brilliant style, freed England from this reproach. He may
-be said to have inaugurated the era of English engravers, who, though
-mostly surpassed by other nations in the line manner of engraving, have
-no rivals in mezzotint. This style, which, when combined with bold
-etching, may be called the culmination of the art, was taken up in this
-country as soon as discovered, adopted by the English as their own,
-and gradually brought by them to the fullest perfection. Faithorne was
-a pupil of Sir Robert Peake, painter and engraver, and is said also
-to have studied under Nanteuil, when driven through the troubles of
-the first revolution to take refuge in France. His portraits of Mary,
-Princess of Orange, the Countess of Exeter, Sir William Paston, Queen
-Catherine of Braganza, Charles II., with long flowing black hair,
-Thomas Killegrew, dramatist and court favourite, and the famous Marquis
-of Worcester, one of the contributors to the invention of the steam
-engine, rank high as engravings, and worthily take their place amidst
-the achievements of other countries.
-
-Before treating of mezzotint and the new field which it opened out
-to the engraver, it will be well to call attention to the coming of
-Hollar to England, and his peculiar method of work, which consisted
-mainly of etching, assisted by the point or fine graver. Wenceslaus
-Hollar (born 1607) was forced early in life by the exigencies of those
-warlike times to leave his native land--Bohemia--and to travel through
-Germany, designing and engraving on his way, until, in 1636, he met at
-Cologne with the Earl of Arundel, the English Ambassador to Ferdinand
-II., who immediately took him into his employment, and on his return
-from his mission brought him to England, where, with the exception of
-the troubled years of the first revolution, Hollar resided for the
-remainder of his life.
-
-Misfortune, however, which attended Hollar in youth, seemed relentless
-throughout his entire career; after the restoration of Charles II.,
-he underwent the terrible experiences of the plague and of the fire
-of London, and the times, hostile to every pursuit of art, reduced
-Hollar to a state of indigence and distress from which, in spite of
-persevering industry, he seems never to have been able to recover.
-Sent to Africa in 1669 as the king's designer, to make drawings of
-the fortifications and surroundings of the town of Tangiers, he meets
-with Algerine corsairs on his way back, from which he escapes with
-difficulty. On his return, it is only after delay and vexation that he
-can obtain £100 from the impecunious king for his two years' labours
-and expenses. He travels through England, making drawings and etchings
-of abbeys, churches, ruins, and cathedrals, and ultimately dies at
-Westminster (1677) in a state of extreme poverty and distress, his very
-death-bed being disturbed by bailiffs, who threaten the seizure of the
-last article of furniture he possessed, the bed upon which he is lying.
-His body was laid in the churchyard of St. Margaret's, Westminster;
-his name and works remain living and immortal. Hollar's prints amount
-to considerably over two thousand, and embrace all kinds of subjects,
-portraits, landscapes, architecture, costume, and animal and still-life
-of varied character and quality. His treatment of the textures of hair,
-feathers, or the bloom on butterflies and other insects, is simply
-unrivalled. Besides his portraits, among other well-known and valued
-prints, there are--after his own designs--the long bird's-eye view
-of London in four parts, plans of the same city before and after the
-great fire (1666), exterior and interior views of the old Cathedral of
-St. Paul,[51] Westminster Hall, with its picturesque surroundings, the
-Cathedrals of Lincoln, Southwell, Strasbourg, Antwerp, and York, sets
-of butterflies, insects, costumes, muffs, and richly-wrought jewelled
-vessels.
-
-In addition to these, he engraved a set of thirteen plates (1671)
-on the various English ways of hunting, hawking, and fishing, after
-Francis Barlow, painter and engraver, who flourished during the same
-period, and excelled in the representation of animals, birds, and
-fish. The latter artist has left a curious print--of which the only
-known example is supposed to be that of the British Museum--entitled
-"The Last Horse Race" (August 24, 1684), run before Charles II., at
-Dorsett Ferry (? Datchett), near Windsor Castle. Hollar was the master
-of Robert Gaywood, who in some measure imitates his style, and many of
-whose plates are justly esteemed, such as the series of heads after
-Van Dyck, the curious likeness of Cromwell, the large print of the
-philosophers Democritus and Heraclitus, as opposing professors of
-gaiety and gravity, and the plates of birds and animals after Barlow.
-
-In the meantime, the art of mezzotint had been invented, in the first
-place, by Ludwig von Siegen, a lieutenant-colonel in the service of
-the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who used the method to execute a large
-portrait, bearing the date 1642, of the Princess Amelia Elizabeth, the
-dowager Landgravine of Hesse. The credit for the discovery has also
-been ascribed to the well-known Prince Rupert,[52] nephew of Charles
-I.; but the legend of the prince meeting with a soldier cleaning his
-corroded gun, and thus conceiving the idea of engraving a copper plate,
-rests on no sufficient foundation. It is, however, enough for this
-romantic prince's undying renown, that, having acquired the secret of
-producing the necessary ground by some means or other, most probably
-from Von Siegen, he not only introduced the process into England,
-but executed himself several remarkable engravings in the style,
-one of which, known as "The Great Executioner" (dated 1658), after
-Spagnoletto,[53] to distinguish it from a smaller plate containing the
-head only of the same figure, remains to this day as a powerful and
-wonderful example of the method. It is curious that, with the partial
-exception of Germany, and a few isolated instances in other countries,
-mezzotint should have been practically confined to England; the very
-name is not recognised elsewhere. Germany uses the word "Schabkunst,"
-scraping art; the French, "La manière noire," the black manner; and
-Italy, "L'incisione a fumo," engraving in smoke or black,[54]
-
-Before the discovery of the new method, all engraving consisted of
-an arrangement of lines varied occasionally by dots, which had to be
-cut into the polished copperplate either directly by the graver or
-indirectly by the use of acid. Untouched by either graver or acid, the
-polished plate would thus, under the ordinary process of copperplate
-printing (rubbing in the ink by a suitable dabber and then cleaning off
-all the ink not held fast by in-dents), print white; mezzotint reverses
-the process. The plate, instead of being polished when the engraver
-commences his work, presents a close, fine, file-like surface, which,
-if inked, wiped, and put under the heavy-pressure roller press, would
-now print off a deep uniform surface of bloomy black; in place,
-therefore, of putting in lines or dots to hold the ink, the engraver
-has to scrape off the close file-like grain at the required parts,
-bringing up his highest lights by means of a burnisher; the scraper and
-burnisher, not the graver, are consequently the principal tools used in
-executing mezzotint. In addition to the greater ease and rapidity with
-which an engraving could be made by this process, the range of effect
-or colour was immensely increased. All tones between pure white and the
-deepest black were now capable of realisation, and it is easy to see
-how greatly were enlarged the resources of the engraver, whose special
-gift and claim as an original artist--a fact too often forgotten, or
-rather not sufficiently recognised--consist in his power of translating
-into various shades of black and white the numerous colours at the
-disposal of the painter.
-
-The forming or laying the grained surface, technically called _ground_,
-is necessarily of the utmost importance, and is effected by a tool
-known amongst practical workers as "the rocker," called also "cradle,"
-or "berceau"--the French equivalent--from the peculiar rocking motion
-given to it by the operator. The rocker is made of moderately thin
-and carefully tempered steel about two inches broad, and might be
-termed a stumpy, wide chisel were it not that it is curved (like a
-cheese-cutter) and notched or serrated at the cutting edge, which
-serration is caused by one side of the steel being indented into small
-fluted ridges running parallel upwards to the handle by which the tool
-is held, and somewhat presenting the appearance of a small-tooth-comb.
-On the plain smooth side the rocker is ground level to the edge, like
-other cutting tools, and sharpened on a stone or hone of suitable
-quality. In laying the ground this instrument is held firmly in the
-hand, the elbow resting on a convenient cushion, the serrated cutting
-edge placed on the plate with a slight inclination, and a steady
-rocking motion given to the tool, which slowly advances over the
-surface of the copper or steel, forming on its way a narrow indented
-path. Side by side with this path another is made until the whole
-surface of the plate has been covered. The series of parallel paths
-is then repeated at a certain angle over the previous ones, and so on
-in regular progressive angular order until the required closeness of
-texture has been produced; to do this it is necessary that the series
-of parallel paths--technically called a _way_--should be repeated
-in proper angular progression from sixty to a hundred times. As the
-continual friction of the elbow against the cushion caused the laying
-of a ground to become a severe and painful operation, particularly when
-the use of steel instead of copper plates came into practice early in
-the present century, a modification of this plan was introduced whereby
-the tool was fixed at the fitting angle into one end of a long pole,
-the other end being inserted loosely in a ring fixed on the board upon
-which the plate was placed; the requisite rocking motion could then
-be easily given by the hand, and much painful labour avoided. The
-necessity for a good ground being so great, as the process became more
-and more general in England, a race of professional ground-layers grew
-up, who were paid at a certain rate per square inch for the surface
-thus covered. Much controversy has taken place as to the means by which
-Siegen, Prince Rupert, and the earlier mezzotinters produced their
-grounds, but there is little doubt that it must have been accomplished
-by some rude form of the present tool, and the curious appearance of
-the grain--as seen in very early mezzotints--must have been caused
-by the irregular crossings of the impressed layers, the necessity of
-regular angular procedure throughout the plate, in order to obtain an
-even tone, not having been recognised at first.
-
-Prince Rupert imparted the secret of the process to Wallerant Vaillant,
-a native of Lisle, a portrait painter (born 1623, died 1677) who
-practised the method with great success, working chiefly at Amsterdam,
-and leaving to posterity many prints of considerable artistic merit.
-Sir Christopher Wren is also credited with the execution of one of the
-earliest mezzotints, a negro's head with a collar round the throat, but
-there is no satisfactory authority for the various statements to this
-effect, the only sound fact being that this early print is an extremely
-interesting specimen of the process. The first English engraving
-executed in this style _bearing a date_ is a portrait of Charles II. in
-an oval frame (Giul. Sherwin, fecitt 1669), by William Sherwin, who,
-there is some reason to believe, acquired his knowledge of the process
-directly from Prince Rupert. Sherwin, born about 1650, engraved also in
-line,[55] and is said to have had the distinction of engraver to the
-king conferred on him by patent, an exceptional honour.
-
-Among the mezzotinters about this period, Abraham Blootelingh, born
-at Amsterdam in 1634, and distinguished both as a line engraver
-and etcher, came over to England in 1673, made use of the method
-with admirable success, and is said to have effected considerable
-improvement in the process of laying the ground; his life-size head of
-the Duke of Monmouth, in an oval border or frame, is a masterpiece of
-the art. But, with the above exceptions, the works left by the majority
-of the early mezzotinters, both English and foreign, are more curious
-to the student than satisfactory to the artistic eye. It was not until
-the close of the century, when Isaac Beckett and John Smith had already
-begun to issue their grand series of portraits after Kneller, Lely,
-and other contemporary painters, that the full capabilities of the
-invention were realised and the foundation laid for the steady and
-uninterrupted progress of the art. John Smith's clear, bright, and
-intelligent face ought to be well known to Englishmen both from his
-own engraving and also from Kneller's admirable picture, from which
-it was taken, so long to be seen hanging in the Rubens and Rembrandt
-room of the National Gallery, and lately fittingly transferred to the
-National Portrait Gallery. He was a pupil of Beckett and native of
-Northamptonshire, and died at Northampton in 1742, where there is a
-tablet to his memory in St. Peter's Church.
-
-When the eighteenth century opened, mezzotint had taken firm root
-in England; Beckett and John Smith were in the plenitude of their
-powers; Jean Simon, a Protestant refugee from France (born in Normandy,
-1675), had taken refuge in England, and forsaking his original method
-of line, had adopted that of mezzotint with great success, while G.
-White was already giving the first indications of the advantages that
-might be gained by the introduction of etching into the method. John
-Faber, junior, was also establishing his reputation, not only by his
-well-known portraits (which include the set of the Kit-cat Club[56]
-and the Hampton Court beauties), but by many spirited fancy subjects
-after Mercier, and above all by an admirable print after Frank Hals of
-a man playing the guitar. Faber, the younger, was born in Holland in
-1684, and brought to England when three years old by his father (also
-an engraver in mezzotint, but completely overshadowed by his son); he
-studied under Vanderbank, and was patronised by Kneller; his works
-are peculiarly valuable as forming records of the painters--now so apt
-to be carelessly passed by[57]--who lived between the time of Kneller
-and the rise of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and all left work of value to
-posterity.
-
-The modern sharp division between painters and engravers was unknown
-in those days; the painter was only too glad to avail himself of the
-talent of the engraver to make his paintings known, and in many cases
-keep alive and hand down to after generations a name which otherwise
-might have died out and been forgotten. Painters of the present age
-ignore the engraver, and prefer the more tangible money results to
-be obtained from treating with a publisher for the purchase of their
-copyrights, adopting in this respect the teaching conveyed in the witty
-speech of Sir Godfrey Kneller, who, when reproached for his preference,
-to other branches of painting, of the lucrative one of portraiture,
-replied: "Painters of history make the dead live and do not begin to
-live themselves till they are dead; I paint the living and they make
-me live." Kneller might, however, have defended his practice on higher
-grounds, for portraiture, though often ignorantly decried, tests the
-powers of a great artist to the uttermost, and bequeaths to posterity a
-legacy of as valuable work as it is in the power of man to accomplish.
-It is interesting to note here that copyright in works of art was first
-obtained on the behalf of engraving; Hogarth, painter and engraver,
-finding that so many of his prints--which, numerously distributed,
-could easily be pirated--were being copied, boldly and successfully
-asserted his rights in the courts of law, and was the means of
-obtaining from Parliament a Copyright Act to defend property in art.
-
-To Faber succeeded Thomas Frye and James McArdell, who were both born
-in the same city, Dublin, the birthplace of several other distinguished
-engravers. The life of Frye was eventful; he came in early manhood to
-London in the company of his fellow-townsman Stoppelaer, who by turns
-became artist, actor, dramatic writer, and singer. Frye commenced by
-painting and engraving portraits, and then took charge of the china
-manufactory just established at Bow, from the ruins of which afterwards
-arose those of Chelsea and Worcester; there he remained fifteen years,
-and by his taste and skill improved the manufactures in material form
-and ornamentation until, the business not succeeding and his health
-being injured by the heat of the furnaces, he had to take a journey to
-Wales to recruit, the expenses of which he paid by painting portraits,
-ultimately returning to London with some money in his pocket. Frye now
-took a house in Hatton Garden, where he painted miniatures, life-size
-heads in oils and crayons, and in the space of about two years, 1760-2,
-executed in mezzotint the remarkable and justly esteemed series of
-life-size heads, which contain, among others, portraits of himself,
-his wife, and his mother. These were his last productions, as he
-died of a complication of diseases in 1762 at the age of fifty-two.
-Frye was industrious, amiable, and generous in character, patient in
-misfortune, and ingenious in accomplishing his objects; his likenesses
-of George III. and Queen Charlotte were obtained by frequent visits to
-the theatre, where it is said that the king and queen, on knowing his
-purpose, used kindly to turn their heads towards the artist to help
-him in his task; other portraits were perhaps accomplished more by the
-exercise of imagination, as the fine ladies he would ask to sit were
-wont to refuse with the excuse that they did not know in what company
-they might find themselves placed.
-
-McArdell, the jovial companion of artists, the friend of Quin the
-actor, of whom Sir Joshua Reynolds observed, that even if the colours
-of his (Sir Joshua's) pictures faded his fame would be preserved by
-McArdell's engravings, marks an epoch in the art; for he was the first
-to use vigorous etching to increase the effect of mezzotint. He died
-young, in June, 1765, in his thirty-seventh year, and was buried in
-Hampstead Churchyard, where, according to Lysons, a short inscription
-to his memory recorded the fact.[58]
-
-McArdell's immediate successors were numerous, and of striking power
-and originality in the exercise of their art; the more important
-of them were Richard Houston, John Greenwood, Edward Fisher, John
-Spilsbury, Valentine Green, William Pether, Richard Brookshaw, John
-Blackmore, John Dixon, John Jones, Robert Laurie, and the two Watsons,
-James and Thomas, who were closely followed, in point of time, by
-William Dickinson, James Walker,[59] John Dean, John Young, the popular
-J. R. Smith (John Raphael), and perhaps the greatest of them all as an
-engraver, Richard Earlom. Many of these also practised in stipple, but
-their finer works in mezzotint completely overshadow these productions.
