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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF
BENJAMIN PARKE AVERY.
GIFT OF MRS. AVERY,
August, 1896.
Accessions No. h^>(ptL ^~ Class No.
\M*
THE WONDERS OF ENGRAVING.
mm*-{~ Qhucfimo c cr r
Autotype.
SAINT CHRISTOPHER.
/>w// the early Woodcut in the possession of Earl Spencer.
Frontispiece.]
THE
W N D E B S
OF
ENGEAVING
GEORGES DUPLESSIS.
ILLUSTRATED WITH TEN REPRODUCTIONS IN AUTOTYPE ;
AND THIRTY-FOUR WOOD-ENGRAVINGS,
BY P. SELLIER.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
1871.
THE
W O N D E E S
OF
ENGEAVING
GEORGES DUPLESSIS.
ILLUSTRATED WITH TEN REPRODUCTIONS IN AUTOTYPE
AND THIRTY-FOUR WOOD-ENGRAVINGS,
BY P. SELLIER.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
1871.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFOBD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
NOTE.
The present volume is a translation of Les Mer-
veilles de la Gravure, by M. GEORGES DUPLESSIS,
which has already appeared in the well-known
Series now in course of publication by Messrs.
L. Hachette et Cie.
The author has made Engraving and Engravers
his special study ; his chapters on the Italian,
Flemish, German, and French schools will, we
think, be considered exhaustive ; and nothing can
be clearer than his account of the processes em-
ployed : but he has scarcely done justice to this
country many of our most illustrious names are
unnoticed, whilst others are brought into undue
prominence. This omission may, we hope, be
rectified by the publication of a separate volume
on English Engravers, which is evidently much
needed.
The translator need only add an earnest hope
that the present version of Les Merveilles de la
Grav^^,re may be acceptable to all lovers of this
important and deeply interesting branch of Art.
N. R. E. M.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING . i
CHAPTER II.
ENGRAVING IN ITALY. Engravers on Wood Nielli-
Copperplate Engraving at Florence, in the Northern
Cities, at Milan, Parma, Bologna, and Rome . . 5
CHAPTER III.
ENGRAVING IN SPAIN. Giuseppe Ribera and Francesco
Goya 74
CHAPTER IV.
ENGRAVING IN THE Low COUNTRIES. Engravers on
Wood in the i$th Century Early Engravers on
Metal Holland : Rembrandt, Ruysdael, and Paul
Potter Belgium : Rubens, Bolswert, Paul Pontius,
and Anthony Vandyck 82
CHAPTER V.
ENGRAVING IN GERMANY. Early Engravers on Wood
Maximilian's Engravers Engraving on Metal The
Master of 1466, Martin Schongauer and Albert Diirer 138
viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
PAGE
ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. Engraving on Wood W.
Caxton The Influence of Foreign Masters on English
Art Its Originality in the Eighteenth Century, and
its Influence on our Age . . . . . .182
CHAPTER VII.
ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. Engravers on Wood En-
gravers on Metal The School of Fontainebleau
Portrait-painters Nicolas Poussin and Jean Pesne
Charles Lebrun and Gdrard Audran The School of
Watteau Vignette Engravers The School of David 207
CHAPTER VIII.
PROCESSES. Engraving on Wood, Camaieu Copper-
plate Engraving Line Engraving, Etching, Dry
Point, Combination of Etching and Line Engraving,
Mezzotint, Aquatint, Chalk style, Engraving in Colour,
Physionotracy, Heliography or Photography Printing 308
INDEX OF ENGRAVERS' NAMES 331
ILLUSTRATIONS.
*SAINT CHRISTOPHER . . . From the early Wood-
cut (Frontispiece].
"CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN . Maso Finiguerra . 10
SAINT SEBASTIAN .... Niello . . .11
SIBYL AGRIPPINA .... Botticelli . . 18
VIRGIN AND CHILD . . . Mantegna . . 27
A YOUTH Campagnola . . 33
LUCRETIA Raimondi . . 57
A POET Ribera ... 75
THE CONDEMNED .... Goya ... 79
*ECCE HOMO L. van Leyden . 88
THE UYLENSPIEGEL ... 90
*JAN SYLVIUS Rembrandt . . 94
A LANDSCAPE .... 97
Two Cows Paul Potter . .103
*SHEEP AND GOATS . . . K. du Jardin . . 105
A CORNFIELD .... Ruysdael . . 107
COSTUME Goltzius . .113
SAINT CATHERINE .... Rubens . . .125
PORTRAIT OF SNYDERS . . . Vandyck. . .133
DANCE OF DEATH (after Holbein} H. Lutzelburger . 147
SAMSON AND THE LION . . Master 0/1466 . 149
*FLIGHT INTO EGYPT . M. Schongauer . 152
THE INFANT JESUS ... . . 154
ILL USTRA TIONS.
TAGS
*SAINT JEROME
. Albert Dilrer
1 60
VIRGIN AND INFANT JESUS .
I6 3
GERMAN COSTUME .
. Aldegrever .
171
A LADY OF BALE .
. W. Hollar .
176
*THE ROYAL EXCHANGE
177
PORTRAIT OF R. BAYFEILD .
IV. Faithorne
I8 7
MARRIAGE A LA MODE .
. W. Hogarth .
201
HENRI II
. Geoffroy Tory.
215
HEAD OF CHRIST .
Claude Mellan
239
CLAUDE DERUET .
. Jacques C allot
247
SUNRISE
. Claude Lorraine
251
TIME DISCLOSING TRUTH
. G. Audran, after
Nicolas Poussin
260
ARABESQUE ORNAMENT
. J. Lepautre .
280
A "COSTUME ....
. A. Watteau .
283
STUDIO OF A COPPER -PLATE
ENGRAVER Abraham Bosse . 313
THE MOUNTEBANK . . . Rembrandt . .316
VANITY J.Callot. . .317
A PORTRAIT Prince Rupert . 320
COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVING . . A. Bosse . . 327
* These Illustrations are reproduced by the Autotype process,
and printed by Messrs. CUNDALL and FLEMING under license
from the Autotype Company, Limited.
WONDERS OF ENGRAVING.
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING.
EFORE reviewing the various schools of En-
graving, and studying the growth of this art
in each separate country, it seems expedient to us
to recapitulate in a few words, the very diverse and
often contradictory opinions put forth concerning
its origin. By doing this, we shall avoid unneces-
sary repetition, and, without occupying ourselves
unduly with the purely archaeological question, we
can ascertain the characteristics of each school, ex-
amine the works worthy of attention executed in each
country, and enumerate the artists whom future gene-
rations will remember and judge. We must not
forget to say that we intend to occupy ourselves
solely with that kind of Engraving from which
impressions are taken ; and, purposely neglecting
ancient engraving, we commence our work only at
E
2 . WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
the period when, Printing having been discovered,
Engraving became a new art and produced important
results.
Let us bear in mind, to begin with, that there
are two processes, very different in their execution,
although similar enough in their results engraving
on metal and engraving on wood ; in the first, all that
is to be impressed on the paper is cut in sunken lines
on the metal ; the second involves work of a diametri-
cally opposite kind ; all that is to appear in the proof
must be raised on the wood, and the graver must
carefully remove all those parts which the printer's
press is not to touch.
Whole volumes might be written if we wished to
discuss or even to review the opinions put forth by
scholars on the origin of engraving. Every country
has taken part in the discussion, and eminent men on
all sides have become the champions, each of his own
country. National pride has often interfered in the
dispute, and it would have run the risk of becoming
bitter had it descended to the arena of personalities
instead of remaining in the hands of earnest workers.
The French have the greater facility for discussing
the various opinions on this matter, inasmuch as they
have no claim to be considered its inventors. France
has indeed put forth some pretensions on this matter,
and has been willing to consider one Bernard Milnet
(an artist whose very name is more than problema-
tical) the most ancient engraver ; but, after a careful
THE ORIGIN OF ENGRA VING. 3
investigation, this opinion is now abandoned by all,
even by those who first adopted it.