-It may be added that even the paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds would
-hardly have been appreciated as thoroughly both in England and other
-countries, were it not for the admirable renderings of his pictures
-by the famous band of engravers practising during his lifetime.
-Gainsborough has undoubtedly suffered in this respect, for, unlike
-Wright of Derby, Hoppner, Opie, Morland, and Lawrence, few important
-mezzotints have been executed after his pictures; and were the art to
-revive and the engravers to be found, a mine of wealth would be waiting
-to reward with its treasures well-directed labour.
-
-Earlom was born in 1743, and at his death in 1822 had reached his
-eightieth year; when fourteen years old he gained a premium from
-the Society of Arts, and attracted attention by making copies of
-Cipriani's pictures on the Lord Mayor's state carriage; this led
-to his becoming the painter's pupil and to his acquiring a thorough
-knowledge of drawing. The Boydells employed him to make drawings and
-engravings from the Houghton collection, and throughout his long life
-he continued to exercise unremittingly his laborious profession; his
-plates are numerous and of great excellence, while his skilful use of
-etching gives effect and variety to the many textures represented.
-Earlom engraved after various masters ancient and modern, and perhaps
-first showed the world the wide range of subjects which the style was
-capable of effectively representing, such as--to mention only a few of
-the more important plates--Correggio's "Repose in Egypt," Rubens' "Son
-and Nurse," Van Dyck's "Duke of Arembergh on Horseback," Vanderwerff's
-"Bathsheba bringing Abishag to David," the "Fish, Game, Vegetable, and
-Fruit Markets," after Snyders and Long John,[60] Van Huysum's fruit and
-flower pieces, Zoffany's terribly realistic representation of a "Scene
-in the French Revolution on the 10th of May, 1793," and his "Life
-School at the Royal Academy," Wright of Derby's "Blacksmith's Shop" and
-"Iron Forge," and the six plates after Hogarth, "Marriage à la Mode."
-
-The renown acquired by the works of English mezzotinters gradually
-attracted the notice of other nations--particularly Germany--where
-the style had almost died out, and many foreign engravers came to
-this country, amongst others, J. G. Haid and the Viennese Jacobe, who
-not only executed valuable works in England, but were the cause of a
-partial renewal of the method in their own countries. The Austrian
-Pichler (born 1765, died 1806) finished in pure mezzotint many plates
-of exceptional merit, while his fruit and flower pieces after Van
-Huysum rival the masterpieces of Earlom after the same painter.
-
-During the same period the English school had been making rapid strides
-in the other branches of copperplate engraving, line, stipple, and
-etching. Line, which to this day is considered by many as the highest
-style of the art, and which most certainly is well fitted to render
-the human form with grace and purity of outline and detail, has
-notwithstanding to overcome the difficulty of adequately expressing
-the various shades of colour and texture, and above all of realising
-the due effects of atmosphere and distance, a serious matter where
-the accessories are of importance or where landscape enters largely
-into the composition of the picture. It is, therefore, not surprising
-that, with mezzotint at hand with its wide range of capabilities, there
-should be comparatively few English engravers of eminence devoting
-themselves to line.
-
-Hogarth, who was born in 1697, and began life as an engraver of arms
-and cyphers, naturally employed the method of line to give expression
-to his bold and vigorous designs, and in this was assisted by Luke
-Sullivan, who had been a pupil of Thomas Major. Major (born 1720) had
-spent some years in Paris engraving after Berghem, Wouvermans, and
-others; he was an artist of skill, and lived to a considerable age,
-holding for forty years the office of seal engraver to the king, and
-being the first _associate_[61] engraver elected by the Royal Academy.
-
-In the year 1730, Vivares, who was a Frenchman by birth, and who, in
-spite of natural artistic talents, had been apprenticed to a tailor,
-came to England at the age of eighteen and studied under Chatelain,
-an artist of French Protestant parentage, but born in London. Vivares
-soon surpassed his master, acquired great renown for his many fine
-plates of landscape and sea-scenes, and became a member of the Society
-of Artists; he lived for thirty years in Great Newport Street, and was
-buried in Paddington Churchyard in the year 1780.
-
-It is, however, from the pre-eminent excellence of the line engravings
-of Strange, Woollett, and Sharp that the right of England to a place
-in the hierarchy of the art has been conceded by other nations. Sir
-Robert Strange, descended from an ancient Scottish family, was born at
-Orkney in 1721, and served an apprenticeship of six years to Richard
-Cooper of Edinburgh. In this city Strange started as an engraver on his
-own account; when the civil war broke out he joined the side of the
-Pretender, engraved a half-length portrait of him, and was appointed
-engraver to this prince; after the battle of Culloden, in which he is
-said to have taken part, Strange escaped to Paris, and had there the
-advantage of studying under Le Bas. In 1751 he returned to England,
-and established himself in London, where his talents were readily
-recognised and appreciated. On the accession of George III., Strange
-refused the commission to engrave whole-length portraits of the king
-and his Prime Minister, Lord Bute, thereby giving great offence, which,
-together with the remembrance of his former adventures, made Strange
-think it prudent to leave the country for a time; therefore, to turn
-to good account even such untoward circumstances, he determined to
-increase the knowledge of his art by travelling through the continent.
-In Italy he produced some of his finest engravings after Titian,
-Raphael, Correggio, Domenichino, Guido, and Van Dyck; his talent
-was everywhere acknowledged; he was elected member of the Academies
-of Rome, Florence, Bologna, Parma, and Paris; and, on his return to
-London, by his engraving after West of the apotheosis of the king's
-three children, who had died in infancy, he regained the royal favour
-and received the distinction of knighthood. Sir Robert Strange was a
-member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, but was very hostile
-to the Royal Academy, deeply and justly resenting their exclusion of
-engravers from full membership. During the later part of his life he
-lived in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he died in
-1792. He was buried in St. Paul's Churchyard, Covent Garden.
-
-Strange had chiefly devoted himself to classical subjects and the
-delineation of the human form, Woollett, on the other hand, took
-up the branches of landscape and history, and by his skill of touch
-and persistently intelligent labour produced such results as were
-sufficient to call forth ungrudging praise from all competent judges,
-not only in his own country, but abroad. Among Woollett's most
-celebrated plates are the "Fishery," the "Battle of La Hogue," and the
-"Death of General Wolfe." In the printing of the last plate an accident
-occurred after a few proofs had been taken; a printer in careless
-fun taking up a hammer, cried out, "General Wolfe seems dying, I'll
-finish him;" saying this, he suited action to word, and unintentionally
-brought the hammer down on the face of the general, thus destroying by
-the freak of a moment the work of days of patient labour. It is said
-that Woollett cried on hearing the news; the painter, his art once
-learnt, fired by imagination, can by rapid strokes of his brush give
-effect to his will, while the engraver only attains his end by months
-of unremitting and trustful toil.
-
-Woollett was born at Maidstone in 1735, and was apprenticed to John
-Tinney, who is now best known as having been the master of three
-distinguished pupils, Anthony Walker, John Browne, and Woollett
-himself. Anthony Walker engraved the well-known "Law and Physic" after
-Ostade, and the figures in the print of "Niobe," Woollett's first work
-of importance. He was the brother of the William Walker who greatly
-increased the effect of etching by re-biting, and it is said that
-Woollett, when making use of the process, was wont to exclaim, "Thank
-you, William Walker."[62] Woollett lived in London all his life in the
-neighbourhood of Rathbone Place, where, when he had finished a plate,
-he used to celebrate the event by firing a cannon from the roof of his
-house; he died in 1785, and a tablet[63] was placed to his memory in
-the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
-
-William Sharp was the son of a gunmaker in the Minories, where he was
-born in 1749, and afterwards apprenticed to Barak Longmate, a notable
-heraldic engraver, with whom Sharp's first essay as an apprentice was
-engraving pewter pots. Sharp completed the plate of West's "Landing
-of Charles II.," left unfinished by Woollett at his death, while many
-will know one of his finest works, the "Doctors of the Church," after
-Guido. Although he never left England, his prints were celebrated
-throughout Europe; he was elected honorary member of the Imperial
-Academy at Vienna and of the Royal Academy at Munich, but like
-Woollett, Strange, and Hall, was not recognised by the English Royal
-Academy. His religious and political views were peculiar, and being
-considered a dangerous character, he was summoned before the Privy
-Council, where at length, annoyed by repeated and, as he considered,
-irrelevant questions, Sharp is said to have deliberately pulled out
-of his pocket a prospectus of his engraving of the celebrated Polish
-general and patriot Kosciusko, and handing it to the council, requested
-their names as subscribers; this and his frank manner relieved him from
-the unpleasant predicament in which he found himself placed. Sharp also
-engraved a portrait of Richard Brothers--a fanatic whose prophecies and
-writings excited attention at the time--with the title of "Prince of
-the Hebrews," and wrote underneath: "Fully believing this to be the man
-whom God has appointed, I engrave his likeness." Though successful and
-industrious in his art, Sharp died in comparative poverty in the year
-1824 at Chiswick.
-
-Among other distinguished men who worked in line during this period
-must be mentioned James Heath, Anker Smith, John Keyse Sherwin, Francis
-Legat, Thomas Morris--a pupil of Woollett's--who engraved the fine
-views of the Monument, seen from Fish Street Hill, and St. Paul's
-Cathedral from Ludgate Hill, and lastly the unfortunate William Wynne
-Ryland, who engraved the portraits of George III. and Lord Bute, which
-Strange had refused to undertake, and who, though of greater eminence
-in line, is credited with bringing into notice in England the stipple
-manner of engraving. Ryland finally ended an adventurous career by
-being hanged for forging two bills on the East India Company, and by
-his death--notwithstanding all efforts to obtain a reprieve--justified
-words used in relation to the event: "Popes and monarchs have pardoned
-men who had committed crimes of the deepest dye--even murder--in
-consideration of their talents as artists; but Ryland lived in England,
-the land of trade and commerce, and had committed an offence against
-the laws of money, the god of its idolatry." Nor during the history
-of this period ought the names of Thomas Worlidge, David Deuchar, and
-the ingenious Captain Baillie to be omitted; Worlidge in the early
-part, and Deuchar at the close of the century, etched each in his own
-style with precision and effect, while William Baillie, an Irishman and
-retired cavalry officer (born 1723, died 1810), etched and worked in
-mezzotint with equal happiness and success.
-
-William Blake (born 1757), poet, engraver, and painter, stands alone.
-In engraving--the laborious art by which he was content to live--he has
-executed admirable works, apart from his own peculiar methods, both in
-line, as shown in the portrait of Lavater, and in stipple, as in the
-"Industrious Cottager," after Morland; as poet and painter he has left
-songs and designs which, if soaring higher than men can follow, or even
-his own powers of hand and mind sufficiently express, remain for ever
-to arouse the wonder and excite the imagination of posterity. Though
-he lived in poverty, and oppressed with cares, he was always cheerful
-and beloved by all who knew him intimately; he was ever at work while
-life lasted, and died in 1827, as he had lived, a righteous and happy
-man. He was laid in Bunhill Fields burying-ground, but the spot where
-he was buried is marked by no tombstone, nor can it now be actually
-identified; but who that has looked at the portrait engraved by Jeens
-from Linnell's wondrous miniature can ever forget the face of the poet,
-engraver, and painter, William Blake?
-
-Before speaking of the branch of engraving known by the name of
-stipple, it would be well to say a few words as to the mode of printing
-in colour, so prevalent at one time, and of the connection which the
-works of Kirkall had in relation to the method. Edward Kirkall, born at
-Sheffield in the year 1722, published a set of plates, in the printing
-of which he made use both of mezzotint and etching on copperplate
-combined with wood blocks (that is to say, one printing was from a
-copperplate, the remainder from wood blocks), in order to give variety
-of colour to a set of chiaroscuros and other engravings which he
-executed at that time. His plan differed from that of Leblond in that
-he used only one copperplate printing, the other tints being given by
-wood blocks; the results were interesting and effective, partaking
-more of the character of chiaroscuros, the name he himself gave to
-them. Apart from the failure of Leblond to realise his ingenious idea
-that, by the consecutive and proper superposition of three layers of
-primitive colours, every shade of colour might be produced in the
-print, there still remained another fatal defect in the process: all
-his colours were impressed by copperplate printing, that is, he made
-use of three plates successively printed one after the other on the
-same sheet of paper. Now a person who can realise the heavy pressure
-under which a copperplate has to pass so as to force it into the damp
-paper, in order that the paper should extract the ink from the grain
-in which it is held, will be able to see that the second and third
-printing--no matter how accurate the register--must crush the grain or
-burr given to the paper by the previous printing and thus destroy the
-beauty of the engraver's work. Notwithstanding the really remarkable
-results produced by Leblond, this fatal imperfection mars all the
-engravings he has left executed in this manner. The copperplates which
-were printed in colour and carried to such perfection, particularly
-in England, about the close of the eighteenth century, were printed
-from one plate, generally executed in stipple, and the various tints
-or colours carefully rubbed in by the printer, who used for this
-purpose a sort of stump instead of the ordinary dabber. Whatever
-artistic harmony in colour might be produced was therefore partially
-the work, and to the credit of the printer; the printed impressions
-were in addition generally touched up afterwards, and in some cases
-almost entirely coloured by hand. Every impression printed in colours
-necessarily varies; some are really exquisite in their delicacy of
-tone and assemblage of shades, while others are contemptible in their
-staring vulgarity. Kirkall engraved an elaborate ornamental form on
-which to give a receipt to his subscribers for these engravings; one
-of which, running thus, "Receipt from Sir Hans Sloane of one guinea
-as part payment for twelve prints in chiaroscuro which he (Kirkall)
-promises to deliver when finished on payment of one guinea more," can
-be seen at the British Museum, and will give some idea of the moderate
-remuneration artists of those days were content to receive for their
-valuable labour.
-
-The rise of stipple as a separate style took place in the middle of
-the eighteenth century, and although the coming of Bartolozzi to
-England gave it so great an impetus, it is necessary to point out that
-the works of the school which goes by his name by no means show the
-capabilities of the method. The aim of Bartolozzi and his followers was
-essentially prettiness; to this all their efforts tended, and for this
-stipple was a convenient medium. The very printing in red, recently so
-popular, is barbarous in its ineffectiveness, plates so printed being
-deprived of a great part of their proper ranges of light and shade. The
-more serious work in this method was accomplished by other engravers,
-of whom may be specially mentioned Thomas Gaugain, Anthony Cardon,
-Caroline Watson, and, later on in the present century, William Walker,
-who carried the style to the highest point ever reached or likely to be
-reached. Engraving in stipple--that is, putting dots into the plate in
-place of lines--was, however, no new invention; from early times line
-engravers had placed dots in the interstices of their crossed lines to
-give solidity and greater effect. Ottavio Leoni, a Roman painter, had
-used the method freely in a set of plates of distinguished artists,
-which he engraved in the years 1621-5, executing the heads, with the
-exception of the hair, entirely in stipple; and early in the century
-French engravers made use of the same means to give effect to many
-of their flesh textures. The crayon style of engraving introduced by
-Demarteau, and the feeble English manner known as chalk, which had only
-a limited reign, are but modifications of the style.
-
-Francesco Bartolozzi, the life-long friend of Cipriani (born in 1725 at
-Florence), was educated in engraving at Venice by Joseph Wagner, and
-like Cipriani, who had preceded him, came over to England in 1764. His
-reputation was already established there; he was appointed engraver to
-the king with a salary of £300 a year, became one of the first forty
-full members of the Royal Academy (1768), and was the only engraver
-admitted to the honour down to the year 1855. Bartolozzi remained in
-England for thirty-eight years, continuously producing his innumerable
-and well-known plates; at length, in 1802, seduced by the offer of a
-house, pension, and a knighthood, he went, at the age of seventy-seven,
-to Lisbon, where he died in 1815, having reached his ninety-first year,
-and working at his profession to the last. John Ogborn, Cheesman,
-Thomas Ryder, Chapman, Agar, T. Burke, and the delightful P. W.
-Tomkins--who, with the late C. H. Jeens, may be called the miniaturist
-of engravers--were all followers more or less of his school. An
-admirable draughtsman and perfect master of the graver, Bartolozzi was
-in addition able to infuse a certain grace and beauty into the trivial
-work by which he is best known; but he has done work of a higher stamp,
-and some of his line engravings, such as "Clytie," the "Death of Dido,"
-the portraits of Lord Thurlow and Martin van Juchen in full armour
-(worthy of the graver of Pontius or De Jode), make all who care for the
-art regret that so talented an artist gave the greater part of his time
-and attention to producing prints which, though graceful and pleasing,
-charm but for the moment and leave no permanent impression.
-
-This, the Augustan era of English engraving, saw also the rise of the
-talented and genial Thomas Bewick (born 1753, died 1828), who made
-the domain of natural history his own, and in addition to executing
-some interesting copper plates, has by his exquisite wood-cuts after
-his own drawings entitled England to claim her place amongst the
-greatest artists in that form of engraving. The Boydells, too, had
-established their celebrated firm; both were engravers, John in line,
-and Josiah, his nephew (a pupil of Earlom), in mezzotint. John Boydell
-was born in 1719, and established himself first (in 1752) at the sign
-of the "Unicorn," corner of Queen Street, Cheapside, afterwards at 90
-Cheapside, and finally took additional premises in Pall Mall for the
-Shakespeare Gallery. Josiah was born in 1752, succeeded on his uncle's
-death (1804) to the business, and died in 1817. A great proportion of
-the best prints of this period will be found to bear the addresses of
-these famous publishers and engravers.
-
-The last years of the eighteenth and the commencement of the present
-century witnessed the death of many of the famous engravers already
-mentioned. It was now that the Birmingham school of line arose, and,
-urged by the influence of J. M. W. Turner, executed their delicate
-line engravings after that famous painter. William Radelyffe was the
-founder of this school, and was followed by his son Edward, Robert
-Brandard, J. T. Willmore, E. Goodall, R. Wallis, William Miller, and
-others. Sharp, Anker Smith, James Heath, Earlom, Dickinson, Young,
-and J. R. Smith still remained for a time, but much of their best
-work was already done. William Ward, apprenticed to J. R. Smith, his
-brother James, the noted animal painter, Charles Turner and Samuel
-William Reynolds had also appeared to carry on and bring to its fullest
-development the great British school of mezzotint. William Ward, born
-in 1766, by his series of engravings after George Morland--whose sister
-he married--has made the names of the painter and engraver almost
-indissoluble, each having contributed to the immortality of the other.
-James, the painter and Royal Academician, born in 1769, studied under
-his brother, with whom he served an apprenticeship of nearly nine
-years; his plates of "Cornelius the Centurion" after Rembrandt, Sir
-Joshua's "Mrs. Billington as St. Cecilia," and the studies after nature
-of heads and feet of ducks, ducklings, geese, and calves, are among
-the finest works executed in the method. James lived to a great age,
-dying in 1859 in his ninety-first year, having survived his brother and
-also a nephew, William James Ward. The last-named was likewise a good
-mezzotint engraver, but unfortunately died in the prime of life in the
-year 1840.
-
-Charles Turner was born in the same year as S. W. Reynolds (1773), and
-survived the latter by more than twenty years; his prints are very
-numerous, and comprise a great variety of subjects. The large upright
-mezzotint of Sir Joshua's group of the Marlborough family, with the
-two younger children in front, one holding a mask, the other shrinking
-back in fright, is deservedly well known, as is also his fine rendering
-of "The Shipwreck" after J. M. W. Turner, published in 1807. Other
-characteristic prints which may be mentioned are "Black and Red Game,"
-after Elmer; "Pheasants," after Barenger; the portraits of "Alexandra,
-Empress of Russia," after Monier; "Lord Newton," after Raeburn; and a
-marvellous life-size head of Salvator Rosa's "St. Francis," engraved
-in 1805. Turner lived till the year 1857, when he died at his house in
-Warren Street, Fitzroy Square, at the age of eighty-three.
-
-Samuel William Reynolds, one of the most gifted men who ever applied
-themselves to the engraver's art, studied mezzotint under C. H. Hodges;
-he commenced his comparatively short career both as painter and
-engraver, and exhibited for several years at the British Institution.
-Endowed with singular powers of fascination, Reynolds seems to have
-attracted and kept fast the friendship of all with whom he became
-acquainted, irrespective of their particular social surroundings.
-Samuel Whitbread, the distinguished Member of Parliament, of old Drury
-Lane Theatre renown, was his intimate and kindest friend; Sheridan
-and Edmund Kean played at Pope Joan with his daughters, and the very
-printer of his plates fifty years after Reynolds' death would grow
-bright when recalling his memory, saying, "He was the prince of
-engravers." He gave lessons in drawing to the daughters of George III.,
-who wished to make him their equerry, and afterwards an important post
-with a salary of £900 a year was offered him, but both these offers
-were refused.
-
-It is from the technical skill and firm daring which Reynolds displayed
-in his prints, and the intelligent use he made of the means at his
-command, that his name as an engraver remains pre-eminent; the
-"Falconer," "Vulture and Snake," "Heron and Spaniel," and "Leopards"
-after Northcote; the "Duchess of Bedford" after Hoppner; the "regal"
-whole-length of the unfortunate Princess Charlotte; the large and
-exquisitely finished etching from Rembrandt's famous picture of "The
-Mill;" and the "Land Storm"--known also as the "Mail Coach in a
-Storm"--after George Morland, are but a few of the many prints which
-show the power and versatility of the engraver. In the last-named print
-(published 1798), where the resources of mezzotint and etching combined
-have been used to fullest purpose, the familiar identity of the painter
-has been almost hidden under the massive effects of light and shade
-shown in the landscape, where amidst lightning flash and rushing wind
-the terror-stricken horses are seen dashing madly onward.
-
-When Reynolds went to Paris in 1826, artists there were astonished
-at his paintings and the effects that he produced. Sixdeniers and
-Maile studied with him, and several plates bear their combined
-names; unfortunately both these engravers, excellent as they were
-as mezzotinters, chiefly engraved after painters whose productions
-partook of a frivolous and somewhat free character. Reynolds,
-however, left more permanent marks of his stay in the French capital
-by executing there the large plates of Géricault's "Wreck of the
-Medusa," Horace Vernet's "Mazeppa," and the masterly representations
-of Charlet's characteristic types, the "Village Barber" and the "Rag
-Picker." In the last two the technical handling is so free that it
-would almost seem as if the scraper had been used with the same
-facility as chalk on paper. In reference to this there is a story
-extant that Reynolds once scraped a large whole-length portrait in a
-day and a night; the story is true, but it is also true that it is one
-of his worst plates.
-
-Shortly before his death Reynolds was greatly struck with Constable's
-picture of "The Lock," and resolved to engrave it at his own cost;
-writing to Constable on the arrival of the picture, he says:--"I
-have been before your picture for the last hour. It is no doubt
-the best of your works true to nature, seen and arranged with a
-professor's taste and judgment. The execution shows in every part a
-hand of experience; masterly without rudeness, and complete without
-littleness; the colouring is sweet, fresh, and healthy; bright not
-gaudy, but deep and clear. Take it for all in all, since the days of
-Gainsborough and Wilson no landscape has been painted with so much
-truth and originality, so much art, so little artifice." But he did
-not live to fulfil his intention, for while still full of hope and
-high purpose for the future, Reynolds was suddenly stricken with
-paralysis, and died at his house in Bayswater in the year 1835.
-This sudden ending was the cause of his son--likewise named Samuel
-William--forsaking painting to finish some of his father's plates, and
-ultimately continuing with success the practice of mezzotint on his
-own account. Reynolds' daughter Elizabeth, who married the stipple
-engraver William Walker--though chiefly known by her miniatures and
-other paintings--also engraved in early life.[64] Although there are
-no authentic records of the pedigree, S. W. Reynolds always asserted
-his collateral relationship to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and his son often
-mentioned that his father, when quite a youth, called on Sir Joshua,
-who, during the conversation that ensued, remarked to Reynolds, "Then
-you are my cousin."
-
-Other engravers of eminence that flourished during this period are,
-in line, the Bromleys, John Landseer and his sons, Charles Heath,
-William B. Cooke and his brother George,[65] John Burnet (celebrated
-as painter, engraver, and author), Richard Golding, and John Scott;
-in stipple, William Bond, Thomas Woolnoth, and James Hopwood; in
-mezzotint, Henry Dawe, William Say, Henry Meyer, George Clint, and his
-pupil Thomas Lupton, who, for his introduction of soft steel instead of
-copper as the medium for mezzotint engraving, received in 1822 the gold
-Isis medal from the Society of Arts.
-
-The method of stipple was meanwhile slowly dying out, but, as often
-happens when some particular art seems about to expire, this was the
-very time when the capabilities of the style were shown in the highest
-perfection. William Walker, born in Musselburgh in the year 1791,
-served an apprenticeship to three engravers, Mitchell, Stewart, and
-Thomas Woolnoth, and choosing stipple as his method of interpretation,
-in his portraits of Sir Walter Scott, Raeburn, and the Earl of
-Hopetoun, justified his choice by executing the finest works that
-were ever accomplished in the style. He astonished the mezzotinters
-of the period--who told him that, do what he could, he would never
-make stipple equal mezzotint in colour[66]--by the amount of force,
-colour, and effect which he was able to give to these plates. It is
-needless to say that such work as this could only be accomplished at
-the expense of intense energy and persevering labour, qualities which
-were the essential characteristics of the Scotch engraver. Later on,
-when settled in London, and more particularly after the introduction
-of steel in place of copper, Walker chiefly practised mezzotint, in
-which, however, he made use of his previous experience, etching his
-subject first in stipple before laying the mezzotint ground. His plate
-of Burns, engraved in mezzotint by himself and Mr. Cousins, owes a
-great part of its renown to Walker's power of rendering likeness; in
-regard to this, the painter Alexander Nasmyth remarked, on seeing
-the finished print, "that all he could say was that it seemed to him
-a better likeness of the poet than his own picture." This particular
-quality of fidelity in likeness Walker carried out in all his after
-historical works; for this purpose no trouble was too much, no labour
-too severe; the engraving of the "Distinguished Men of Science
-assembled at the Royal Institution in 1807-8," which occupied a period
-of six years of unceasing research and labour, is a striking instance.
-This was practically his last plate. He died at the age of seventy-six,
-in the year 1867, at his house in Margaret Street, Cavendish Square,
-and was buried at Brompton Cemetery.
-
-The death of Reynolds in 1835 seems to mark roughly the closing period
-of English engraving as a great art; two of his most renowned pupils
-were, however, still in the fulness of power, David Lucas and the
-present Mr. Samuel Cousins, R.A.[67] Of Mr. Cousins, it is sufficient
-to relate that Reynolds, happening one day to be in the town of Exeter,
-saw some drawings in a shop window which caught his eye, and on going
-inside he learnt that they were by a lad of the name of Cousins, which
-incident led to Reynolds taking the youth to London and keeping him
-as his apprentice. Mr. Cousins' artistic genius, steady perseverance,
-and sterling integrity in all that he undertook, brought their full
-results, as shown in the fine series of mezzotint engravings so widely
-known and highly appreciated, and his name may indeed be said to close
-worthily the long line of great British mezzotinters.
-
-David Lucas was born in the year 1802, and had the good fortune to meet
-in early life with Constable, between whom and Lucas was formed that
-intimate connection of painter and engraver which in earlier times had
-led to such great results. Failing Reynolds, Constable had applied to
-Lucas to be his engraver, and between them was completed the beautiful
-mezzotint series of English landscape; Constable bore the expense
-and was ever in counsel with the engraver, going into the minutest
-details, thinking no trouble too much to produce a good result, down
-to the printing of the plates, which they often did themselves, Lucas
-having had a press erected at his house for the purpose. The execution
-of this series led to Lucas undertaking the large plate of "The
-Cornfield" at his own risk, and afterwards the companion picture of
-"The Lock"--referred to before--finally culminating in his production
-of the superb engraving of Salisbury Cathedral as seen from the
-meadows, to which Constable himself gave the name of "The Rainbow."[68]
-During all this period constant intercourse and correspondence took
-place between the painter and engraver. At one time, Constable writes,
-"Although much admired, Salisbury is still too heavy; the sentiment of
-the picture is that of solemnity not gaiety, yet it must be bright,
-clear, alive, fresh, and all the front seen." At another, "The bow is
-a grand whole, provided it is clear and tender; how I wish I could
-scratch and tear away with your tools on the steel, but I can't do it,
-and your quiet way is I know the best and only way." At length comes,
-"Dear Lucas, the print is a noble and beautiful thing entirely improved
-and entirely made perfect; the bow is noble, it is startling, unique."
-So hand-in-hand they worked on, the painter upbearing his helpmate the
-engraver, each aiding the other, little noticed by the public at the
-time, but slowly building up an imperishable fame. David Lucas died in
-1881 in his eightieth year.
-
-In the middle of the century, inartistic mixture of styles, mechanical
-means replacing true work, exigencies of copyright, and above all the
-complete severance of the engraver not only from the painter but also
-from his only rightful patron the public, had worked its sure result.
-Some good men survived, such as Lewis, Atkinson, Doo, Robinson, J. H.
-Watt, R. Graves, J. Posselwhite, Lumb Stocks, Henry Cousins,[69] W.
-Giller, J. R. Jackson, and a few others; but no young school had been
-forming to replace those dying out, and everything presaged the gradual
-extinction of engraving as one of the great arts. Has this lowest
-point been reached? Perhaps, as with the beautiful art of miniature
-painting, which for a time on the advent of photography seemed gone for
-ever, yet still like some stream was only running on in hidden course
-underground to appear again and reach daylight, so may it happen with
-engraving.
-
-Within the last few years two engravers have produced prints worthy of
-any period of the art, the late C. H. Jeens and the present Mr. W. H.
-Sherborne. Some of the stipple miniature book illustrations which Jeens
-executed for Messrs. Macmillan and others, such as the gem medallions
-of Plato and Socrates, "Love and Death," Woolner's "Beautiful Lady,"
-the portraits of Allan Ramsay, Charles Young, Mr. Ruskin's two Aunts,
-and above all William Blake, are engraved with the tender feeling and
-fine touch of the true artist. Mr. Sherborne, born in 1832, probably
-little known except by the few, originally a chaser and designer for
-jewellers and pupil of Pietro Gerometti, the Roman cameo engraver and
-medallist, in 1872, fired by hope and love of the art, forsook his own
-branch to follow that of engraving. Like all true artists, his mode of
-execution is his own. Apollo, exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1881,
-the head of Mr. Seymour Haden, the portraits of Phelps the Chelsea
-Waterman or Mrs. James Builth, and the interiors of Westminster Abbey,
-seen at the Painter-Etchers' Exhibition in the summer of 1885, are
-works that will last, and are good examples of the engraver's powers,
-causing regret that Mr. Sherborne had not earlier turned his attention
-to an art the beauty of which he so truly feels. While engraving as a
-whole was decaying, one branch, that of etching, has been undergoing
-a revival, and the names of Mr. Seymour Haden, Mr. Philip Hamerton,
-and Mr. Whistler are world-known. They and their school have confined
-themselves to producing their own designs, while others, like Mr. David
-Law, Mr. Macbeth, and the Messrs. Slocombe, also translate the works of
-painters. But, whether as a vehicle for conveying an original design
-or translating that of another artist, etching is strictly limited in
-its powers; it bears the same relation to the full art of engraving
-as sketching or drawing does to that of perfect painting; suggestive,
-capable of exhibiting broad effects of light and shade, or indicative
-of the idiosyncrasy of the etcher, it is, of its very nature,
-incomplete, and acts but as herald to proclaim the greater results to
-be obtained by following out the art to its proper goal.