It is not the same with our neighbours : for a long
time the 'St. Christopher' of 1423 was thought the
most ancient known example of engraving. But
lately a discovery by the Baron of Reiffenberg, over-
threw this opinion ; and the engraving of 1418, which
he obtained for the Museum of Brussels (the date of
which appears to us incontestable), transported the
real period of the invention five years backward. In
our day, thanks to two plates printed on the leaves
of a manuscript which M. Henri Delaborde has
described and commented on* with remarkable clear-
ness, we know, that in 1406, the art of wood-engrav-
ing must have existed and the printing-press been
brought into use.
The history of copper-plate engraving, properly so
called, has passed through the same vicissitudes.
Before the Abbe Zani found in one of the collections
of prints in Paris, a proof of the ' Pax of Florence,'
executed in 1452 by Maso Finiguerra as shown by
the official registers German scholars looked upon
Martin Schongauer as the true inventor of copper-
plate engraving ; quoting in testimony some impres-
sions executed, according to them, about 1460. From
this period, already far removed from us (as the
Abbe Zani's discovery took place only at the end
t
* 'Gazette des Beaux-arts/ March, 1869.
4 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
of the eighteenth century), investigators have not been
discouraged, and their efforts have been crowned
with success. Passavant, in the 'Archives de Nau-
mann' (4e Annee, 1858, p. i), has carefully described
a figure of the Virgin, bearing date 1451. Renouvier,
in a very learned pamphlet, has revealed the existence
of a series of prints of the 'Passion,' executed in
1446. Persevering efforts in this direction might,
without doubt, lead to some new discovery. Some
day or other, we doubt not, Germany or Flanders will
be proclaimed the inventor of printed engravings ; and
that the archives of history, examined with great care,
and turned over in every possible way, will furnish a
document before which every ambition must succumb.
But we should be much surprised if all these patient
researches led to anything more than the knowledge
of a mere fact ; and we shall be much mistaken if
any art-object worthy of the name can be cited to
contradict our theory, that it was in 1452, in Italy, at
Florence, that the first really important specimen of
the art of engraving appeared ; an event brilliant
enough to be in itself alone an historical landmark.
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y.
CHAPTER II.
ENGRAVING IN ITALY.
Engravers on Wood Nielli Copperplate Engraving at Flo-
rence, in the Northern Cities, at Milan, Parma, Bologna,
and Rome.
THE history of engraving in Italy follows that of
painting tolerably closely ; many painters were
also engravers, and those who did not themselves
take the trouble of engraving upon metal or wood,
were sufficiently greedy of fame to gather around
them engravers who multiplied the works they pro-
duced under their supervision.
Wood-engraving did not in Italy, as in other
countries, precede engraving on metal. It appeared
at the same time. It is in printed books that we
must look for the first instances of this useful art,
which, when combined with the text, is peculiarly well
suited to bring the author's thought visibly before
the eyes, whilst the words explain it to the mind.
In Italy, wood-engraving was slower in acquiring
real importance than in other countries. Although
6 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
from the first half of the fifteenth century, we find
many specimens of Italian wood-engraving, recog-
nisable solely by their style, none of these attempts
bear certain dates, and it is only at the end of the
fifteenth century that this form of art was seriously
cultivated and practised by true artists. Until then
it had been in the hands of artisans, who were more
desirous of instructing the faithful than of conforming
to the laws of beauty.
The most curious specimens of Italian wood-en-
graving are met with in a rare book called the ' Hyp-
nerotomachia Poliphilii,' printed at Venice by the
brothers Aldus, in 1499, a book in which are unfolded,
amongst dreams more or less fantastic, some reflec-
tions on ideal beauty, or the theory of art, composed
by Francesco Columna ; this work would have run
great risk of remaining in oblivion had it not been
embellished by some excellent wood-engravings.
This book exhibits compositions which were attri-
buted successively to Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni
Bellini, executed in a very summary fashion, but with
a firmness of touch which proves that their author
possessed rare knowledge of drawing. It is true that
we do not here recognise the style of these two
masters ; but, at the same time, we do not hesitate to
affirm that a superior artist alone could have guided
the hand of the engraver in this work.
The sermons of Savonarola, published at Florence
the day after they were delivered, also contain a
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y.
certain number of woodcuts, which reproduce with
accuracy the beautiful Florentine designs of the fif-
teenth century. From their first appearance, these
engravings had a success sufficiently great to warrant
their being simultaneously employed in different pub-
lications. The plates which adorn the text of Savona-
rola's sermons are again found in ' L'Art de Bien
Mourir,' printed at Florence, in 1513 ; and a diligent
search would certainly discover these engravings in
other publications, as they were well suited to the
mystical books of the beginning of the sixteenth
century.
At Rome the art of engraving on wood did not
attain the same degree of beauty as in other* Italian
cities. The discovery of printing spread there less
rapidly, and the artists of the Eternal City seem from
the first to have required for their work a field larger
than that offered by a book.
It was in the north, and at Venice particularly,
that printers encouraged and employed the best artists
of this class. Amongst books brought out in this city,
special attention is due to Doni's publications, usually
printed by Francesco Marcolini da Forli, and em-
bellished by more beautiful wood-engravings than
had until then appeared. We must not forget to
remark that these works appeared in the middle of
the sixteenth century, from 1550 to 1553, when
Italian art was already at its zenith. About the same
period, many engravers applied themselves to repro-
8 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
duce compositions which Giulio Campagnola and
Titian himself drew for that purpose. They executed
some admirable engravings engravings properly so
called, as not intended merely to adorn a book or
illustrate a text, but entirely devoted to producing in
fac-simile, and making popular, the works of these
masters. As yet, the artist did not dream of showing
his own dexterity, but occupied himself solely in
faithfully transferring to the wood the design which
had been confided to him. He was content (and
herein lay his chief merit) to follow scrupulously the
outlines traced by the pen or pencil of the painter,
and he seems to be far more anxious for the glory of
his model than for his own.
Among the wood-engravers who habitually took
their inspiration from Titian's works, Niccolo Bol-
drini an artist to whom posterity has been unjust
must take first rank.
The origin of engraving en camaieu * also dates
from the sixteenth century. Andrea Andreani, Ugo da
Carpi, and Antonio da Trenta, the principal repre-
sentatives of this new art, showed remarkable genius
in their works. They copied the compositions of
Raphael and of Parmigiano in preference to those of
other masters, and, by means of several consecutive
printings, succeeded in imitating washed drawings,
* This term is applied to painting or printing in a single
colour, varied only in depth of tints (as red, blue, bistre, &c.).
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y.
and giving an exact . representation of designs exe-
cuted in many tints, and therefore more difficult than
others to be faithfully copied.
During the two centuries which followed, engraving
on wood was suddenly, and almost entirely, abandoned
in all countries. In the middle of the eighteenth
century we only find one engraver in Italy endeavour-
ing to restore to favour a process formerly employed
with such happy results by the artists we have named.
Antonio Maria Zanetti published at Venice, in 1749, a
series of prints, executed en camaieu by himself, after
designs by Parmigiano ; but he had no imitators, and
confined himself to this one publication. Even now
that wood-engraving has by degrees regained a very
important position, it hardly exists in Italy, which
has hitherto been the first to adopt every new inven-
tion, and, until the middle of the sixteenth century,
had taken the first place in every branch of art.
Engraving on Metal Nielli. A goldsmith of Flo-
rence, Maso Finiguerra, had just put the last touch
to an engraving of a ' Pax,'* ordered by the brothers
of the church of St. John, and wishing to see the effect
of his work, filled the lines traced by his graver
* ' Pax,' is the name given to a plate of chased metal, enamelled
or niello, still used in the solemn feasts of the Agnus Dei. It
was called 'Pax' because, after it had been kissed by the offi-
ciating priest, the acolyte, in presenting it to each of the assisting
ecclesiastics, pronounced the words " Pax tecum." (Littre,
{ Dictionnaire de la Langue Franchise,' t. ii., p. 906).
io WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
with a liquid composed of oil and lamp-black. By
chance, a pile of damp linen was placed upon the
silver plate thus prepared, and the sunk lines filled
with black liquid were reproduced upon the linen.
Such, we are assured, was the origin of engravings.
Is this legend true or false ? It is impossible to cite
any trustworthy document either for or against it ;
but no one doubts that Maso Finiguerra is the author
of the ' Coronation of the Virgin,' a niello, engraved
in 1452. The original plate is in the Urfizi Gallery,
at Florence, and the only known impression from it is
carefully preserved in the Bibliotheque de Paris.
Must we believe that no engraving appeared before
this time? and are we to consider 1452 the date of
the origin of engraving on metal ? This opinion was
accepted for a long time, but now scholars 'have
brought to light prints which contradict it. If, how-
ever, we are to admit that an art is not really invented
before it produces a choice work, we may, until further
information, consider the ' Pax ' of Maso Finiguerra
the first specimen known of the art of engraving.
At Florence, as in other Italian cities, goldsmiths'
work was very much in fashion at the beginning of the
fifteenth century ; and this, like other branches of art,
was then practised by men of real merit. At this
time goldsmiths adorned most of their works with
sunken designs, and these designs were called " nielli."
Their mode of testing their work was as follows.
When they had engraved the required design upon
A PAX.
From the Niello by Maso Finiguerra.
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 1 1
the metal, they first took an impression in very fine
clay ; upon this they sprinkled sulphur, and then, by
filling in the engraved parts with lamp-black, they
were able to obtain a just notion of their work.
Until perfectly sure of the final result, they would not
have dreamt of pouring in the indestructible enamel
or coloured matter called " nigellum," which, when
once in its place, prevented any further impression
being taken.
When they discovered that damp paper firmly
pressed upon the plate, im-
pregnated with a certain ink,
gave the same result, they
abandoned the use of sul-
phur, and their trials on paper
became engravings. They did
not at once see all that their
discovery involved. For a
long time workers in gold
confined themselves to the
small number of impressions
necessary to the progress
of their work ; and it is to
this indifference that we must Fi> I '-
attribute the extreme rarity of these early impressions,
and the great value which amateurs attach to them.
(The neuter noun "nigellum," is usually called
" niello," and is applied indiscriminately to the plate
itself and the impression taken from it.)
12 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
The nielli are by no means all of equal merit, and
were it not for their rarity many would be scarcely
worthy of a place in choice collections. Indeed,
although the Italian masters, and men of true genius,
were the first to express grandeur of form and perfect
beauty on metal, we must not ignore the fact that
there were many second-rate artists working and pros-
pering at the same time. Instead of always deriving
their inspiration from the examples before them, they
were sometimes imprudent enough to borrow their
models from the neighbouring countries, thereby
voluntarily depriving their works of the stamp of
nationality, which generally distinguished Italian pro-
ductions of the fifteenth century. We must not sup-
pose that the use of niello was given up as soon as
the means of taking impressions by other processes
were discovered. The previous demand for nielli
still continued, and goldsmiths were not inclined to
put in jeopardy an art which brought them honour
and profit ; they thus still covered with engravings the
plates which were to ornament furniture, armour, or
caskets. It was only towards the beginning of the
sixteenth century, when public taste took another
direction, that they abandoned this kind of work.
We know the names of a certain number of niel-
lists, but this is about all we do know. These artists
did not appear worthy of special mention to the his-
torians who wrote of the sixteenth century, and the
few works they have signed reveal nothing of their
ENGRA VI NG IN ITAL Y. 13
lives. We can put the names of Maso Finiguerra,
Peregrini da Cesena, Antonio Pollajuolo, Matteo di
Giovanni Dei, Francesco Raibolini, called Francia, and
of Marc-Antonio Raimondi under the works attributed
to them with almost absolute certainty, or great proba-
bility, but it would be difficult to give the smallest
biographical details about many of them ; say for in-
stance of Matteo di Giovanni Dei, to whom tradition
ascribes two plates, preserved in the Uffizi Gallery
at Florence, the ' Crucifixion,' and the ' Conversion of
St. Paul ;' but as we cannot compare these anonymous
works with any signed drawings of Matteo di Giovanni
Dei, we ought scarcely to sanction this tradition. On
the contrary, some official reports published by Gaye
in his ' Carteggio d'Artisti ' prove undeniably that the
most illustrious of all these artists, Maso Finiguerra is
really the author of the Florence ' Pax,' representing
the ' Coronation of the Virgin,' and this is enough to
prove that other nielli which denote singular know-
ledge and exquisite taste, may be attributed to the
same hand.
Peregrini da Cesena engraved a considerable number
of nielli on metal, which he sometimes signed in full
and sometimes with a monogram only. He was
evidently greedy of fame, for he is the only artist who
signed the greater part of his productions.
The painter and engraver Antonio Pollajuolo, is
thought to be the author of two other small nielli
which are remarkable for the somewhat puerile exact-
14 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
ness of the drawing of the muscles and bones of the
human body.
As for Francesco Francia and Marc- Antonio
Raimondi, we know enough of their works to be able
to admire the nielli attributed to them without fear
of mistake. After being for a long time much under-
rated, Francia is now, by some enthusiastic admirers,
considered a painter of the first order. To us both
opinions appear equally exaggerated. The pictures,
incontestably by this artist, exhibited in the Pinacoteca
at Bologna, his native place, certainly show great
artistic feeling and rare knowledge of drawing, but
does this entitle their author to take rank among and
share the renown of the greatest masters ? Certainly
not : and while on this subject, we must say that we
consider the nielli attributed to him, of which we
have seen the original plates at Bologna, are by no
means so beautiful as the indiscriminate admirers of
every work of his would have us believe. These plates
represent ' Christ on the Cross ' and the ' Resurrection.'
The arrangement and style of the figures recall the
designs engraved by Marc-Antonio Raimondi after
Francia, -and this is equivalent to saying that they
have neither imaginative power, nor grandeur of style
sufficient to warrant the fame they enjoy. Marc-
Antonio Raimondi has nothing to gain by being con-
sidered an engraver in niello. The few prints attri-
buted to him which we have seen in Paris, or in Count
Durazzo's collection at Bologna, add no new lustre to
ENGRA VING IN IT A LY. 15
his glory ; we will therefore merely remember his
name, reserving our appreciation of him as an artist
until we consider Italian engraving ; for he devoted his
talent almost exclusively to reproducing the sublime
works of Raphael.
The number of anonymous artists who worked in
niello is very considerable. It would perhaps be
interesting to try and discover the authors of composi-
tions which are often excellent and worthy of an illus-
trious name, but this is not the place for such an
undertaking, and we think it will be more to the point
to show how Italians may profit by the discovery of
printed proofs, and to review briefly the history of
engraving, properly so called.
Engravings, properly so called. When Italian gold-
smiths, unconsciously to themselves, discovered en-
graving, artists to whom the process of chasing was
necessarily familiar, availed themselves of it, and
created for themselves the name of engravers. This
transition was made insensibly and unnoticed by all.
As soon, however, as Italian art assumed a character-
istic style, it divided itself into several schools, which
must be separately studied. The Florentine artists
aspired to another ideal than did those of the northern
cities, who again differed essentially from the masters
of Umbria, or the Roman States. Thus Florence,
Venice, Milan, Rome, Modena, and Bologna, who took
so great a part in the development of the new art, all
16 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
demand attention, for reasons often very different, as
each one produced engravers who were clever in pre-
serving the national originality, which characterises
these schools. There were as many schools as cities.
We will endeavour to point out their distinctive cha-
racteristics, and at the same time make them serve as
divisions of our work.
Florence. In engravings properly so called, as well
as in nielli, Florence is in advance of the other Italian
cities. This city was really predestined to lead. After
producing in the middle ages the best works of the
early Italian masters, Florence was also the cradle of
engraving ; it seemed indeed that these two arts, which
so much assist each other, were destined to be born
under the same sky.
The first engravings on metal executed in Italy are
found in the ' Monte Santo di Dio ' (1477), and in an
edition of ' Dante ' (1481). If Vasari is to be believed,
a great painter supplied the designs and even assisted
in the engraving. This artist was Sandro Botticelli,
and for a fellow-labourer seems to have had Baccio
Baldini, an artist whose life is little known, but to
whom Bartsch attributes a number of engravings.