-
-The great impetus which Bewick's genius gave to the art of wood
-engraving at the commencement of the present century was carried
-onwards by his distinguished pupils Luke Clennell, Charlton Nesbitt,
-and William Harvey, the latter of whom, in 1821, cut the large block
-of the death of Dentatus (15 in. × 11-1/4 in.) from the picture of the
-erratic genius B. R. Haydon, under whom he was at that time studying
-drawing. Robert Branston, John Thompson and his brother Charles,[70]
-Jackson, and W. J. Linton, are names of equal renown; in fact,
-during the first half of the century, England may be said to have
-been supreme in the art. Gradually, however, the various mechanical
-processes for facilitating the commercial extension of the art such
-as electrotyping,[71] photography, &c., brought here, too, their
-deteriorating effects, causing the engraver to become less of an artist
-and more of a mechanic. In delicacy of work and elaboration of detail,
-American artists now stand first among wood engravers; but they attempt
-too much with the means at their command, and try to produce upon the
-comparatively soft material, wood, the delicate fineness of line which
-can only be realised in perfection on metal. The extreme closeness of
-the lines, combined with the exigencies of rapid surface printing, dull
-more or less the minute interstices which ought to show pure white;
-effect is lost, and, notwithstanding the excellence of the workmanship,
-the result becomes monotonous and wearying rather than pleasurable to
-the satiated eye. In etching also America takes high rank; in addition
-to Mr. Whistler, the names of Messrs. J. Gadsby Chapman, Gifford,
-Duveneck, F. S. Church, Pennell, Stephen Parrish, and Mr. and Mrs.
-Moran, are well known in Europe.
-
-In the complete styles of engraving, stipple, line, and mezzotint,
-although American engravers are little known out of their own
-country--a large enough field, however, in which to exercise their
-talents--some good work has also been done; in stipple, by David Edwin,
-Ion. B. Forrest, Gimbrede, and C. Tiebout; in mezzotint, by Charles
-Wilson Peale, A. H. Ritchie, and John Sartain, who, after having worked
-under the direction of William Young Ottley, went from London to
-America in 1830 at the age of twenty-two; and in line, by Asher Brown
-Durand; Joseph Andrews; the Smillies; and Charles Burt, who is said to
-have been the actual engraver of the fine plate of Leonardo's "Last
-Supper," copied from Morghen's print of the same subject, and bearing
-the name of A. L. Dick as engraver. The lives of these and others not
-mentioned were often eventful and picturesque, and would repay study.
-Some leaving England, Scotland, or Ireland in early life to settle in
-the land of their adoption, had to struggle with difficulties, often
-teach themselves, make their own tools, like John Cheney, or like
-Charles Wilson Peale, turn their hands to whatever duty might present
-itself. Peale was a captain of volunteers, dentist, lecturer on natural
-history, saddler, watchmaker, silversmith, painter in oil, crayons, or
-in miniature on ivory, modeller in clay and wax, engraver in mezzotint,
-and to crown all, as his son was wont to say, a mild, benevolent, and
-good man. Many also devoted their talents to bank-note engraving, a
-branch of the art highly cultivated in the United States, in which the
-skill of the inventor and mechanic has been united with the grace and
-genius of the artist. As engravers in this particular style may be
-specially mentioned W. E. Marshall, J. W. Casilear, M. J. Danforth,
-Gideon Fairman, and Jacob Perkins, the latter of whom, with Fairman and
-the ingenious Asa Spencer, came over to England in 1818 to compete for
-the premium of £20,000 offered by the Bank of England for a bank-note
-which could not be counterfeited. Although not successful, the Bank
-allowed them the sum of £5,000 in consideration of their ingenuity and
-the trouble and expense which they had incurred in the matter. While
-Asa Spencer is to be credited with inventing the method of applying the
-geometric lathe[72] to engraving the involved patterns on banknotes,
-Perkins has the honour of introducing the process of transfer by means
-of steel rollers. The portrait or other design is engraved in the usual
-manner on a die plate, which is then hardened; a soft steel roller or
-cylinder is now rolled over the die with great pressure by means of a
-powerful machine, causing the cylinder to take off in its course the
-impression of the design in relief; this roller is now hardened in its
-turn, and by the use of similar means made to impress another soft
-steel die; by repeating this process, any requisite number of plates
-can thus be reproduced the exact fac-similes of the original engraved
-die plate. Owing to the mechanical necessity that only a small surface
-of the roller should press on the die at a given moment, the diameter
-of the cylinder requires to be small, so that several of these dies,
-and consequently of the rollers, will be required to complete the
-entire plate from which the ultimate printing of the note is effected.
-
-Finally it may be well to conclude this brief account of the British
-school of engraving by calling attention to the considerations which
-ought to govern buyers of engravings; buy only that which gives
-real personal satisfaction, distrust a seller's inducements, in
-price be ruled by the amount that can be justly afforded, reject
-alluring thoughts of future money gain (or be prepared to pay the
-sure penalty--destruction of natural artistic feeling and hope of
-further cultivation), and ever bear in mind the words of Constable
-to his engraver: "Tone, tone, my dear Lucas, is the most seductive
-and inviting quality a picture or print can possess; it is the first
-thing seen, and like a flower, invites to the examination of the plant
-itself."[73]
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-*** The writer of the Chapter on English Engraving desires to
-acknowledge the facilities kindly placed at his disposal by Mr. Sidney
-Colvin, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, and to
-express his recognition of the valuable aid afforded him by Mr. F. M.
-O'Donoghue, of the same department.
-
-
-
-
-CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
-
-OF THE MORE IMPORTANT ENGRAVERS BELONGING TO THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF
-ENGRAVING.
-
-
-    _Foreign Engravers practising in England are marked with an asterisk._
-
-    b. stands for born; d., died; fl., flourished; c., about.
-
-16th Cent.
-
-   RAYNALDE, Thomas.            Published in 1540 a book called "The
-                                  Birth of Mankind," illustrated by
-                                  copperplate engravings.
-
-   GEMINUS, Thomas.             Published in 1545 a translation of
-                                  "Vesalius' Anatomy," written and
-                                  illustrated with copperplates
-                                  engraved by himself.
-
-  *HOGENBERG, Francis.          Engraved in line a portrait of Queen
-                                  Mary I. of England, bearing date 1555.
-                                  (There are doubts as to the
-                                  correctness of this date.)
-
-  *HOGENBERG, Remigius.         Engraved in line portrait of Matthew
-     (Brother of above.)          Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury,
-                                  bearing date 1573.
-
-   ROGERS, William.             b. London c. 1545. Engraved in line a
-                                  fine whole-length portrait of Queen
-                                  Elizabeth, afterwards republished and
-                                  reduced in size.
-
-
-17th Cent.
-
-  *DE PASSE, Crispin.           b. Utrecht c. 1560. Line. Engraved and
-                                  drew from life.
-
-  *DE PASSE, Magdalen.          b. Utrecht 1583. Line.
-     (Daughter of above.)
-
-  *DE PASSE, William.           b. Utrecht c. 1590; fl. 1620-27. Line.
-     (Son of above.)
-
-  *DE PASSE, Simon.             b. Utrecht 1591; d. c. 1644. Line. His
-     (Son of above.)              earliest work in England dated 1613.
-
-   DELARAM, Francis.            fl. c. 1620. Line.
-
-   ELSTRACKE, Reginald.         fl. c. 1620. Line.
-
-   PEAKE, Sir Robert.           b. c. 1592; d. 1645. Line. Also painted
-                                  portraits in miniature. Master of
-                                  engraver Faithorne and painter Dobson.
-
-  *HOLLAR, Wenceslaus.          b. Prague 1607; d. London 1677. Etcher,
-                                  finishing, when necessary, with fine
-                                  graver.
-
-  *LOMBART, Peter.              b. Paris 1612; came to England c. 1653,
-                                  remaining for considerable number of
-                                  years; d. Paris. Line. Engraved series
-                                  of twelve portraits called "The
-                                  Countesses."
-
-   FAITHORNE, William.          b. London 1616; d. London 1691. Line.
-     (Pupil of Sir Robert
-       Peake.)
-
-  *VANDERBANK, Peter.           b. Paris; of Dutch extraction; came to
-     (Pupil of De Poilly.)        England c. 1674; d. Bradfield 1697.
-                                  Line.
-
-   BARLOW, Francis.             b. Lincolnshire 1626; d. London 1702.
-                                  Etcher, line engraver, and animal
-                                  painter.
-
-   GAYWOOD, Robert.             b. c. 1630; d. c. 1711. Etcher and line
-     (Pupil of Hollar.)           engraver, chiefly of animal subjects.
-
-  *LOGGAN, David.               b. Dantzic c. 1630; d. London 1693.
-     (Pupil of Simon de           Line. Portrait and architectural
-       Passe.)                    engraver and painter.
-
-   RUPERT, Prince.              b. 1619; d. 1682. Introduced mezzotint
-                                  into England, and engraved some fine
-                                  prints in the method, which were
-                                  probably executed abroad.
-
-   SHERWIN, William.            b. c. 1650; d. c. 1714. Engraved
-                                  portrait of Charles II. 1669, the
-                                  earliest dated print in mezzotint
-                                  authentically engraved in England.
-
-   OLIVER, John.                b. 1616; d. 1701. Glass painter; also
-     (Nephew and pupil            engraved in mezzotint.
-       of Peter Oliver,
-       miniature painter
-       and etcher.)
-
-   PLACE, Francis.              b. c. 1640; d. 1728. Mezzotint, line,
-                                  etching.
-
-                              { fl. 1670. A good many early mezzotint
-                              {   prints bear these two names, but only
-                              {   as publishers (_excudit_ not
-   TOMPSON, Richard.          {   _sculpsit_), and there is great doubt
-   BROWNE, Alexander.         {   if any were actually engraved by them.
-                              {   Browne wrote the "Ars Pictoria" in
-                              {   1669, in which "The Manner or Way of
-                              {   Mezo Tinto" is described; published by
-                              {   himself, Tompson, and another.
-
-  *BLOOTELINGH, Abraham.        b. Amsterdam 1634; d. c. 1695. Line and
-     (Pupil of Cornelius          mezzotint. Came to England for a few
-       Visscher.)                 years 1673.
-
-  *VALCK, Gerard.               b. Amsterdam c. 1626; d. c. 1720.
-     (Pupil of                    Mezzotint and line. Accompanied
-       Blootelingh.)              Blootelingh to England, not leaving
-                                  until after 1680.
-
-   WHITE, Robert.               b. London 1645; d. London 1704. Line.
-     (Pupil of David              Portrait draughtsman from life.
-       Loggan.)
-
-  *VANDERVAART, John.           b. Haarlem 1647; d. London 1721.
-                                  Mezzotinter and painter. Came to
-                                  England 1674.
-
-  *VAN SOMER, Paul.             b. Amsterdam 1649; d. London 1694.
-     (Pupil of John Van           Mezzotint.
-       Somer, probably
-       his brother.)
-
-   FAITHORNE, William,          b. London 1656; d. London 1686.
-     junr. (Son of                Mezzotint.
-       William
-       Faithorne.)
-
-   LUTTRELL, E.                 b. Dublin c. 1650; d. c. 1710.
-     (Said to have                Mezzotinter and crayon portraitist.
-       learnt method of
-       mezzotint from
-       Blois, ground
-       layer to
-       Blootelingh.)
-
-   BECKETT, Isaac.              b. Kent 1653; d. 1719. Mezzotint. Prints
-     (Attracted by                all dated between 1681-88.
-       Luttrell's works,
-       learnt the method of
-       mezzotint from Lloyd,
-       a printseller, who is
-       said to have obtained
-       the secret from
-       Blois, ground layer
-       to Blootelingh.)
-
-   SMITH, John.                 b. Daventry 1652; d. Northampton 1742.
-     (Pupil of Beckett            Mezzotint.
-       and Vandervaart.)
-
-   WILLIAMS, R.                 b. Wales. Mezzotint. Prints dated
-                                  c. 1680 to 1704.
-
-  *DORIGNY, Sir Nicholas.       b. Paris 1657; d. Paris 1746. Line.
-                                  Settled in London 1711-24. Knighted by
-                                  George I. for his set of Raphael's
-                                  cartoons.
-
-   LENS, Bernard.               b. London 1659; d. 1725. Mezzotint.
-
-  *GRIBELIN, Simon.             b. Blois 1661; d. England 1733. Line.
-                                  Came to England 1680; engraved first
-                                  complete set of Raphael's cartoons.
-
-   LUMLEY, George.              b. York latter part of 17th century.
-     (Friend of Francis           Mezzotint.
-       Place.)
-
-   WHITE, George.               b. 1671; d. 1731-2. Mezzotint.
-     (Son and pupil of            Introduced slight etching into the
-       Robert White.)             method. Engraved also in line, and
-                                  painted portraits.
-
-
-18th Cent.
-
-  *SIMON, John                  b. Normandy 1675; d. London c. 1755.
-     (or Jean).                   First engraved in line, then came to
-                                  England and devoted himself to
-                                  mezzotint.
-
-   VERTUE, George.              b. London 1684; d. London 1756. Line;
-                                  antiquary, wrote notes on the history
-                                  of arts and artists in England.
-                                  Manuscripts now in the British Museum.
-
-  *VAN BLEECK, Peter.           b. Flanders; d. 1764. Came to England
-                                  1723 Mezzotint.
-
-  *FABER, John, sen.            b. Holland; d. Bristol 1721. Mezzotint;
-                                  also miniature painter. Came to
-                                  England in 1687 with his son.
-
-  *FABER, John, jun.            b. Holland 1684; d. London 1746.
-     (Son and pupil of            Mezzotint. Amongst others, engraved
-       above.)                    Kit Cat Club and Hampton Court
-                                  Beauties.
-
-   HOGARTH, William.            b. St. Bees, Durham, 1697; d. London
-     (First apprenticed           1764. Line engraver and painter.
-       to silversmith.)
-
-   SULLIVAN, Luke.              b. co. Louth, Ireland, 1705; d. London
-                                  1771. Line. Assistant to Hogarth, and
-                                  engraved some of his pictures.
-
-  *BARON, Bernard.              b. Paris c. 1700; d. London 1762. Line.
-     (Pupil of Tardieu,           Came to England in 1712. Employed by
-       the French engraver.)      Hogarth.
-
-   WORLIDGE, Thomas.            b. 1700; d. Hammersmith 1766. Etcher and
-                                  portrait painter. Chiefly resided at
-                                  Bath.
-
-   BICKHAM, George.             d. 1769. Line and etching, draughtsman.
-                                  Published "The Universal Penman;"
-                                  father of George, also an engraver and
-                                  draughtsman.
-
-  *RAVENET, François Simon,     b. Paris 1706; d. Hampstead Road 1774.
-         A.E.                     Line. Came to England a little before
-     (Pupil of Le Bas.)           1745, and settled in London.
-
-   FRYE, Thomas.                b. near Dublin 1710; d. London 1760.
-                                  Mezzotinter and portrait painter,
-                                  chiefly lifesize.
-
-   BROOKS, John.                b. Ireland; d. London. Line and
-                                  mezzotint. Master of McArdell and R.
-                                  Houston. Left Dublin c. 1747, and set
-                                  up a china manufactory at Battersea.
-
-   McARDELL, James.             b. Dublin c. 1729; d. London 1765.
-     (Pupil of John Brooks,       Mezzotint. First made use of deep
-       Dublin.)                   etching to give effect to the method.
-
-  *CANOT, Peter                 b. France 1710; d. London 1777. Line;
-     Charles, A.E.                chiefly sea views. Came to England
-                                  1740, where he remained for the rest
-                                  of his life.
-
-   CHATELAINE, John Baptiste    b. London 1710; d. London 1771. Line and
-     Claude.                      draughtsman. Of French Protestant
-                                  parentage. Master of Vivares, for whom
-                                  also he worked later on.
-
-  *VIVARES, Francis.            b. France 1709; d. London 1780. Line;
-     (Pupil of Chatelaine.)       landscape engraver. Came to London at
-                                  the age of eighteen.
-
-   TINNEY, John.                d. 1761. Practised in London 1740-50, in
-                                  line and mezzotint; chiefly known as
-                                  master of Woollett, Anthony Walker,
-                                  and John Browne.
-
-   MAJOR, Thomas, A.E.          b. 1720; d. London 1799. Line. First
-                                  Associate engraver of the Royal
-                                  Academy.
-
-   COOPER, Richard.             b. Yorkshire; d. Edinburgh 1764. Line
-                                  and mezzotint. Practised in Edinburgh
-                                  in 1730, and was the master of Strange.
-
-   STRANGE, Sir Robert.         b. Pomona, Orkney, 1721; d. London 1792.
-     (Pupil of Richard            Line.