Those of the ' Prophets ' and the ' Sibyls ' in the ' Monte
Santo di Dio ' and ' Dante,' betray an inexperienced
hand, but they are valuable on account of their accu-
rate drawing ; they betoken a great appreciation of
beauty, and though the artists to whom they are
<IVN DO SARA WEZTO 10AV1D DILETTO
nX) CH^ARAMCHARWATO
CRlATO
E LPVALFEPO DAhOLTl.
RIPKEN DERA CONDOLClKf A DAMORE
EREI EUVOt/1 riELDRPREGIo
Fig. 2. Sibyl Agrippa. SANDRO BOTTICELLI.
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 19
attributed, expressed their thoughts imperfectly, owing
to their ignorance of all the resources of the new pro-
cess, they are still full of interest and worthy of the
highest respect. The two series of the ' Prophets ' and
the ' Sibyls ' were so much sought after when they
appeared, that the plates were worn out and required
retouching in a very short time. They were copied
by German artists about the beginning of the sixteenth
century, and this shows that they were of sufficient
merit to be attributed with every probability to Sandro
Botticelli. The general style and the treatment of the
heads are the same as in this great master's pictures.
To give an example from the authentic works of the
great Florentine, we will notice a ' Recumbent Venus/
formerly in the possession of the Marquis Campana,
but now in the Emperor Napoleon's collection. The
head of the goddess is exactly the same as that of
the ' Sibyl Agrippa,' and, making due allowance for
the difference between painting and engraving, it is
clear that the artist has in both cases worked on a
settled plan, not troubling himself much with his
model until he has given the outline of the face and
form he means to represent in a few firm and skilful
strokes.
A contemporary of Maso Finiguerra, and like him
a niellist and goldsmith, Antonio Pollajuolo, seems to
have worked at the same time as the artists of whom
we have spoken above. He was born at Florence in
1426, as testified by an inscription on his tomb. He
studied successfully under Bartoluccio and Lorenzo
20 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Ghiberti, but he left the studios of these artists to
work in gold on his own account. If Vasari is to be
believed (and he is the only historian who has trans-
mitted authentic documents relating to this artist)
Pollajuolo had a marvellous talent for working in
metal ; and although his productions were most ex-
quisite and soon widely sought after, he was not
content with being an excellent goldsmith, but wish-
ing to study painting he asked his brother, Piero
Pollajuolo, to teach him the secrets of this great art.
Endowed with marvellous energy and of an invincible
will, his renown as a painter was soon equal to that
which he had gained as a goldsmith. However this
may be, his pictures are rare enough. Those which
we were able to see at Florence, Milan, and London,
appeared to us as remarkable for the pedantry with
which the artist has paraded his knowledge of
anatomy, ,as for the really noble taste of the designs.
This systematic exaggeration of human forms, com-
bined with praiseworthy refinement of style, is cer-
tainly reproduced in three engravings attributed to
him: 'Combat of Ten Naked Men,' 'Hercules and
Antaeus,' and the ' Combat of Two Centaurs.' It is
true that only one of these is signed, but what does
that matter if the others are proved to have come
from the same studio ? Besides Pollajuolo is easily
recognisable in his works ; he had certain peculiar
notions about designs, and he would not, like most of
his contemporaries, have left unrevealed the secrets of
an art which he had fathomed.
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 21
If we believe certain recent documents, Fra Filippo
Lippi was both the artist and engraver of an 'An-
nunciation ' and a ' Crucifixion/ which form part of a
series of fifteen pictures relating to the ' Life of the
Virgin.' It is certainly not improbable that the two
plates were executed after designs by Fra Filippo
Lippi ; but that they were by his own hand appears
to us, at least, doubtful. In comparing them with
some anonymous prints executed at the same period,
' The Preaching of St. Mark/ ' David slaying Goliath/
'Solomon appearing before the Queen of Sheba/ and
' The Last Judgment/ for example, we recognise that
the hand which somewhat inaccurately engraved these
wonderful and skilful designs is that of the author of
the prints in question. Again, if Filippo Lippi were
really the author of these engravings he would have
marked them with his own monogram, and he would
not, particularly in the 'Life of the Virgin/ have omitted
the head of Lucrezia Buti, which he had taken for his
prototype of the mother of Christ, and which occurs
so frequently amongst the faces of his women in his
pictures and frescoes. Let us add, that if indeed their
author was Fra Filippo Lippi, he must have produced
them very early in his adventurous life, and even this
idea is contradicted by weighty arguments ; as Lippi's
very first pictures show a feeling for beauty of which
there is but little trace in these disputed prints ; and
though not presenting much skill in workmanship,
these plates would show a firmness in design and a
22 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
decision in expression of which there is not even a
foreshadowing.
Vasari, who has given a long chapter to engravers
by profession, does not mention Robetta. He seems
to have considered this artist a mere goldsmith.
Whatever may be the cause of this forgetfulness
and it is of little consequence, the plates being more
eloquent than the best authenticated descriptions
we must assert that the prints signed with this name
merit special attention. Drawn with unvarying beauty
and elegance, and engraved with a boldness and ease
rare amongst the early Italians, they may sometimes
be marred by timidity and inexperience, never by
want of taste or incorrectness of design. Unlike
most of the engravers of his time, Robetta was not
content to draw fully-draped forms alone, he attempted
nude figures also, in order to show how deeply he had
studied anatomy. The men in his works, who are
mostly young, seldom display much muscular develop-
ment, except as in ' Hercules and Antaeus,' when the
subject demands it, they are agile and supple rather
than vigorous, masses of curling hair shade their
brows, and instead of the austerity usual in contem-
porary Florentine compositions, their faces wear mild
and smiling expressions. The delicate and graceful
forms of his women are perfectly chaste in their
absolute nudity ; they are full of elegance, and there
is a strange charm in their pure unveiled bodies.
Although belonging to the old school, Robetta ad-
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 23
vanced his art so much, that he may be considered
the last of the early engravers.
It is a strange fact that we must now turn to France
to find artists who retained the peculiarities of the
Florentine school. Florentine taste, considerably
modified no doubt, is certainly easily recognised in
some works by our fellow-countrymen. Francis I.
and Henry II., as is well known, attracted Leonardo
da Vinci and Andrea del Sarto to their court ; these
two artists, quickly followed by Primaticcio and Rosso,
were accompanied by a number of engravers, who,
labouring alike at French and Italian works of art,
introduced their native style and founded the famous
school of Fontainebleau, which occupies so important
a position in the history of art. If it had not been for
engravings the memory of this famous school might
never have been preserved. The works of Rosso have
entirely disappeared, and, with the exception of the
grand ' Galerie des Fetes,' which has already required
constant restoration, there is scarcely a trace of Pri-
maticcio's sojourn in France. Still the influence of
these artists was immense. Under their auspices art
underwent a complete metamorphosis. After deriving
their inspiration now from Flanders, now from Italy,
the French in their turn inspired artists from all coun-
tries. The Italians, too, modified their style, and
Rosso, who had just decorated the walls of the con-
vent of the Annunziata at Florence with an admirable
fresco, broke with the traditions of his school and
^ Of THl^^^
TrinyBRsiTTl
24 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
changed his style as soon as he set foot on French
soil. In fact he changed so completely that he soon
became more French than the French themselves.
Art, hitherto exclusively Christian, now borrowed
subjects largely from mythology ; and, from a powerful
auxiliary of the Church, she now suddenly became
pagan, and chose to represent the adventures of gods
and goddesses and the exploits of fabulous heroes on
the walls of Fontainebleau. This was certainly quite
a new opening and a strange and significant change.
If these mystical paintings had not coincided with the
tastes of the masters of Fontainebleau would they
have preferred such subjects ? To ask the question is
to answer it. Nothing is more natural than that the
walls of a gay mansion, where the court lived in a
perpetual round of gaiety should be covered with
bacchanals, sirens, and fauns, rather than with biblical
personages. Rosso was the first to be entrusted with
the decoration of Fontainebleau. He thoroughly
understood the necessities of his work, he identified
himself with the idea he had to carry out, and for a
time at least he was able to forget where he had learnt
his art and to devote himself entirely to fulfilling the
wishes of his employers.