-       Cooper, of
-       Edinburgh.)
-
-   HOUSTON, Richard.            b. Ireland 1721; d. London 1775.
-     (Pupil of John Brooks,       Mezzotint.
-       of Dublin.)
-
-   BAILLIE, William,            b. Ireland 1723; d. 1810. Etching and
-     Captain.                     mezzotint. Came to London 1741. Some
-                                  years in the army.
-
-  *BARTOLOZZI, Francis,         b. Florence 1725; d. Lisbon 1815.
-         R.A.                     Stipple and line. Came to England
-     (Pupil of Joseph             1764, remaining here till 1802.
-       Wagner, of Venice.)
-
-   OGBORNE, John.               b. London c. 1725; d. c. 1795. Stipple
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)       and line.
-
-   WALKER, Anthony.             b. Salisbury 1726; d. London 1765. Line
-     (Pupil of Tinney.)           and etching.
-
-   WALKER, William.             b. Thirsk 1729; d. Clerkenwell 1793.
-     (Pupil of his                Line; introduced the process of
-       brother Anthony.)          rebiting into the  practice of etching.
-
-   *CUNEGO, Domenico.           b. Verona 1727; d. Rome 1794. Line. Came
-                                  to England and engraved some plates
-                                  for the Boydells.
-
-   GREENWOOD, John.             b. Boston, America, 1729; d. Margate
-                                  1792. Mezzotint, etching, and painter.
-                                  Afterwards became an auctioneer.
-
-   SPILSBURY, John.             b. 1730; d. London 1795. Mezzotint.
-                                  Portrait painter. Gained premiums for
-                                  mezzotint 1761 and 1763 from Society
-                                 of Arts; also printseller.
-
-   DAWE, Philip.                d. c. 1802. Mezzotint and painter, said
-                                  to have worked under Hogarth. Was a
-                                  pupil of the painter Henry Morland.
-
-   BASIRE, James.               b. 1730; d. London 1802. Line. His
-     (Pupil of Richd.             father Isaac, his son James, and his
-       Dalton, a                  grandson James, were also engravers.
-       draughtsman and
-       engraver of
-       moderate note.)
-
-   TAYLOR, Isaac.               b. Worcester 1730; d. 1807. Line. His
-                                  son Isaac was also an engraver.
-
-   FISHER, Edward.              b. Ireland 1730; d. London c. 1785.
-                                  Mezzotint.
-
-   FINLAYSON, John.             b. c. 1730; d. c. 1776. Mezzotint.
-                                  Resided in London. Gained premiums
-                                  from Society of Arts 1764 and 1773.
-
-  *HAID, Johann Gottfried.      b. Wurtemburg 1730; d. 1776. Mezzotint.
-     (Pupil of his father,        Came to England when young, and worked
-       J. Jacob Haid.)            for Boydell, afterwards returning to
-                                  Germany. His father, Johann Jacob, and
-                                  his brother, Johann Elias, were also
-                                  good mezzotinters.
-
-  *JACOBE, Johann.              b. Vienna 1733; d. 1797. Came to London
-                                  to learn mezzotint, engraved some fine
-                                  plates, 1779-80, and then returned to
-                                  Vienna.
-
-   PETHER, William.             b. Carlisle 1731; d. 1821. Mezzotint.
-     (Pupil of Thomas Frye.)      Painter in oil and miniature
-                                  draughtsman.
-
-   WOOLLETT, William.           b. Maidstone 1735; d. London 1785. Line.
-     (Pupil of Tinney.)
-
-   WATTS, John.                 Mezzotint. Engraved in London 1770-86;
-                                  also a printseller.
-
-   BROOKSHAW, Richard.          b. 1736; d. c. 1804. Mezzotint. Went to
-                                  Paris about 1772, where his works were
-                                  greatly esteemed.
-
-   PURCELL, Richard.            b. Dublin c. 1736; d. London c. 1766.
-     (Pupil of John Brooks.)      Mezzotint. Came to London c. 1755.
-                                  Also worked under the names of C.
-                                  Corbutt and (probably) H. Fowler.
-
-   PHILLIPS, Charles.           b. 1737. Mezzotint. Worked chiefly after
-                                  the old masters.
-
-   RYLAND, William Wynne.       b. London 1738; d. London 1783. Line and
-     (Pupil of Ravenet.)          stipple; also a printseller. Visited
-                                  Paris c. 1760, and is said to have
-                                  studied under Le Bas. Was hanged for
-                                  forgery.
-
-   GREEN, Valentine, A.E.       b. near Birmingham 1739; d. London 1813.
-                                  Mezzotint. Engraved over twenty plates
-                                  from Düsseldorf Gallery.
-
-   HALL, John.                  b. near Colchester 1739; d. London 1797.
-     (Pupil of Ravenet.)          Line.
-
-   BLACKMORE, Thomas.           b. London c. 1740; d. c. 1780. Mezzotint.
-                                  Engravings bear date about 1769-71.
-
-   DIXON, John.                 b. Dublin c. 1740; d. early 19th century.
-                                  Mezzotint. Practised in London,
-                                  studied in Dublin under the painter F.
-                                  West, a draughtsman of great power.
-
-   LAURIE, Robert.              b. London 1740; d. c. 1804. Mezzotint;
-                                  also printseller. Gained premium
-                                  Society of Arts 1771, and one in 1776
-                                  for facilitating printing by mezzotint
-                                  in colours. Spells his name Lowry,
-                                  Lowery, Lowrie, Lawrie, and finally
-                                  Laurie.
-
-   OKEY, Samuel.                fl. 1765-70. Mezzotint. Awarded premiums
-                                  by Society of Arts in 1765 and 1767.
-                                  Went to America in 1771, and settled
-                                  at Rhode Island.
-
-   WATSON, James.               b. Ireland 1740; d. London 1790.
-                                  Mezzotint. Father of Caroline Watson.
-
-   BROWNE, John, A.E.           b. Essex 1741; d. Walworth 1801. Line.
-     (Pupil of Tinney and         Landscape engraver.
-       Woollett.)
-
-   WATSON, Thomas.              b. London 1743; d. Bristol 1781.
-     (Apprenticed to              Mezzotint and stipple. Engraved
-       engraver on plate.)        "Windsor Beauties" after Lely; has
-                                  been stated to be the brother of James
-                                  W., but no relation; partner with
-                                  Dickinson as printseller.
-
-  *TASSAERT, Philip J.          b. Antwerp; d. London 1803. Mezzotint,
-                                  also line. Came to England very young.
-                                  Assistant to T. Hudson the painter.
-
-   BYRNE, William.              b. London 1743; d. London 1805. Line.
-     (Pupil of his uncle, a       Landscape engraver. His son John and
-       heraldic engraver,         daughters Letitia and Elizabeth also
-       then of Aliamet and        engraved, and helped him in his plates.
-       of Wille, at Paris.)
-
-   EARLOM, Richard.             b. London 1743; d. London 1822.
-                                  Mezzotint and stipple. Used etching
-                                  with vigorous effect. Engraved a few
-                                  plates under name of H. Birche; some
-                                  time a pupil of Cipriani.
-
-   DUNKARTON, Robert.           b. London 1744; d. early part of 19th
-     (Pupil of Pether.)           century. Mezzotint. Engravings bear
-                                  dates 1770-1811.
-
-   COOK, Thomas.                b. c. 1744; d. c. 1818. Line. Engraved
-     (Pupil of Ravenet.)          amongst others Hogarth's works under
-                                  title "Hogarth Restored."
-
-   DICKINSON, William.          b. London 1746; d. Paris 1823. Mezzotint
-                                  and stipple. Awarded premium Society
-                                  of Arts 1767. For some time partner
-                                  with Thomas Watson as printseller.
-
-   TOWNLEY, Charles.            b. London 1746. Mezzotint and stipple,
-                                  also miniature painter. Worked at
-                                  Berlin 1786-92, then returned to
-                                  London.
-
-   RYDER, Thomas.               b. 1746; d. 1810. Stipple. His son
-     (Pupil of Basire.)           Thomas also engraved.
-
-   WALKER, James.               b. 1748; d. London 1808. Mezzotint. In
-     (Pupil of Val. Green.)       1784 went to St. Petersburg, became
-                                  engraver to Empress of Russia, and
-                                  returned to England in 1802.
-
-   MURPHY, John.                b. Ireland 1748; d after 1820. Mezzotint
-                                  and stipple.
-
-  *GAUGAIN, Thomas.             b. Abbeville 1748; d. beginning 19th
-     (Pupil of Houston.)          century. Stipple. Came very young to
-                                  London.
-
-   HOLLOWAY, Thomas.            b. London 1748; d. 1727. Line. Known
-                                  chiefly from his series of Raphael's
-                                  cartoons.
-
-   COLLYER, Joseph, A.E.        b. London 1748; d. 1827. Line and
-     (Pupil of Anthony            stipple.
-       Walker.)
-
-   SHARP, William.              b. London 1749; d. Chiswick 1824. Line.
-     (Pupil of Barak
-       Longmate, engraver
-       on plate.)
-
-   SHERWIN, John Keyse.         b. Sussex 1749; d. London 1790. Line,
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)       stipple, and painter.
-
-   BURKE, Thomas.               b. Dublin; d. London 1815. Stipple and
-     (Pupil of Dixon.)            mezzotint.
-
-   STRUTT, Joseph.              b. Essex 1749; d. London 1802. Stipple.
-     (Pupil of W. Wynne           Author of "Dictionary of Engravers,"
-       Ryland.)                   "Sports and Pastimes of the English,"
-                                  &c.
-
-   DOUGHTY, William.            b. York; d. Lisbon 1782. Mezzotinter,
-                                  also portrait painter. Engravings
-                                  mostly dated 1779. Was a pupil of Sir
-                                  Joshua Reynolds. Sailed for Bengal
-                                  1780, but, captured by French and
-                                  Spanish squadrons, was taken instead
-                                  to Lisbon.
-
-   HUDSON, Henry.               b. London; d. abroad; fl. 1782-92.
-                                  Mezzotint.
-
-   DEAN, John.                  b. c. 1750; d. London 1798. Mezzotint.
-     (Pupil of Valentine          Prints dated 1776-89 at three
-       Green.)                    addresses in Soho, at the last of
-                                  which a fire destroyed nearly all
-                                  his plates and stock.
-
-   JONES, John.                 d. 1797. Mezzotint and stipple. Father
-                                  of George Jones (b. 1786), R.A., the
-                                  painter.
-
-   PARKER, James.               b. 1750; d. London 1805. Line. Joined
-     (Pupil of Basire.)           Willaim Blake in keeping a print shop
-                                  in 1784.
-
-   SIMON, Peter J.              b. c. 1750; d. c. 1810. Stipple.
-
-  *FACIUS, George }             b. Ratisbon c. 1750. Stipple. Came to
-     Sigmund.     }               London in 1766 at the request of
-  *FACIUS, John   }Brothers.      Boydell.
-     Gottlieb.    }
-
-   MORRIS, Thomas.              b. c. 1750; fl. 1795. Line. Engraved
-     (Pupil of Woollett.)         Views of St. Paul's and the Monument.
-
-   MIDDIMAN, Samuel.            b. 1750; d. London 1831. Line.
-     (Pupil of Byrne.)            Landscape engraver.
-
-   SAUNDERS, J.                 fl. 1772-74. Mezzotint.
-
-  *MARCHI, Giuseppe             b. Rome 1752; d. London 1808.
-     Filippo Liberati.            Mezzotint. Brought to England 1769
-                                  by Sir J. Reynolds, who employed
-                                  him as an assistant.
-
-   SMITH, John Raphael.         b. Derby 1752; d. Doncaster 1812.
-                                  Mezzotint and stipple. Painter in
-                                  miniature and crayons and printseller.
-                                  Father of Emma Smith the engraver.
-
-   BEWICK, Thomas.              b. Northumberland 1753; d. Gateshead
-     (Pupil of Beilby, an         1828. Wood engraver; also copperplate.
-       engraver at                His brother John was likewise a wood
-       Newcastle.)                engraver.
-
-   NUTTER, William.             b. 1754; d. London 1802. Stipple.
-     (Pupil of J. R. Smith.)
-
-   YOUNG, John.                 b. 1755; d. London 1825. Mezzotint.
-     (Pupil of J. R. Smith.)      Published catalogues with etchings
-                                  of the Grosvenor (1820), Leigh Court
-                                  (1822), Angerstein (1823), and
-                                  Stafford (1826) Galleries.
-
-   GROZER, Joseph.              fl. 1786-97. Mezzotint.
-
-   POLLARD, Robert.             b. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1755; d. 1838.
-     (Pupil of a                  Etching, aquatint, and painter; last
-       silversmith.)              surviving member of Incorporated
-                                  Society of Artists; in 1836 gave over
-                                  to Royal Academy the papers of the
-                                  Society.
-
-   LEGAT, Francis.              b. Scotland 1755; d. London 1869. Line.
-                                  Studied under Alex. Runciman, the
-                                  Edinburgh painter.
-
-   GILLRAY, James.              b. Lanarkshire 1720; d. London 1815.
-     (Pupil of heraldic           Etcher and line. Caricaturist.
-       engraver.)
-
-   HEATH, James, A.E.           b. London 1757; d. London 1834. Line.
-     (Pupil of Collyer.)          Father of Charles Heath.
-
-   BLAKE, William.              b. Broad Street, Golden Square, London,
-     (Pupil of Basire.)           1757; d. Fountain Court, Strand;
-       2nd of the name.           buried Bunhill Fields, 1827. Line,
-                                  stipple, and etching. Poet and painter.
-
-   HAWARD, Francis, A.E.        b. 1759; d. London c. 1797. Mezzotint
-                                  and stipple.
-
-   THEW, Robert.                b. Yorkshire 1758; d. Herts 1802.
-                                  Stipple.
-
-   SMITH, Anker, A.E.           b. London 1759; d. London 1819. Line.
-     (Pupil of James Taylor,
-       who was brother and
-       uncle respectively of
-       the two Isaac
-       Taylors, engravers of
-       some note.)
-
-   SHEPPEARD, George.           b. c. 1760; fl. 1794. Mezzotint and
-                                  stipple.
-
-   TOMKINS, P. W.               b. London 1760; d. 1840. Stipple.
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)       Designer.
-
-   PARK, Thomas.                b. 1760; d. Hampstead 1835. Mezzotint.
-                                  Author.
-
-   CHEESEMAN, Thomas.           b. 1760; d. after 1820. Stipple.
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)       Draughtsman.
-
-   WATSON, Caroline.            b. London 1760; d. Pimlico 1814. Stipple.
-     (Daughter of James
-       Watson.)
-
-   JUDKINS, Elizabeth.          fl. 1772-75. Mezzotint. Engraved "Mrs.
-     (Said to be pupil of         Abingdon" and "Careful Shepherdess,"
-       James Watson.)             amongst others, after Sir J. Reynolds.
-
-   KEATING, George.             b. Ireland 1762; fl. London 1784-97.
-     (Pupil of William            Mezzotint. Stipple.
-       Dickinson.)
-
-  *RAMBERG, John Henry.         b. Hanover 1763; d. c. 1840. Aquatint,
-                                  etching, stipple. Painter. Came early
-                                  in life to England, but is said to
-                                  have died at Hanover.
-
-  *SCHIAVONETTI, Luigi.         b. Bassano 1765; d. Brompton 1810. Line,
-                                  stipple. Draughtsman. Came to England
-                                  in 1790, and joined Bartolozzi.
-
-   KNIGHT, Charles.             fl. latter part of 18th century. Stipple.
-
-   SUMMERFIELD, John.           d. Buckinghamshire 1817. Line.
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
-
-   SKELTON, William.            b. London 1763; d. Pimlico 1848. Line.
-     (Pupil of Basire and
-       Sharp.)
-
-   NUGENT, Thomas.              b. Drogheda; fl. end of 18th century.
-                                  Stipple.
-
-   DUPONT, Gainsborough.        b. 1767; d. London 1797. Mezzotint.
-                                  Painter. Nephew and pupil of Thomas
-                                  Gainsborough.
-
-   BROMLEY, William, A.E.       b. Isle of Wight 1769; d. 1842. Line.
-     (Pupil of Wooding, a         Father of John Charles, and James
-       line engraver in           Bromley, the mezzotint engravers.