When we consider French engraving, we will ex-
amine more thoroughly the extraordinary importance
of this school of Fontainebleau ; at present we content
ourselves with noticing the part Florence took in this
movement, and the ascendency which a master of her
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 25
school obtained over his contemporaries. But Floren-
tine art, so homogeneous and full of life at the begin-
ning, declined rapidly at the close of the sixteenth
century. Historians notice some marks of talent
without naming any prominent individual. Hence-
forth the first place belongs to neighbouring coun-
tries.
The cities of Northern Italy. One of the artists
who adopted the new style with the greatest success,
seems to have been Andrea Mantegna. Born at
Padua in 1431, he learned drawing under Francesco
Squarcione, and when quite young devoted himself
to painting. His genius procured him the protec-
tion of Luigi da Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and
he was chosen by Pope Innocent VIII. to decorate
the chapel of the Belvidere. As a painter his fame
became immense, and his works have been extremely
admired ever since his time. His wish to see the
compositions he proposed to execute and did exe-
cute later in the palace of the Duke of Mantua
widely spread, was evidently one of his chief motives
for adopting and patronising engraving. Unfortu-
nately he could not finish his series of engravings of
the ' Triumph of Caesar ;' the slowness of the process,
the necessity of producing works of a different kind,
compelled him to abandon it, but happily for the
greater glory of art he still sometimes handled the
graver, and brought out several plates worthy of the
26 . WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
admiration they always excite. It is true that his
prints have not the truth, the correctness of detail,
the exquisite finish of his paintings ; but if we miss
the minute exactness unattainable on metal, we have
the bold and skilful strokes of a hand which is con-
tent with a sketch, and reserves its full power for
the painting. But does this apparent negligence or
rather freedom and ease interfere with the correctness
of the outline or the force of the expression ? Not in
the least. We may even assert that the studied rug-
gedness and the systematic intention to avoid pic-
turesque effects, have stamped this master's engravings
' The Entombment,' and the ' Descent to Hades/ for
instance with a gloomy grandeur of their own, ad-
mirably suited to the subjects. Mantegna appeals to
the soul, not to the eye. Always in quest of beauty,
but of beauty rather majestic than graceful, he has a
great predilection for touching scenes and mournful
episodes. His figures have ever a peculiar nobility
and grandeur, whether he call upon us to mourn the
dead Christ with St. John, or to look at a drunken
youth reclining on a wine cask, supported by a faun.
The Virgin, as he understands her, is neither mild
nor resigned ; how proud she is, on the contrary, of
her divine Son adored by the eastern kings how
overwhelmed she is with sorrow at the entombment !
But Mantegna has elsewhere expressed beauty of
quite a different type. In a print attributed to him
of ' St. Sebastian,' he has given a perfect notion of
ENGRA VI NG IN ITAL Y.
27
elegance and youth. Agile and supple this figure
might pass for a personification of adolescence.
Andrea Mantegna's prints ought, strictly speaking,
to be considered the first engravings executed in Italy.
Fig. 3. Virgin and Child. MANTEGNA.
Until then many goldsmiths, sometimes ot excep-
tional talent, had, it is true, devoted themselves to
engraving at Florence, Venice, Bologna, and other
towns ; but Mantegna was the first artist of note who
28 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
engraved plates to be printed from, which were des-
tined to inspire and lead an entire school.
The school formed by Mantegna's works, and
directed by the master himself for some years, defi-
nitely naturalised engraving in Northern Italy, but
the artists who belonged to it are almost unknown.
Careless of fame, they generally neglected to sign
their works with a monogram or any mark of identifi-
cation, and if by chance they did sign them, it was
with initials only, so that recognition is still difficult.
The names of two artists, Zoan Andrea and Gio-
vanni Antonio da Brescia are preserved to us ; but if
we are able to attribute some few prints to them,
numbers still remain unappropriated.
The greater number of plates issued from Man-
tegna's school have no very striking qualities. Exe-
cuted under the eye of the master, or at least in his
style, they may show accurate knowledge and lofty
aspirations, but none of them deviate sufficiently
from the school-routine to have a distinct personality.
They are works of docile pupils, who set small store
by their own originality. There were, however, ex-
ceptions to this. Where it seemed less needed, Man-
tegna's pupils gave decided proofs of original power ;
we allude to the ornaments and arabesques, which
they arranged with marvellous skill. They had ad-
mirable sculptures at hand in the churches and palaces
of Northern Italy, accurate and varied traceries sur-
rounding the porticos, decorating the tombs, or cover-
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 29
ing the friezes of the monuments. In these works,
where imagination is free, and the human form, if
employed, accommodates itself to the exigencies or
caprices of the artists, without prejudice to art, Man-
tegna's pupils were able to give the reins to their
fancy ; and whilst remaining faithful to the principles
of their school, they invented and distributed with
their engravings a number of charming arabesques,
such as but for them could only have been admired
at Venice, Verona, or Padua.
Great as was Mantegna's authority with the en-
gravers of Northern Italy, a school of art was formed
at Venice independently of him. The master of the
Venetians' choice and affection was the famous Gio-
vanni Bellini, and if by chance they were attracted by
Mantegna's frescoes belonging to the Eremitani of
Padua, or in the Gonzaga's palace, they soon gave
fresh evidence in their work of their exclusive and
unchangeable admiration for G. Bellini, Titian, and
Giorgione. Fortunate city to entertain such a band
of men of genius ! fortunate engravers to find such
magnificent models in the works of contemporary
artists ! But are we to suppose that Venetian en-
gravers always borrowed from others that they never
themselves invented their subjects ? Certainly not.
Although all their works are to some extent under
a common influence, we cannot suppose, when we ex-
amine plates by Mocetto, Giulio and Domenico Cam-
pagnola, Benedetto Montagna, or Giacomo di Barbari,
30 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
that these artists were always content with the modest
office of interpreters. They were mostly painters,
and we can understand that they engraved their own
works in preference to those of others. Even when
they borrowed their subjects, they stamped them with
an originality all their own.
Girolamo Mocetto, whose life is almost unknown,
was at the same time a painter and an engraver.
Many paintings signed in full by him do not give a
very great idea of his talent as a painter. They are
neither remarkable for originality nor beauty of style.
But his engravings present him in a more favourable
light. Though the hand is somewhat harsh and in-
experienced, it has knowledge and a great feeling for
drawing. Mocetto reproduced compositions in Man-
tegna's style with great skill, taking his chief inspira-
tion from this master ; he sometimes reflected also
the grandeur of certain of Bellini's works. His prints
were executed from very soft copper, which accounts
for their rarity. The richest collections contain very
few examples, but the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris
possesses more than all other collections added to-
gether. Two plates, ' Judith and Holofernes,' and
' Bacchus beneath a Vine,' are sufficient to give a very
high opinion of their artist's talent. These engrav-
ings, which are the finest of Mantegna's works, in-
terest us especially, because they prove that, like the
greater number of his contemporaries, he knew no-
thing of Albert Diirer's engravings, introduced into
ENGRA VING IN IT A LY. 31
Italy at this period, or if he did know them, he
entirely ignored them.
Giulio Campagnola was a scholar ; he read Greek
and Latin, and knew Hebrew. His father, being a
learned man, took care to give his son, when young, a
good education. But whilst pursuing his study of
languages his taste for art betrayed itself, and was
so conspicuous that one of his contemporaries, Matteo
Bosso, writing to Hector Theophanes, did not hesitate
to say, " his works may compete with those of the
great Venetian masters ; he can render a painting of
Mantegna's or Bellini's better than any other artists,
and he is more successful in portrait-taking than were
any of his predecessors." Making due allowance for
the exaggeration of this Matteo Bosso was a personal
friend of the Campagnolas we cannot but own that
the young painter's first efforts must have been very
brilliant. We know, positively, that he was among
the men of genius attracted to the court of Ferrara by
Hercules d'Este. We are ignorant in what capacity he
mixed in this august assembly ; if in that of a painter,
we are unable to pronounce on his merits, for his pic-
tures are now unknown, having been lost, destroyed,
or attributed to some more famous masters, a common
fate we must remark by the way of unsigned works,
or of those which recall some illustrious style. In
any case, none of Giulio Campagnola's pictures are
preserved to us. We can judge of his style only by the
engravings he has signed, and which time has spared.
32 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
They are not all distinguished by the same qualities :
some are influenced by Albert Diirer, and remarkable
for the peculiar nature of the work to which the artist
has devoted himself, others reproduce compositions
which may safely be attributed to Giorgione, Giovanni
Bellini or Mantegna ; they honestly preserve the style
of these masters without giving the figures very ex-
actly, the engraver having been content to sacrifice
strict truth to the charm of colour. Giulio's land-
scapes taken from the countries he lived in, show
greater study of nature than his figures. Giulio Cam-
pagnola was one of the first who conceived the idea of
representing in engraving the colour of pictures. This
he did by small dots nearer or further apart, which
contrivance to a certain degree anticipated the inven-
tion of aquatint engraving.
Dominico's relation to Giulio Campagnola is not well
established ; but the two namesakes worked together
as shown in a plate called ' The Concert,' and also in a
design of ' St. John the Baptist/ Dominico's talent
differs in many respects from Giulio's. In too great a
hurry to work out his ideas on canvas or metal, he is
not sufficiently careful about correctness of form, and
he is indifferent to beauty ; his enthusiasm carries him
away ; and although he attended Titian's studio, some
of his works seem to imply that he belonged to the
school of a less correct master Jacopo Robusti, called
' Tintoretto.' He deliberately exaggerates outlines,
movements, and expressions, under pretence of making
Fig. 4. A youth. GIULIO CAMPAGNOLA.
D
TIH7IE3IT1
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 35
them more distinct. The story of his master's jealousy
of him will lose all probability when his works are
examined. Granted that his landscapes resemble
Titian's more than any others, does that justify this
famous jealousy ? We think not. With Titian land-
scape certainly occupied a large space, but it is gene-
rally only the framework of a composition with figures,
it is merely an accessory in most of his pictures, and
contributes accidentally to his renown. Campagnola's
first plans are not nearly so grand as Titian's, and if
the skilful execution of his distances justifies this com-
parison, so glorious for him, there is nevertheless a
uniformity and a want of force in his works which
happily do not mar those of the illustrious Venetian.
Benedetto Montagna, born at Verona, like Mo-
cetto, worked from 1505 to 1524. His engravings
are less refined and his drawing is less correct than
those of his fellow-countryman. He yielded to the
influence of Albert Diirer more than any of the artists
we have named. His first engravings, after his own
paintings, are wanting in grace. But the ' Sacrifice of
Abraham ' is cleverly composed and skilfully executed ;
the drawing, too, is better than usual. Fine proofs of
Montagna's engravings are rare ; executed on scft
metal they could only bear a limited amount of
printing, and when once they are a little worn they
lose nearly all their beauty.
No birthplace was ever more disputed than was that
of Giacomo de' Barbari, known under the name of the
36 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
' Master of the Caduceus.' Some call him a German,
others the contemporary and fellow-countryman of
Lucas of Leyden. Some consider France his birth-
place, others Ferrara. Recent authors confound him
with a certain Jacob Walch, born at Nuremberg. The
truth is that he was born at Venice about 1450, a date
rendered probable by a picture signed by him and
bearing date 1472. It is only fair to add that his
style of engraving explains the difference of opinion
about him. Remembering the beauty of the limbs of
his figures, and a certain grandeur of style in his prints,
as in ' Sebastian bound to a Tree,' we do not hesitate
to recognise in him a descendant of the school of
which Mantegna was the chief ; but again, his plates
seem to bear witness to a Teutonic origin. Such
opposite qualities in this artist need not surprise when
we know that Philip of Burgundy, natural son of
Philip the Good, retained Giacomo de' Barbari in his
service, and took him first to Nuremberg, and then to
Holland, in which country the painter-engraver exer-
cised great influence on art. Giacomo de' Barbari
died in 1516. His scarce pictures, preserved in
private or public galleries, testify still more than his
engravings to his Italian origin. Of little imaginative
power, he executed a single figure better than a com-
position ; but even his figures are out of proportion :
they are thin, with heads unduly large or absurdly
small. His chief merit consists in the grace of his
figures, and the ingenious rendering of the limbs which,
ENGRA VI NG IN ITAL Y. 37
in spite of gross incorrectness of drawing, show a deli-
cacy of touch and power of colouring, which lead us
to suppose him to have belonged to the school of
Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione.
Titian and his pupils were not fortunate in their
engravers. With the exception of the author of the
woodcuts mentioned above, not a single contemporary
artist dedicated his talent to reproduce pictures ; and
the small number of plates engraved at that time are
the work of men without experience, incapable of
copying the models before them. We will not recall
the names of these unskilful interpreters, they are
unworthy of being rescued from oblivion. At Venice,
as in nearly all the other cities of northern Italy, the
art had attained its zenith during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, but the decadence quickly followed
this glorious period. We have made the same remark
about the Florentine school, and we shall have to
repeat it. Engravers followed the general progress
of art in Italy, and after having enthusiastically em-
braced the new invention, and after having produced
works in which the feeling for colour and form is
expressed with peculiar talent, they appear to have
suddenly sunk into inactivity. The distance which
separates the masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries from their next successors is immense, and
the style which belongs to works of the early school
is gone beyond recall. In the seventeenth century a
Flemish artist, Valentin Lefevre, passed the greater
3 8 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
part of his life at Venice, and engraved with conside-
rable minuteness the best works of Titian and Paul
Veronese. But being mere sketches, his engravings
only give the compositions of these masters, missing
the powerful effect and splendid colouring of the
originals.
The Venetian school claims another artist of high
merit, though only a landscape painter ; but he did not
flourish until the eighteenth century. We allude to
Canaletto, who by the aid of his magic needle trans-
ferred to copper the charm of his pictures. In his
numerous views of Venice, full of vivid lights and soft
shadows, his figures cradled in gondolas or walking in
the Piazza of St. Mark, or gravely seated under the
Doge's palace, are grouped in a talented manner and
cleverly hit off. A thousand indefinable things the
unrivalled temperature of Venice, the transparency of
the atmosphere, the purity of the air, &c., are rendered
with surprising felicity. Canaletto's pictures on the
walls of our museums seem to Might up the works
around and to transport us to this happy land of
brightness and sunshine, of glowing horizons and
marble palaces. The same qualities in a less degree
the graver being less suited than the brush to give the
magic of chiaroscuro are also found in the etchings
by this master. Canaletto stands alone in the modern
Venetian school ; and although one artist, named
Guardi, tried to imitate his paintings, not a single
engraver took his inspiration from his etchings.
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 39
Whilst Canaletto was working at the best known
and most picturesque parts of Venice, a painter who
enjoys a somewhat exaggerated reputation was en-
graving his own and his father's works, and giving
proof of considerable talent. Domenico Tiepolo cer-
tainly knew how to obtain charming results by the
etching needle ; and although his paintings are in-
harmonious, the predominating colour being yellow,
his etchings are delightful on account of their life
and brightness. One may look in vain for a correct
form or an exact outline, his figures are terribly ill-
drawn ; but the entire want of accuracy ought not
to make us withhold our admiration from these seduc-
tive and delightful plates. Justly estimated, Tiepolo's
prints are useful examples ; amongst other things,
they show what may be done in engraving when the
light is well distributed, and many an artist might
learn the laws of chiaroscuro by studying them.
Marco Pitteri engraved the ' Seven Sacraments '
after Pietro Longhi. Avoiding cross-hatching alto-
gether, he employed parallel strokes only, varying
them in strength according to the amount of light and
shade required. Although not very agreeable to the
eye, this kind of engraving looks well enough at a
little distance. The series of the ' Seven Sacraments,'
which are this artist's best works, throw a curious light
on Venetian manners in the eighteenth century ; but
it is in his subjects taken from domestic life that
Pitteri best repays study. Indeed, in his engravings
40 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
of nearly life-sized heads of Jesus Christ, the Virgin,
the evangelists, the apostles, or in his portraits after
J. B. Piazzetta, we see the inadequacy of his style to
copy living models. His plates of this sort are posi-
tively painful to look at. But we regain our natural
interest in every trustworthy work which gives the
customs of a country when we look at four plates
after Pietro Longhi : ' A Nobleman setting out for
the Chase ; his Retainers making their preparations,
cleaning their Arms ;' and again, 'The Nobleman at
Table jovially finishing the Day with his Companions/
Longhi's pictures engraved by Pitteri gained for their
author the too flattering title of the Chardin of Italy.