-       London.)
-
-   WARREN, Charles.             b. London 1767; d. Wandsworth 1823.
-                                  Line. Perfected a process of engraving
-                                  on steel plates tried by Raimbach.
-                                  Awarded gold medal Society of Arts.
-
-   WARD, William, A.E.          b. London 1766; d. London 1826.
-     (Pupil of J. R. Smith.)      Mezzotint. Married sister of George
-                                  Morland, father of William Ward,
-                                  junior.
-
-
-19th Cent.
-
-   WARD, James, R.A.            b. London 1769; d. 1855. Mezzotint.
-     (Nine years pupil of         Animal painter.
-       his brother William,
-       J. R. Smith.)
-
-   LANDSEER, John, A.E.         b. Lincoln 1769; d. 1852. Line. Father
-     (Pupil of William            of the painters Charles and Sir Edwin,
-       Byrne.)                    R.A.'s, and of the engraver Thomas.
-
-   SAY, William.                b. near Norwich 1768; d. London 1834.
-     (Pupil of James Ward.)       Mezzotint. Engraved first successful
-                                  mezzotint on steel.
-
-   COOPER, Robert.              fl. early part of 19th century. Stipple.
-
-   HODGES, Charles Howard.      b. England; d. Amsterdam 1837. Mezzotint
-                                  and painter. Went to Holland c. 1794.
-
-  *CARDON, Anthony.             b. Brussels 1773; d. London 1813.
-     (Pupil of                    Stipple. Came to England in 1790.
-       Schiavonetti.)
-
-   GODBY, James.                fl. beginning 19th century. Stipple.
-
-   SMITH, Benjamin.             d. London 1833. Stipple.
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
-
-   CLINT, George, A.R.A.        b. London 1770; d. Kensington 1854.
-                                  Mezzotint; also portrait and miniature
-                                  painter.
-
-   REYNOLDS, Samuel Wm.         b. 1773; d. Bayswater 1835. Mezzotint,
-     (Pupil of Hodges.)           portrait, and water-colour painter.
-                                  Father of Elizabeth, mezzotint
-                                  engraver and miniature painter, and
-                                  Samuel William, mezzotint engraver
-                                  and portrait painter.
-
-   TURNER, Charles, A.E.        b. Woodstock 1773; d. London 1857.
-                                  Mezzotint and stipple.
-
-   SCOTT, John.                 b. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1774; d. Chelsea
-     (Pupil of Pollard.)          1828. Line, animal engraver.
-
-   SCRIVEN, Edward.             b. Alcester 1775; d. London 1841.
-     (Pupil of Thew.)             Stipple.
-
-   RAIMBACH, Abraham.           b. London 1776; d. Greenwich 1843.
-     (Pupil of J. Hall.)          Line.
-
-   NOBLE, George.               fl. beginning of 19th century. Line.
-
-   ENGLEHEART, Francis.         b. London 1775; d. 1849. Line.
-     (Pupil of Collyer.)
-
-   NESBITT, Charlton.           b. near Durham 1775; d. Brompton 1838.
-     (Pupil of Beilby and         Wood engraver.
-       Bewick.)
-
-   BRANSTON, Robert.            b. Lynn 1778; d. Brompton 1827. Wood
-     (Pupil of his father, a      engraver.
-       copperplate engraver.)
-
-   CLENNELL, Luke.              b. near Morpeth 1781;
-     (Pupil of Bewick.)           d. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1840. Wood
-                                  engraver, water-colour, and miniature
-                                  painter.
-
-   COOKE, William               b. 1778; d. 1855. Line. Brother of
-     Bernard. (Pupil of           George and uncle of E. W. Cooke, R.A.
-       Angus, an engraver in
-       line of some note.)
-
-   COOKE, George.               b. London 1781; d. Barnes 1834. Line.
-     (Pupil of Basire.)           Brother of Wm. Bernard, and father of
-                                  E. W. Cooke, R.A.
-
-   LEWIS, Frederick             b. London 1779; d. Enfield 1856. Stipple
-     Christian.                   or chalk; water-colour painter.
-                                  Father of J. F. Lewis, R.A., and C. G.
-                                  Lewis the engraver.
-
-   DAWE, George, R.A.           b. London 1781; d. 1829. Mezzotint;
-     (Son and pupil of            painter. Brother of Henry. Painted
-       Philip Dawe.)              in Russia for the Emperor 1819-28.
-
-   DAWE, Henry.                 b. London 1790; d. Windsor 1845.
-     (Son and pupil of            Mezzotint and painter.
-       Philip Dawe.)
-
-   PYE, John.                   b. Birmingham 1782; d. London 1874.
-     (Pupil of James Heath.)      Line and stipple. Landscape engraver.
-
-   WEDGWOOD, John Taylor.       b. 1783; d. London 1856. Line.
-
-   MEYER, Henry.                b. London c. 1783; d. 1847. Mezzotint;
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)       and stipple. Nephew of J. Hoppner,
-                                  R.A.
-
-   LE KEUX, John  }             b. London 1783; d. 1846. { Line,
-                  }Brothers.                             { architectural,
-   LE KEUX, Henry }             b. London 1787; d. 1868. { and landscape
-     (Pupils of Basire.)                                 { engravers.
-
-   ARMSTRONG, Cosmo.            fl. early part of 19th century. Line.
-
-   RADCLYFFE, William.          b. Birmingham 1782; d. Birmingham 1855.
-                                  Line, landscape engraver; practised in
-                                  Birmingham all his life. Father of
-                                  Edward, landscape engraver.
-
-   BURNET, John, F.R.S.         b. Edinburgh 1784; d. Stoke Newington
-                                  1868. Line and mezzotint. Painter and
-                                  author.
-
-   HEATH, Charles.              b. 1785; d. 1848. Line; excelled in
-     (Son of James Heath.)        small plates.
-
-   GOLDING, Richard.            b. London 1785; d. Lambeth 1865. Line.
-     (Pupil of J. Parker.)
-
-   WOOLNOTH, Thomas.            b. 1785; d. c. 1854. Stipple and line.
-                                  Small theatrical portraits and
-                                  architectural views.
-
-   THOMPSON, John.              b. London 1785; d. London 1866. Wood
-     (Pupil of Branston.)         engraver. Brother of Charles and
-                                  Charles Thurston.
-
-   ROMNEY, John.                b. 1786; d. Chester 1863. Line.
-
-   THOMPSON, Charles.           b. London 1791; d. near Paris 1843. Wood
-     (Pupil of Bewick             engraver; better known in Paris, where
-       and Branston.)             he went in 1816, and introduced the
-                                  practice of cutting out the end of the
-                                  wood, then unknown abroad.
-
-   BOND, William.               fl. beginning of 19th century. Stipple.
-
-   CHAPMAN, J.                  fl. beginning of 19th century. Stipple.
-     (Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
-
-   WEBB, J.                     b. c. 1790; d. 1832. Line. Engraver of
-                                  animals.
-
-   FINDEN, Wm.   } Brothers.    b. 1788; d. 1852. { Stipple and line.
-   FINDEN, E. F. }              b. 1792; d. 1857. { Landscape and
-     (Pupils of J. Mitan, an                      { book illustrators.
-       engraver of some
-       note.)
-
-   WALKER, William.             b. Midlothian 1791; d. London 1867.
-     (Pupil of Thomas             Stipple and mezzotint. Married
-       Woolnoth, and              Elizabeth, daughter  of S. W.
-       Mitchell and               Reynolds.
-       Stewart, two
-       engravers of
-       moderate note.)
-
-   LUPTON, Thomas Goff.         b. Clerkenwell 1791; d. 1873. Mezzotint.
-     (Pupil of Clint.)            Established the use of steel in place
-                                  of copper in mezzo engraving. Received
-                                  for this gold Isis medal from Society
-                                  of Arts in 1822.
-
-   LINNELL, John.               b. 1792; d. c. 1880. Mezzotint; painter.
-
-   CRUIKSHANK, George.          b. London 1792; d. London 1878. Etcher
-     (Son of Isaac, also          and caricaturist.
-       caricaturist and
-       engraver.)
-
-   WORTHINGTON, Wm. H.          b. c. 1795; d. 1826. Line. Worked in
-                                  London.
-
-   GOODALL, Edward.             b. Leeds 1795; d. London 1870. Line.
-                                  Engraved after J. M. W. Turner,
-                                  through whose influence he became an
-                                  engraver. Was self-taught.
-
-   LANDSEER, Thomas, A.E.       b. c. 1795; d. 1880. Line. Brother of
-     (Son and pupil of            Sir Edwin.
-       John Landseer, A.E.)
-
-   HOPWOOD, James.              b. 1795. Stipple.
-     (Son of James; also
-       an engraver,
-       self-taught, but
-       helped by Heath.)
-
-   ROLLS, Charles.              fl. early part of 19th century. Line.
-
-   BROMLEY, John                b. Chelsea 1795; d. 1839. Mezzzotint.
-     Charles. (Son of             His son Frederick was also an engraver.
-       Wm. Bromley, A.E.)
-
-   HARVEY, William.             b. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1796; d. Richmond
-     (Pupil of Thomas             1866. Wood engraver and designer. Cut
-       Bewick and B. R.           one of the largest English wood-cuts.
-       Haydon.)
-
-   ROBINSON, John.              b. Bolton 1796; d. Petworth 1871. Line.
-     Henry, R.A. (Pupil of
-       James Heath.)
-
-   GRAVES, Robert, A.E.         b. London 1798; d. Highgate 1873. Line.
-     (Pupil of John Romney.)
-
-   WATT, James Henry.           b. London 1799; d. 1867. Line.
-     (Pupil of Charles
-       Heath.)
-
-   BROMLEY, James.              b. 1800; d. 1838. Mezzotint.
-     (Son of William
-       Bromley, A.E.)
-
-   WARD, William, junior.       b. c. 1800; d. 1840. Mezzotint.
-     (Son of William Ward,
-       A.E.)
-
-   WILLMORE, James              b. Erdington, Staffordshire, 1800;
-     Tibbetts, A.E.               d. London 1863. Line. Engraved after
-       (Seven years pupil         J. M. W. Turner.
-       of W. Radclyffe, and
-       three years of C.
-       Heath.)
-
-   RADDON, W.                   fl. 1830. Line.
-
-   HODGETTS, J.                 fl. 1830. Mezzotint.
-
-   JACKSON, John.               b. Ovingham 1801; d. 1848. Wood
-     (Pupil of Bewick             engraver. Published with Chatto "A
-       and Harvey.)               Treatise on Wood Engraving," 1838.
-
-   GIBBON, Benjamin             b. 1802; d. London 1851. Line.
-     Phelps. (Pupil of
-       J. H. Robinson and
-       Scriven).
-
-   SHENTON, Henry               b. Winchester 1803; d. London 1866.
-     Chawner. (Pupil of           Line.
-       Charles Warren.)
-
-   GILLER, W.                   fl. 1835. Mezzotint.
-
-   BRANDARD, Robert.            b. Birmingham 1805; d. 1852. Line,
-     (Pupil of E. Goodall.)       landscape engraver. Came to London
-                                  1824. Engraved after J. M. W. Turner.
-
-   LEWIS, Charles George.       b. 1807; d. 1880. Line, etching.
-
-   LUCAS, John.                 b. London 1807; d. London 1874.
-     (Pupil of S. W.              Mezzotint; portrait painter.
-       Reynolds.)
-
-   RADCLYFFE, Edward.           b. Birmingham 1809; d. London 1863.
-     (Son and pupil of            Line.
-       William Radclyffe.)
-
-   JOUBERT, Jean                b. 1810; d. 1884. Line.
-     Ferdinand.
-
-   ZOBEL, George.               b. c. 1815; d. London 1881. Mezzotint.
-
-   JEENS, Charles Henry.        b. 1817; d. 1879. Stipple. Miniature
-                                  book illustrations.
-
-   JACKSON, John                b. Portsmouth 1819; d. Southsea 1877.
-     Richardson. (Pupil of        Mezzotint and line.
-       R. Graves, A.E.)
-
-   COUSINS, Henry.              fl. 1840. Mezzotint.
-     (Brother of Saml.
-       Cousins, R.A.)
-
-   WARD, George                 fl. 1840. Mezzotint.
-     Raphael. (Son
-       of James Ward.)
-
-
-There are still living three engravers eminently representative of the
-old schools:--
-
-   DOO, George, R.A., F.R.S.    b. c. 1800. Line.
-
-   POSSELWHITE, J.              Stipple.
-
-   COUSINS, Samuel, R.A.        b. 1801. Mezzotint. The present T. L.
-                                  Atkinson was a pupil of Cousins.
-
-
-
-
-  FOOTNOTES:
-
-
-  [1] At the present day line engravers sometimes work on steel plates,
-  as they are capable of supplying without damage a much greater number
-  of proofs than can be printed from copper plates. It more frequently
-  happens that a copper plate is coated with steel before being submitted
-  to the action of the press, in order to preserve it, and to increase
-  the number of copies without taking off the edge of the workmanship.
-  That is to say, that by means of "electrotyping" a thin coat of metal
-  is superimposed, which, since it considerably increases the power of
-  endurance, increases the productiveness of the plate and the number of
-  proofs that can be taken.
-
-  [2] Papillon, "Traité de la Gravure en Bois," 1766, vol. i., ch. 1.
-
-  [3] Pliny, "Hist. Nat.," xxxv., c. 2.
-
-  [4] "Materiali per servire alla Storia dell' Incisione," &c., p. 83 and
-  following.
-
-  [5] That is the "Treatises on Latin Syntax" by Ælius Donatus, a
-  grammarian of the fourth century. In the Middle Ages these treatises
-  were much used in schools.
-
-  [6] Published by John Koelhoff under the name of "Cronica van der
-  hilliger Stat van Coellen," p. 31 and after.
-
-  [7] "Essai historique et critique sur l'Invention de l'Imprimerie."
-  Lille, 1859.
-
-  [8] This, at any rate, is what we feel tempted to do as regards the
-  "Biblia Pauperum," a book containing xylographic illustrations, whose
-  date has been variously estimated, and which we are disposed to believe
-  even older than the first edition of the "Speculum." Heinecken, as
-  usual, claims for Germany the production of this precious collection,
-  which Ottley, with more appearance of reason, regards as the work of an
-  artist of the Low Countries, who worked about 1420. In this way Germany
-  would only have the right to claim the plates added in the German
-  editions published forty years later, and which are far less perfect in
-  point of style and arrangement than those of the original edition.
-
-  [9] The Dutch word _coster_ means churchwarden, or beadle.
-
-  [10] "Ideé générale d'une Collection d'Estampes, 1771," p. 305.
-
-  [11] "Discours Historique sur la Gravure." Paris, 1808.
-
-  [12] See in "L'Artiste," 1839, an article entitled "La plus ancienne
-  Gravure du Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliothèque royale est-elle
-  ancienne?"
-
-  [13] "Notice sur deux Estampes de 1406, et sur les Commencements de la
-  Gravure en Criblé." "Gazette des Beaux-arts," t. I^{er}, 2^e période,
-  1869.
-
-  [14] "Le Peintre-Graveur," Leipzig, 1860, vol. i., p. 84.
-
-  [15] "Une Passion de 1446. Suite de Gravures au Burin, les premières
-  avec Date." Montpellier, 1857.
-
-  [16] "Archiv für die Zeichnenden Künste," 1858.
-
-  [17] The "Pax" is a metal plate which, at high mass and during the
-  singing of the "Agnus Dei," the officiating priest gives to be kissed
-  by the clergy and the devout, addressing to each of them these words:
-  "Pax tecum." The "Pax" made by Finiguerra for the Baptistery of St.
-  John has been removed from thence to the Uffizi, where it still is.
-
-  [18] It is useless to adduce the fine "Profile of a Woman," discovered
-  a few years ago at Bologna, and now the property of the Berlin Museum,
-  as an argument against the poverty we are trying to prove. This very
-  important document is not only of uncertain date, but, as we have
-  remarked elsewhere, the nature of its execution and style forbid one to
-  look upon it as the work of any Florentine artist.