Whatever merit they may have, they are not worthy
of such a comparison, and all the engraver's pains in
rendering them . could not remedy the poverty of the
design or supply qualities which were wanting.
We could easily name other engravers of the eigh-
teenth century who worked at Venice, and placed their
talent at the disposal of the painters who flourished
at this period. Amongst them we should have to
notice Giacomo Leonardis and Pietro Monaco ; but
the part these artists took in the general progress of
art was so small that they merit no more than mention.
Before leaving the north of Italy, we must glance at
the engravers of Milan, Parma, and Bologna, who
are worthy of serious attention as much on account
of their own merits as for the tendencies of their
schools.
ENGRA VI NG IN ITAL Y. 41
Milan. At Milan, one great painter inspired a whole
school, and his genius influenced an entire generation
of artists. Leonardo da Vinci, whose sublime works
are not very numerous, was expert in every branch of
art. As a painter he executed the famous and well-
known ' Last Supper ' on the wall of Santa Maria delle
Grazie ; as a sculptor, he modelled the equestrian
statue of Francesco Sforza, destroyed by the French
in 1499, when Louis XII. entered Milan; as an archi-
tect and engineer he superintended the works of the
Arno Canal ; he was a musician also, and Vasari relates
that L. da Vinci appeared before Francesco Sforza for
the first time, at a fete given by the Duke, holding a
lyre made by himself, and the company were so
delighted with the melodious sounds he produced, that
although many musicians were present all the applause
was given to him. It is not improbable that he also
handled graving and carving tools ; documents pre-
served at Paris, Milan and in England, bear witness
to the versatility of his genius, and justify this sup-
position. In the dedication of his book, ' De Propor-
tione Divina,' Luca Paccioli positively asserts that
Leonardo da Vinci is the author of the woodcuts
which adorn this work : " Nee vero multo post, spe ani-
mos alente, libellum cui de Divina Proportions tituhis
est, Ludovico Sphorcice, dud Mediolanensi, nuncupavi.
Tanto ardore ut schemata quoque sua Vincii nostri
Leonardi manibus scalpta f" The text is so explicit as
almost to preclude discussion, but after examining the
42 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
volume we find it difficult to believe that L. da Vinci
did more than supply the designs. How can we sup-
pose that one of the greatest artists ever born would
have spent his precious time carefully cutting out
letters, cubes, or triangles in wood, when any engraver
could have done it equally well ? Amongst the
numerous woodcuts illustrating this book, the first
alone is of real artistic value. It is a single form in
unshaded profile. The precision of the drawing, and
the sweet, rather than powerful expression of the face,
betray the hand of a Milanese, and the name of
Leonardo da Vinci might be written under this figure
and never, as we think, be contested. Several other
prints are attributed to him, and one, we believe, with
justice. Unless these peculiar ornaments, which appear
to be composed of knotted cords, may belong, notwith-
standing the inscription in the centre " Academia Leo-
nardi Vinci," both as regards composition and engraving
to some other artist ; indeed, we are aware that some
woodcuts signed with Albert Diirer's monogram, repro-
duce them exactly. It is not the same with ' Three
Horses' Heads ;' we know not to whom to attribute
these unless to Leonardo da Vinci. We first saw this
plate among a number of engravings of the early
Italian school, and it reminded us so much of designs
by Leonardo, which we had seen at Milan and Florence,
that we at once pronounced this master to be the author.
So great was our interest that we were anxious to know
if it had been noticed by other historians, and we found
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 43
that our idea was at least near the truth, as Passavant
attributes this engraving to Verrocchio, L. da Vinci's
master, and Ottley is disposed to consider it the work
of this great artist himself. Since we noticed this print
we have studied the three manuscript volumes by Leo-
nardo da Vinci, preserved in the splendid collection at
Windsor. Great was our delight when we found the
engraving in question pasted into one of the books and
quoted in support of an opinion written by Leonardo's
own hand. This, although not conclusive evidence
Leonardo might have taken one of his master's works
as an example certainly merits serious attention.
We do not like to speak positively about the other
plates attributed to this master. We have examined
those in the British Museum, and whilst acknow-
ledging that we are reminded of the style of the illus-
trious Milanese in ' A Woman in Bust and Profile ; '
'A Woman crowned with Ivy/ and 'The Head of an
Old Man,' the bust attributed by Bartsch to Man-
tegna, we reserve our judgment until further ex-
amination, merely suggesting that although certainly
inspired by the great master they may have been
executed in metal by one of his intelligent pupils.
If we have lingered long over the engravings attri-
buted to this great master, it is because we shall not
again have so illustrious a subject to discuss in these
pages. The works of the Milanese school are not very
numerous, so we can afford to give special attention to
those of exceptional merit. As they are nearly all
44 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
anonymous, it is sometimes difficult to know how
to treat them. Three early plates, engraved after
Leonardo's ' Last Supper/ reproduce this great com-
position in a modified form, they are so inferior to the
original that we cannot say much for them. 'The
slightly bent Head of a young Girl ;' ' A Lover caress-
ing his Mistress,' and ' A Young Girl courted by a Man
dressed as a Fool,' remind us slightly of the school of*
Leonardo da Vinci, but they are unsigned, and cannot
be attributed to anyone with certainty. The drawing
is that of a pupil, rather than of a master.
We are less doubtful about three plates attributed
to Cesare da Sesto. Although there is no proof that
this artist himself transferred his designs to metal,
we think we recognise his hand in the ' Beheading of
John the Baptist.' The executioner in the 'costume
of the sixth century, and wearing a plumed cap, is
sheathing his sword, and Salome, carrying the Bap-
tist's head on a dish, is following the retreating figure
of Herodias. This well-conceived composition reminds
us of a hasty sketch, incontestably by L. da Vinci,
contained in a volume of his designs lately added to
the collection in the Louvre. The two other engrav-
ings attributed to Cesare da Sesto are of quite a
different kind, they represent ' A Hind reclining on an
Isle,' and 'A Browsing Stag.' It is possible that they
were engraved by the author of ' John the Baptist,'
but he certainly did not draw them.
Before leaving the artists of the early Milanese
ENGRA VI NG IN ITAL Y. 45
school, we must say a word on a precious volume
containing wood-cuts. They are exquisitely drawn
and belong entirely to the school guided by Leonardo
da Vinci. This book an account of St. Veronica was
printed at Milan in 1518. Amongst the ten engravings
it contains, three of them, remarkable for the softness
of the drawing and the tenderness of the expres-
sion, were certainly designed by Luini. They form
the frontispieces of Books III. V. and VI. and are :
' Christ and St. Veronica reading,' * An Angel guiding
St. Veronica's Hand, who is writing/ and ' St. Veronica
reading from a Book held by an Angel before whom
she is kneeling.'
Parma. We know that it would have seemed
more reasonable to speak of the school of Parma after
we had reviewed the works executed at Rome ; but
we prefer to finish our history of engraving in Italy,
with the town where the art attained its highest per-
fection. The influence of the Roman school upon that
of Parma, great as it was, was not complete. Maz-
zuoli, called Parmigiano, followed Raphael it is true,
but only in drawing ; the charm, the beautiful colour-
ing of his engravings, are far more suggestive of his
countryman, the unrivalled Correggio, than of any
other master. Antonio Allegri of Parma stands
alone in glory ; he towers far above the rest of his
school, he overawes his pupils, he makes engravers
tremble. Before the indefinite charm of his works,
46 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
which with good reason they consider inimitable, they
are absolutely paralysed. So much grandeur over-
powers them, and they only recover calmness enough
to continue their occupation when they turn to the
paintings of Mazzuoli, who, though far less powerful
than Allegri, is very clever, and justly considered to
be the one who first inspired the school of engraving
at Parma.