-
-  [19] Martin Schongauer was born at Colmar, in which town his father
-  had settled as a goldsmith; there he passed the greatest part of his
-  life, and there he died in 1488. Vasari sometimes speaks of him as
-  "Antwerp Martin," or "Martin the Fleming." This is easily explained: a
-  German or Flemish artist would be all one in the eyes of a Tuscan of
-  the fifteenth century, as strangers were all barbarians to the ancient
-  Romans.
-
-  [20] This is by no means universally admitted to be a genuine work by
-  Martin Schongauer.
-
-  [21] He had no fewer than eighteen children; Albert was the third.
-
-  [22] Herr Moriz Thausing has treated this question exhaustively in his
-  important work on Albert Dürer.
-
-  [23] The oldest known dated engraving by Marc Antonio, the "Pyramus and
-  Thisbe," bears the date of 1505. If Marc Antonio, as we have reason to
-  think, was born about 1480, he must have been already over twenty when
-  he published this extremely commonplace print.
-
-  [24] Michael Huber ("Manuel des Curieux et des Amateurs de l'Art," t.
-  iii.) says, word for word: "All that is wanted in these prints is a
-  richer handling and that general aspect which we admire in the subjects
-  engraved from Rubens." One might as well say that Petrarch's style
-  would be improved by being Ariosto's.
-
-  [25] Agostino Caracci, who deserves to be numbered amongst the
-  cleverest engravers of the end of the sixteenth century, did not
-  blush to devote his talents to a similar publication, serious in
-  style, but of most obscene intention. The Bolognese artist, like his
-  celebrated countryman, seems to have wished to display at once his
-  science and his shamelessness. The one only serves to make the other
-  more inexcusable, and it is even still more difficult to tolerate this
-  austere immodesty than the licentiousness, without æsthetic pretension,
-  which characterises the little French prints sold under the rose in the
-  eighteenth century.
-
-  [26] Passavant: "Le Peintre-Graveur," iii. 5.
-
-  [27] "Les Maîtres d'Autrefois," p. 165.
-
-  [28] In the National Library at Paris a collection of over a hundred
-  trial proofs, retouched by Rubens himself, exists to bear witness
-  to the careful attention with which he overlooked the work of his
-  engravers.
-
-  [29] At the time of Callot's birth Lorraine was not yet French
-  territory; but as it was during his life that Nancy was taken by the
-  king's army, we have a right to include him among French artists.
-
-  [30] He was in all twelve years in Italy: three in Rome, and nine in
-  Florence.
-
-  [31] William Faithorne, the first line engraver worth mentioning in
-  the history of English art, did not even begin to be known till after
-  Charles I. After the king's fall, Faithorne, who was a Royalist, went
-  to France, where, under Nanteuil, he perfected himself in his art, and
-  did not finally settle in England till near the end of 1650.
-
-  [32] Hollar is not merely one of the most distinguished of German
-  engravers. There are few artists in any country who have handled the
-  needle with so much skill and intelligence; there is probably none who
-  has so greatly excelled in rendering the details of apparel and of the
-  daintiest objects. His achievement numbers more than 2,000 prints,
-  which, in spite of their small size, and the generally trifling nature
-  of the subjects, deserve to be classed amongst the most remarkable
-  etched work of the seventeenth century.
-
-  [33] His first plates are sometimes signed "De Leeuw," sometimes
-  "Tomaes de Leu," which has led many writers--M. Robert-Dumesnil among
-  them--to suppose that he migrated to Paris from a town in Flanders.
-
-  [34] It represents a "Holy Family," with this inscription on a stone,
-  to the right: "R. Nanteuil Philosophiæ Auditor Sculpebat Rhemis An^o
-  dni 1645."
-
-  [35] These flights were not Nanteuil's last. There is extant a sort of
-  petition in verse, which he one day presented to Louis XIV. to excuse
-  himself for not having finished in time a portrait ordered by the king.
-  These rhymes, quoted by the Abbé Lambert in his "Histoire Littéraire du
-  Règne de Louis XIV.," and some others composed by Nanteuil in praise of
-  Mlle. de Scudéry, are not such to make us regret that he did not more
-  frequently lay aside the graver for the pen.
-
-  [36] The greater part of Nanteuil's drawings are in three crayons,
-  made out in places with light tints in pastel. The colour is sober
-  and delicate, and offers a good deal of resemblance to the charming
-  French crayons of the sixteenth century. Nanteuil doubtless produced
-  many portraits which he never engraved, but he engraved very few
-  that he had not previously produced. It must also be remarked, that
-  in his achievement, which is composed of more than two hundred and
-  thirty pieces, there are not more than eighteen subject pictures or
-  illustrations. It is worthy, too, of special note that there are only
-  eight portraits in which the hands are seen, and in six of these only
-  one hand is shown.
-
-  [37] "Édit de Saint Jean-de-Luz," 1660.
-
-  [38] Claude, it is true, was still alive in 1667; but after his second
-  installation in Rome (1627), he never saw France again.
-
-  [39] Vitet: "Eustache Lesueur."
-
-  [40] It is said that Lebrun one day proclaimed that Audran had
-  "improved his pictures." It is possible he may have said, "that he
-  had not spoilt them." Such an expression in the mouth of such a man
-  is quite modest enough; but it is difficult to imagine Lebrun so far
-  humbling himself in public.
-
-  [41] We said that Edelinck was born at Antwerp; but as he was very
-  young when he took up his abode in France, and as he never returned
-  to his native country, we may be allowed to include him in the French
-  school with as much right as his countryman, Philippe de Champaigne.
-
-  [42] Amongst Audran's most distinguished scholars, we need only mention
-  the following names: Gaspard Duchange; Dorigny, summoned to London by
-  Queen Anne; Louis Desplaces; and Nicolas Henri Tardieu, founder of a
-  family of clever engravers, the last of whom died in 1844, worthy of
-  the name he bore.
-
-  [43] Engraver of the "Assumption" of Philippe de Champaigne. He must
-  not be confused with another Bartholomew Kilian, his ancestor, and the
-  head of a family in which there are no less than twenty engravers.
-
-  [44] Some of these little unpretentious amateur prints are not without
-  charm; some even show a certain amount of talent in the execution, and
-  the portraits drawn and engraved by Carmontelle, the author of the
-  "Proverbes," deserve, amongst others, to be mentioned on that account.
-
-  [45] In his landscapes, Woollett makes use of etching, line, and the
-  dry-point, all three. Philippe Le Bas was the first to make use of
-  dry-point to render the misty tones of distances and the clearness of
-  skies. This mode of engraving, improved by Vivarès, was carried to its
-  highest perfection by Woollett. Certain English artists of the same
-  period tried to apply the process of mezzotint to landscape engraving;
-  but the landscapes engraved in this way by Watson and Brookshaw, after
-  the German Kobell, will not bear comparison with Woollett's.
-
-  [46] In a work dedicated to Pitt, "On the Origin of Trade and its
-  History to the Present Times" (London, 1790), we read that the prints
-  exported from England at that time were, as compared with those
-  imported from France, in the proportion of "five hundred to one by the
-  most exact computation," and that the trade in English engravings, far
-  from being restricted to one or two countries, extended all over Europe.
-
-  [47] The credit of the invention is really due to Jean Charles
-  François, born at Nancy in 1717. But the application that François made
-  of his discovery was--if we consider the improvements introduced soon
-  afterwards by Demarteau--still so incomplete that it seems only fair to
-  attribute to the latter a principal share in the original success.
-
-  [48] "Lettre de Cochin, Secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie, au Sieur
-  François," 26th November, 1757.
-
-  [49] Before giving himself up almost exclusively to the practice of
-  aquatint, Debucourt produced a large number of engravings in colour:
-  "Le Jardin" and "La Galerie de Bois au Palais Royal," the "Promenade
-  aux Tuileries," "L'Escalade," and so forth. We know the ardour, verging
-  on mania, with which these prints, albeit of little value from an
-  artistic point of view, are now collected.
-
-  [50] This important publication contains, in four sections, the most
-  remarkable pictures and sculptures of the Louvre, as it existed after
-  Napoleon had enriched it with masterpieces from every school. Begun in
-  1802, it was continued till 1811.
-
-  [51] This fine cathedral, burnt with so many other churches in the
-  great fire, was 690 feet in length, 130 feet broad, and 520 feet high
-  at the top of the spire.
-
-  [52] The tear-shaped pieces of glass (Lachrimæ Vitreæ), which resist
-  hard blows applied at the thick end, yet fly to pieces the moment a
-  fragment is broken off the fine end, were first brought to England by
-  Prince Rupert, and are called popularly "Prince Rupert's drops."
-
-  [53] This print represents a tall, powerful-looking man, standing with
-  naked sword in one hand, and holding up in the other the head of St.
-  John the Baptist.
-
-  [54] Other names given to mezzotint out of England are: Schwarzkunst,
-  black art; La manière anglaise, L'incisione a foggia nera, engraving in
-  black fashion or manner.
-
-  [55] This engraver must not be confused with John Keyse Sherwin, whose
-  line engravings produced a century later are well known.
-
-  [56] This Club was instituted in 1703, the year after the accession
-  of Queen Anne, to promote the Protestant succession, the members
-  meeting at the "Cat and Fiddle" in Shire Lane, Fleet Street, kept
-  by Christopher Kat, from whom it took the name. The particular size
-  known amongst artists as Kit-cat, just below the waist and not quite
-  three-quarter length, also acquired its name from this series of
-  portraits, which were painted their particular length to suit the walls
-  of Tonson's villa at Barn Elms.
-
-  [57] John Riley, Jonathan Richardson, Michael Dahl, John Closterman,
-  John Vanderbank, and Thomas Hudson.
-
-  [58] The date of McArdell's birth is often erroneously given as 1710
-  instead of 1728-9 according to the above authority.
-
-  [59] James Walker must not be confused either with Anthony and his
-  brother William, or with the stipple and mezzotint engraver William
-  Walker of the present century. James Walker's prints are not numerous,
-  a great number of his plates and prints having been lost from the
-  foundering of the vessel which was bringing them back to England
-  from Russia, where Walker had lived for seventeen years, having been
-  appointed in 1784 engraver to the Empress Catherine.
-
-  [60] A painter more generally known as Langen Jan, born at Munster in
-  1610, the correct name being John or Johann van Bockhorst; the name,
-  however, appears as above in the engraving.
-
-  [61] On the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768, Bartolozzi, to the
-  exclusion of Strange and Woollett, was admitted one of the first forty
-  members with full membership; all engravers afterwards up to the year
-  1855 could only be elected as associate members.
-
-  [62] This engraver was in no way related to the better-known stipple
-  and historical engraver of the same name who flourished in the present
-  century.
-
-  [63] Woollett was buried in Old St. Pancras Churchyard; on a plain
-  tombstone which marks the spot were found one day written in pencil the
-  two lines--
-
-    "Here Woollett rests, expecting to be sav'd,
-    He graved well, but is not well engrav'd."
-
-Shortly afterwards a subscription was raised, to which Benjamin
-West and John Boydell contributed, for the purpose of erecting the
-above-mentioned tablet which now stands in the West Cloister.
-
-[64] Opie painted a life-size head of S. W. Reynolds, and of his
-daughter Elizabeth as "Red Riding Hood" (exhibited at the winter
-exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1876); this portrait of herself
-Elizabeth engraved in mezzotint at the age of fourteen.
-
-[65] Father of the late E. W. Cooke, R.A.
-
-[66] Walker engraved the portrait of Raeburn with the special purpose
-of proving the contrary.
-
-[67] John Lucas, the well-known portrait painter and also engraver in
-mezzotint, was likewise a pupil of Reynolds.
-
-[68] The plate of Salisbury Cathedral was engraved at Constable's
-expense and published in 1837 by Messrs. Hodgson, Graves and Co., for
-the painter. After his sudden death in the same year it was sold at
-Foster's, Pall Mall, in 1838, and bought in for eighty guineas, hardly
-the price of two proofs at the present time.
-
-Through the kindness of Mr. Algernon Graves, the writer has had access
-to many manuscript notes written by David Lucas.
-
-[69] Brother of Samuel Cousins, R.A.
-
-[70] Better known in France, where he settled in 1816, he died in
-the neighbourhood of Paris in 1843, and introduced there the mode of
-cutting on the end of the grain instead of with the grain as was before
-the practice.
-
-[71] First introduced in 1840, although not in general practice until
-some years later.
-
-[72] On the principle of that which is known as "engine turning," as
-seen on the back of watch-cases.
-
-[73] It is also necessary to point out that no impression damaged from
-course of time or printed from a worn-out plate can give any idea of
-the original engraving as a work of art. Other things being equal,
-proofs are primâ facie likely to be the best impressions, but a good
-print (that is a later impression), if in good condition, is far more
-valuable than a damaged or rubbed proof, however early the state may
-be.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-                          PAGE
-
-  Agesilaus, King of Sparta, 8
-
-  Agostino, Veniziano, 106
-
-  Aldegrever, 93
-
-  Ambling, Gustave, 209
-
-  Amman, Jost, 175
-
-  Andrea, Zoan, 74
-
-  Andreani, Andrea, 111
-
-  Andrews, J., 328
-
-  Antonio da Brescia, Giovanni, 74
-
-  Ardell, 172, 300, 301
-
-  Aretino, Pietro, 109, 110, 136
-
-  D'Argenville, 224
-
-  Atkinson, 324
-
-  Aveline, 216
-
-  Audran, Gérard, 6, 178, 194-202, 207, 211, 216, 237
-
-
-  Baillie, Will, 310
-
-  Baldini, Baccio, 60-65
-
-  Balechou, 229-231
-
-  Barbari, Jacopo de', 74
-
-  Barlow, F., 291, 292
-
-  Bartolozzi, 237-239, 305, 313, 314
-
-  Battista del Porto, 77
-
-  Baudet, Étienne, 189
-
-  Beatrizet, Nicolas, 151
-
-  Beauvarlet, 226
-
-  Beckett, Isaac, 297, 298
-
-  Beham, Bartholomew, 93, 94
-
-  Beham, Hans Sebald, 93, 94
-
-  Bella, Stefano della, 162
-
-  Berghem, 139
-
-  Bernard, Auguste, 12
-
-  Bernhardinus, Milnet, 44
-
-  Bernini, 168
-
-  Bertinot, 278
-
-  Bervic, 249, 252-255, 259, 260, 274
-
-  Bewick, 315, 326
-
-  Binck, Jacob, 94
-
-  Biot, 285
-
-  Blackmore, 302
-
-  Blake, W., 310, 311
-
-  Blanchard, 278
-
-  Blootelingh, Abraham, 297
-
-  "B M", 85
-
-  Bochelt, Franz von, 84
-
-  Boldrini, Nicolò, 116
-
-  Bolswert, 132, 133, 149, 177
-
-  Bonasone, da Bologna, 106
-
-  Bonnet, 242
-
-  Bonzonnet, Claudine, 189
-
-  Borromini, 168
-
-  Bosse, Abraham, 164, 166, 169, 207
-
-  Both, Jan, 139
-
-  Botticelli, 60, 62
-
-  Boulanger, 237
-
-  Boydell, 315
-
-  Boyvin, René, 151
-
-  Branston, R., 326
-
-  Brauwer, Adrian, 139
-
-  Breughels, 134
-
-  Bromley, 320
-
-  Brookshaw, 234, 302
-
-  Browne, John, 307
-
-  Bruyn, Nicolas van, 131
-
-  Burgkmair, Hans, 113
-
-  Burke, 314
-
-  Burnet, John, 320
-
-  Burt, 328
-
-
-  Calamatta, 269
-
-  Callot, Jacques, 138, 156-166, 175-177, 205
-
-  Canta-Gallina, 158, 162
-
-  Cantarini, 162
-
-  Caracci, Agostino, 110, 138, 158
-
-  Caracci, Annibale, 168
-
-  Caraglio, Giovanni, da Verona, 106
-
-  Cardon, Anthony, 313
-
-  Carmona, 226
-
-  Carmontelle, 224
-
-  Carpi, Ugo da, 111, 112
-
-  Cars, Laurent, 213-216
-
-  Casilear, 329
-
-  Caylus, Count, 224, 240
-
-  Cerceau, du, Adrian, 155
-
-  Chapman, 327
-
-  Chauveau, 204
-
-  Chedel, 217
-
-  Cheesman, 314
-
-  Cheney, 328
-
-  Chevreuse, Duc de, 224
-
-  Chodowiecki, 228
-
-  Church, 327
-
-  Cipriani, 237
-
-  Claessens, Alart, 130
-
-  Clennell, 326
-
-  Clint, George, 320
-
-  Cochin, 218, 219, 240
-
-  Coigny, Marquis de, 224
-
-  Cooke, George William, 320
-
-  Copia, 252
-
-  Corneille, Claude, 153
-
-  Cornelis, 134
-
-  Cornelius, 94
-
-  Cort, Cornelius, 130
-
-  Cortona, da, Pietro, 198
-
-  Coster, Laurence, 14, 16, 22, 28
-
-  Cousin, 150, 151
-
-  Cousins, Henry, 324
-
-  Cousins, Samuel, 266, 267, 322
-
-  Cranach, Lucas, 113
-
-  Cunego, Domenichino, 228
-
-  Cunio, Cavaliere Alberico, 9
-
-
-  Dagoty, Gautier, 243
-
-  Danforth, 329
-
-  Danguin, 278
-
-  Daullé, 226
-
-  David, Emeric, 10, 31
-
-  David, Louis, 248, 250
-
-  Dawe, Henry, 320
-
-  Dean, John, 302
-
-  De Bry, 287
-
-  Debucourt, 245
-
-  De Kaiser, 285
-
-  Delaram, François, 289
-
-  Delaune, Étienne, 151, 153, 154
-
-  De Leu, Thomas, 156, 157, 179
-
-  Demarteau, Gilles, 239-242
-
-  De Passe, Crispin, 288
-
-  De Passe, Magdalen, 288
-
-  De Passe, Simon, 288
-
-  Desnoyers, Boucher, 249, 259, 260, 270, 274
-
-  Desplaces, Louis, 201
-
-  Deuchar, David, 310
-
-  Dick, 328
-
-  Dickinson, 172, 302
-
-  Dienecker, Jost., 111
-
-  Dixon, John, 302
-
-  Domenichino, 168
-
-  Doo, 324
-
-  Dorigny, 201
-
-  Drevet, Claude, 211
-
-  Drevet, Imbert, 211
-
-  Drevet, Pierre, 211
-
-  Duchange, Gaspard, 201
-
-  Duflos, 216
-
-  Du Jardin, Karel, 140
-
-  Dumonstier, Geofroy, 151
-
-  Dupuis, 216, 226
-
-  Durand, 328
-
-  Dürer, Albert, 17, 87-95, 97-100, 102, 106, 112, 113, 116, 120, 122,
-        128, 176, 177
-
-  Duveneck, 327
-
-  Duvet, Jean, 151, 152
-
-
-  Earlom, 172, 302, 303
-
-  Edelinck, 184-186, 189, 191-196, 200, 220
-
-  Edwin, David, 328
-
-  Elstracke, Reginald, 289
-
-
-  Faber, John, senior, 298, 299
-
-  Faber, John, junior, 298, 299
-
-  Fairman, 329
-
-  Faithorne, Will, 170, 289
-
-  Felsing, 263
-
-  Finiguerra, 35, 38, 47, 52-56, 62, 76
-
-  Fiquet, 218, 220, 222, 223
-
-  Fisher, Edward, 301
-
-  Flipart, 217
-
-  Forrest, J. B., 328
-
-  Francia, Francesco, 102
-
-  Francia, Jacopo, 74
-
-  Franck, 285
-
-  François, Alphonse, 278
-
-  François, Jean Charles, 239-242
-
-  François, Jules, 276
-
-  Frye, Thomas, 300, 301
-
-  Füst, 29
-
-
-  Gaillard, 278
-
-  Gantrel, 189
-
-  Garnier, Noel, 151
-
-  Gaugain, Thomas, 313
-
-  Gaultier, Leonard, 156, 179
-
-  Gaywood, R., 292
-
-  Geminus, Thomas, 288
-
-  Gherardo da Modena, 82
-
-  Ghisi, Diana, 106
-
-  Gifford, 327
-
-  Giller, William, 324
-
-  Gilli, 282
-
-  Gimbrede, 328
-
-  Giolito da Ferrari, 115
-
-  Giotto, 53
-
-  Girard, 246
-
-  Glockenton, 85
-
-  Golding, Richard, 320
-
-  Goltzius, Hendrik, 130, 131
-
-  Gomboust, Jacques, 203
-
-  Gourmont, Jean de, 153
-
-  Goya, 139
-
-  Grateloup, 220
-
-  Gravelle, de, President, 224
-
-  Graves, Robert, 324
-
-  Greche, Domenico delle, 116
-
-  Green, Valentine, 172, 302
-
-  Greenwood, John, 301
-
-  Greuze, 216
-
-  Grün, Baldung, 93
-
-  Gutenburg, 8, 13-15, 17, 18, 28, 35, 47, 49, 51, 53, 54, 60, 76-78,
-        82, 86, 176
-
-
-  Haden, Seymour, 282, 325, 326
-
-  Haid, 304
-
-  Hainzelmann, Johann, 208
-
-  Hamerton, 326
-
-  Hardouin, 82
-
-  Harvey, Will, 326
-
-  Heath, Charles, 320, 329
-
-  Heath, James, 309, 315
-
-  Henriquel-Dupont, 271-277
-
-  Hogarth, William, 231-233, 300, 304
-
-  Hogenberg, François, 288
-
-  Hogenberg, Remigius, 288
-
-  Hollar, 170, 171, 177, 287, 290-292
-
-  Hopwood, James, 320
-
-  Houbraken, J., 228
-
-  Houston, Richard, 301
-
-  Huot, 278
-
-
-  Il Vecchio da Parma, 106
-
-  Ingram, 226
-
-
-  Jackson, 324, 326
-
-  Jacobe, 304
-
-  Jacobi, 285
-
-  Jacquemart, 280-283
-
-  Jazet, 245, 246
-
-  Jeens, C. H., 314
-
-  Jeens, J. H., 325
-
-  Jones, John, 302
-
-
-  Kauffmann, Angelica, 237
-
-  Kaulbach, 94
-
-  Keller, Franz, 262
-
-  Kilian, Bartholomew, 209
-
-  Kirkall, Edw., 311-313
-
-  Klaus, 285
-
-  Kobell, 234
-
-
-  Laborde, Léon, 12, 36-38
-
-  Landseer, John, 320
-
-  Larmessin, Nicolas de, 216
-
-  Lasne, Michel, 180
-
-  Lastman, 243
-
-  Laugier, 276
-
-  Law, David, 326
-
-  Lawrie, Robert, 302
-
-  Le Bas, 216, 234
-
-  Leblond, J. Christophe, 242, 243, 311, 312
-
-  Lebrun, 184, 187, 189, 194, 196, 198, 199
-
-  Leclerc, Sebastien, 184, 204
-
-  Legat, F., 309
-
-  Le Joséphin, 158
-
-  Lepautre, 204
-
-  Lepicié, 216, 230
-
-  Leprince, J. B., 244
-
-  Le Roy, Philip, 134
-
-  Levasseur, 217
-
-  Lewis, 324
-
-  Leyden, Lucas van, 118-131, 134, 176
-
-  Linton, 326
-
-  Longhi, 256
-
-  Lorraine, Claude, 138, 160, 162, 165, 167, 177
-
-  Louis, Aristide, 276
-
-  Loutherbourg, 231
-
-  Lucas, David, 322-324
-
-  Lucas, John, 322
-
-  Ludy, 262
-
-  Lupton, Thomas, 320
-
-  Lutma, Jan, 238
-
-  Lützelburger, 113-115
-
-  Luynes, Duchess of, 224
-
-
-  "Maitre à l'Écrevisse", 130
-
-  "Maitre à l'Étoile", 130
-
-  Major, Thomas, 304
-
-  Mantegna, Andrea, 68-74, 85, 124, 176, 177
-
-  Mantovani, 106
-
-  Marc Antonio, Raimondi, 66, 73, 91, 92, 100-113, 120, 122, 124, 133,
-        176-178
-
-  Marc de Bye, 140
-
-  Marco da Ravenna, 106
-
-  Marcolini da Forli, 115
-
-  Marshall, 329
-
-  Massaloff, 282
-
-  Massard, 250
-
-  Massé, 229
-
-  Masson, 189, 194, 211
-
-  "Master of the Bird", 77
-
-  "Master of the Caduceus", 74
-
-  "Master of Colmar", 76
-
-  "Master of Nuremberg", 94
-
-  "Master of the Streamers", 118
-
-  "Master of 1466", 49, 51, 53, 76-78, 82, 86
-
-  "Masters, The Little", 93, 162, 169, 177
-
-  Mechenen, Israel van, 84
-
-  Mellan, Claude, 180
-
-  Memling, 22
-
-  Mendel, 263
-
-  Mercuri, 269
-
-  Merian, Matthew, 170
-
-  Merz, 262
-
-  Meyer, Henry, 320
-
-  Mignard, 194, 196
-
-  Mocetto, 74, 75
-
-  Molés, Pascal, 226
-
-  Montenay, Georgette de, 156
-
-  Moran, 327
-
-  Morel, 250
-
-  Morghen, 106, 255-258, 260, 269
-
-  Morin, Jean, 6, 179, 181, 211, 237
-
-  Morris, Thomas, 309
-
-  Moser, 237
-
-  Müller, Christian Fred, 258-261
-
-  Müller, Jan, 130, 131
-
-  Müller, John Godard, 258, 259
-
-  Musi, Agostino, 151
-
-
-  Nanteuil, Robert, 180-184, 186, 189-192, 194, 202, 209, 211, 220
-
-  Nesbitt, 326
-
-  Niccoló della Casa, 152
-
-  Niccoló, of Pisa, 53
-
-  Nicoletto da Modena, 74, 82
-
-
-  Ogborn, John, 314
-
-  Ostade, Adrian van, 139
-
-  Ottley, 328
-
-
-  Parrish, Stephen, 327
-
-  Peale, Charles Wilson, 328
-
-  Pencz, Georg, 93
-
-  Pennell, 327
-
-  Perkins, 329
-
-  Pesne, Jean, 187-189, 193, 194
-
-  Pether, William, 302
-
-  Petitot, 220, 222
-
-  Pichler, 304
-
-  Pitau, Nicolas, 191
-
-  Poilly, François de, 189, 191, 194, 204, 207, 209
-
-  Pollajuolo, Antonio, 55, 62, 85
-
-  Pompadour, Mme. de, 224, 225
-
-  Pontius, Paul, 132, 133, 149, 177
-
-  Porporati, 226, 227
-
-  Posselwhite, 324
-
-  Potter, Paul, 138, 139
-
-  Poussin, 160
-
-  Preisler, Martin, 226
-
-  Prestel, Katherine, 237
-
-  Prévost, 246
-
-
-  Raimbach, Abraham, 266, 267
-
-  Raimondi (see Marc Antonio).
-
-  Raphael, 101-108
-
-  Reboul, Mme., 224
-
-  Redlich, 282
-
-  Regent, The Prince, of France, 223
-
-  Regnesson, 182
-
-  Régnier, Mathurin, 160
-
-  Rembrandt, 104, 128, 140-148, 177
-
-  Reynolds, Sir J., 172, 231, 233
-
-  Reynolds, Samuel, 266, 267, 317-322
-
-  Ribera, 139, 175
-
-  Richomme, 276
-
-  Rigaud, 211, 214
-
-  Ritchie, 328
-
-  Robert, 284
-
-  Robetta, 67
-
-  Robinson, 324
-
-  Roger, Barthélemy, 252
-
-  Rogers, William, 288
-
-  Romano, Giulio, 102, 108-110
-
-  Rosa, Salvator, 159
-
-  Roullet, 189, 194
-
-  Rousseaux, 276
-
-  Rubens, 131-133, 176, 178
-
-  Rupert, Prince, 171-173, 292, 296
-
-  Ruysdael, J., 139
-
-  Ryder, Thomas, 314
-
-  Ryland, 226, 228, 238, 239, 270, 309, 310
-
-
-  St. Aubin, Augustin, 218-221
-
-  St. Non, Abbé de, 240
-
-  Saint-Ygny, 164
-
-  Sanson, Adrien, 203
-
-  Sanson, Guillaume, 203
-
-  Sartain, John, 328
-
-  Savart, 220
-
-  Say, William, 320
-
-  Schäffer, 262
-
-  Schaüflein, Hans, 93, 113
-
-  Schmidt, 226
-
-  Schön, Bartholomew, 84
-
-  Schongauer, Martin, 76, 78-86, 91, 117, 176, 177
-
-  Scott, John, 320
-
-  Scultori, Diana (see Ghisi).
-
-  Seghers, 243
-
-  Selma, Fernando, 228
-
-  Sharp, William, 305, 308, 309, 315
-
-  Sherborne, W. H., 325
-
-  Sherwin, John Keyse, 297, 309
-
-  Sherwin, William, 296, 297
-
-  Silvestre, Israel, 138, 164, 177
-
-  Simon, Jean, 298
-
-  Simoneau, Charles, 229
-
-  Slocombe, 326
-
-  Smillies, 328
-
-  Smith, Anker, 309, 316
-
-  Smith, Beckett, 297, 298
-
-  Smith, John, 297, 298
-
-  Smith, J. R., 172, 302
-
-  Snyders, Franz, 134
-
-  Sonnenleiter, 285
-
-  Soutman, 132, 133
-
-  Spencer, Asa, 329
-
-  Spierre, François, 204
-
-  Spilsbury, John, 302
-
-  Star, Dirck (see Van Staren).
-
-  Steinfensand, 262
-
-  Steinla, 263
-
-  Stella, Claudine (see Bonzonnet).
-
-  Strange, Robert, 226, 228, 234, 270, 305-307
-
-  Sullivan, Luke, 304, 305
-
-  Suyderhoef, Jonas, 136, 149
-
-
-  Tardieu, Alexandre, 249, 251, 259, 270
-
-  Tardieu, Nicolas Henri, 201, 226
-
-  Taylor, 243
-
-  Thaeter, 262
-
-  Thompson, Charles, 326
-
-  Thompson, John, 326
-
-  Tiebout, C., 328
-
-  Tinney, John, 307
-
-  Titian, 116
-
-  Tomkins, P. W., 314
-
-  Toschi, 269
-
-  Tory, Geofroy, 151
-
-  Trento, Antonio da, 111
-
-  Turner, Charles, 316, 317
-
-
-  Unger, 282
-
-
-  Vaillant, Wallerant, 172, 296
-
-  Van Dalen, Cornelius, 136, 177
-
-  Van Dyck, 133, 134
-
-  Van Eyck, 18, 22, 28
-
-  Van Schuppen, 194, 208, 209
-
-  Van Staren, Dirck, 130
-
-  Velde, Adrian van de, 140
-
-  Veldenaer, John, 17
-
-  Vermeulen, Cornelius, 209
-
-  Vicentino, Nicolò, 111
-
-  Vissher, Cornelius, 135-137, 149, 177
-
-  Vivarès, 229-231, 305
-
-  Volpato, 255, 269
-
-  Von Siegen, Ludwig, 171, 172, 292, 296
-
-  Vorsterman, 132, 133, 177, 287
-
-  Vostre, Simon, 82
-
-
-  Wagner, Joseph, 226
-
-  Walker, Anthony, 302, 307
-
-  Walker, James, 302
-
-  Walker, William, 302, 308, 313, 321, 322
-
-  Ward, William, 316
-
-  Watelet, 224
-
-  Watson, Caroline, 313
-
-  Watson, James, 172, 302
-
-  Watson, Thomas, 172, 302
-
-  Watt, J. H., 324
-
-  Watteau, 214
-
-  Weber, 285
-
-  Wenceslas, of Olmütz, 84
-
-  Weirotter, 228
-
-  Whistler, 326, 327
-
-  White, G., 298
-
-  Wierix, 131
-
-  Wille, John George, 226, 259
-
-  Woeiriot, Pierre, 153
-
-  Wolgemut, Michael, 87-89, 113
-
-  Woollett, 229, 231, 234, 236, 270, 305, 307, 308
-
-  Woolnoth, Thomas, 320, 321
-
-  Worlidge, Thomas, 310
-
-  Wren, Sir Ch., 296
-
-
-  Young, John, 302
-
-
-  Zell, Ulric, 14-16
-
-
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