Francesco Parmigiano was not only the best en-
graver of his school, he was also the first, judging
from the results he obtained, to develop fully the
resources of the etching needle. Albert Durer, and
many of his predecessors, had used this process with-
out improving on it at all. In tracing the design upon
the varnish the needle should never imitate the work
of the graver ; it has its own mission to fulfil, which is
to transmit numerous proofs of the same design, which,
conceived and promptly executed by the painter, does
not require the dangerous interposition of an inter-
preter. Etching is, above all other, the engraving
best suited to a painter, and anyone with a knowledge
of drawing will easily learn it. Francesco Mazzuoli
found hitherto unknown resources in this process.
Although the engravings signed by him betray in-
difference to purity and want of finish, they contain
all that makes a painter; they are full of grace
and fascination, and of a kind of beauty which is
inferior neither to the bold and vigorous, nor to the
free and easy style. They also show a knowledge of
ENGRA VI NG IN ITAL Y. 47
chiaroscuro, which had escaped the predecessors of
Parmigiano, and in this their connection with the
school which gave birth to Correggio is clearly seen.
Religious subjects did not suit Parmigiano's taste so
well as those taken from mythology. His ' Christ' is
too suggestive of Adonis ; under his needle the 'Virgin'
is vain and worldly. Out of place in many instances,
this affectation is not so painful in heathen figures
such as ' Polyhymnia,' or ' Venus drying herself in
leaving the Bath,' where the artist's fancy is freer.
From their first appearance, the etchings by Parmi-
giano were as successful as his paintings. They were
greedily sought after, and several of his pupils, anxious
to share their master's popularity, endeavoured to
appropriate the process he had raised to such honour.
One of them, A. Meldolla, succeeded so well, that his
works were sometimes mistaken for Mazzuoli's.
Modern learning has rectified this confusion. Working
side by side with Parmigiano, under his daily influence,
and generally copying his works, Meldolla at last
became so identified with his master in his manner of
looking at and rendering nature, that the mistakes to
which his engravings have given rise are quite ex-
cusable. This obedience to his master's principles
was so complete, that when Meldolla engraved
Raphael's works, he made them so suggestive o
Mazzuoli's style, that had not the author of the
originals been well known, they might have been
attributed to Parmigiano. Yet these two artists
48 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
(Meldolla and Mazzuoli) engraved by different pro-
cesses. Whilst Mazzuoli always employed aquafortis
only, Andrea Meldolla sometimes called the graver to
his aid, and did not hesitate to employ the dry-point,
that is to say, he drew with a needle on the bare
metal, so as to obtain results which the acid eating
into the plate could not reproduce, and which the
graver is incapable of rendering. He also made
attempts at chiaroscuro engraving on copper. By
means of two or three successive printings, he tried to
produce what engravers "en camaieu" obtained so
well the appearance of a washed drawing ; and this
attempt at Parma is curious, as it was in that town
that engravers "m camaieu" seem to have combined
together to render Francesco Mazzuoli's works. A
composition signed with Meldolla's name and dated
1540, 'The carrying away of Helen/ admitted him
to the rank of an engraver ; but until the end of the
eighteenth century his prints were nevertheless attri-
buted to Andrea Schiavone, a Venetian painter, a
pupil of Titian and Giorgione, or they were mixed up
with the anonymous works of the school of Parma.
Francesco Mazzuoli had no successors : he had
guided a large school ; he had enjoyed an immense
renown during his life, but his influence died with
him, and when her chief was gone, Parma no longer
possessed a school of engraving.
Bologna. Whoever has been to Bologna can testify
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 49
to the homogeneity of the school which arose there.
No museum gives a better notion of the artists of a
country than the Pinacoteca of Bologna, where the
national masters are represented by their best works,
and celebrated pictures are chronologically arranged
from the time of the origin of the art to the middle of
the sixteenth century. It would be impossible to form
a better idea elsewhere of Bolognese artists. The
archives and official papers have been carefully searched,
and the great works examined by the historians of
local art, but all this avails engraving very little, and
it is necessary to see the works themselves to judge of
the artists born at Bologna or influenced by her
school.
The earliest engraver, Francesco Raibolini, called
il Francia, engraved several nielli referred to above.
He had two relations, both painters, Giulio and Gia-
como Francia, who engraved with little refinement,
and in whose works the style of this school is easily
seen. The type of their figures is almost Venetian,
but the chiaroscuro is wanting, and the engraving
itself betrays inexperience. These two artists, per-
haps, deserve severe criticism, but side by side with
them arose an engraver whose works placed him in
front among the masters of his art. Marc- Antonio
Raimondi was born at Bologna, he worked under
Francesco Francia, learnt the rudiments of his art
from him, and at first copied his designs. It was
later, when through copying Albert Diirer's prints, he
E
50 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
had acquired perfect knowledge of drawing and great
skill in handling the graver, that he thought of de-
voting himself entirely to the service of Raphael.
When we consider the Roman school it will be time
enough to reflect on the merits of this most celebrated
of the engravers of Bologna, and we shall then show
the influence which Marc- Antonio exercised over the
school of which he was the founder and the chief.
The truth is, that the school of Bologna did not
assume real importance until the end of the sixteenth
century. Just before the time of the Carracci, artists
in Bologna began to handle the graver, and their style
was subsequently developed by the Carracci. Barto-
lomeo Passarotti, Camillo Procaccini and Domenico
Tibaldi, belonged to a community where artists and
artisans mixed freely together, but they soon left it,
and established a rival society headed by Passarotti.
But these artists, whose style was rough and their
drawing somewhat coarse, failed to attract artists to
their school. They needed an authority which their
works did not give them. It was the Carracci who
established, if they did not actually found, the school
of Bologna. The first who began this work was Luigi
Carracci. He was a laborious worker of some creative
power ; and these qualities, added to a great desire for
fame, were excellent in a reformer. Being extremely
energetic, the irksomeness of the work only increased
his perseverance. His cousins, Agostino and Anni-
bale, who were more talented than himself, seconded
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 5 1
his efforts, and whilst he devoted himself chiefly to
the study of drawing, they endeavoured to bring
artists back to true study of nature and a real know-
ledge of the works of the great masters. Raphael,
Correggio, and Titian were their favourite models,
and after travelling about to obtain a thorough ac-
quaintance with the works of the masters of their
choice, they returned to Bologna and opened the
celebrated academies, 'degli Desiderosi' and 'degl'
Incaminati.' In the first were classed rising artists,
pupils of the Carracci, in the second there were none
but artists whose genius was already developed, or
amateurs who recognised the founders of the school
as the true reformers of art. The Carracci revived
engraving as well as painting. Luigi was again the
first to give expression to his ideas on copper, but he
had no greater facility for this art than for painting.
He only accomplished six or seven plates, none of
which show as much cleverness as those by his
cousins.
Notwithstanding the prodigious number of his
paintings, Annibale Carracci found time to engrave a
few plates. Two of them in particular assure him a
high position among Italian engravers : ' The Dead
Christ supported by the Holy Women'* (1597),
known under the name of the ' Christ of Caprarola/
because it was executed in that town, is engraved
* The original plate is still in the Academy of Fine Arts at
Bologna.
52 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
entirely with the graving tool with a fineness of touch
and justice of expression rarely attained by, this
artist ; and ' A Drunken Silenus drinking from a
Leathern Bottle, held to him by a Satyr,' shows the
same qualities. In this print, Annibale Carracci has
not striven for effect, he has been content to illustrate
the science of design, and he has succeeded perfectly.
In another plate, ' The Holy Family ' (Anni. Car. in
fe, 1 590), he has concerned himself chiefly with colour.
But here he overrated his power, the transition from
black to white are too abrupt and hard ; the faces are
not as carefully drawn as usual, and though the head
of the Virgin is accurately designed, the plate is of
no great merit.
The two Carracci of whom we have been speaking
only gave a small portion of their time to engraving.
It was different with Agostino Carracci. We know of
a good many paintings by him, but his works in en-
graving are still more numerous ; they consist of head
and tail-pieces for books, sacred images, historical pic-
tures and portraits. His style too often reminds us of
that of Italianised artists, such as Cornelius Cort and
Philip Thomasin. Agostino Carracci, who drew better
than any of them, and understood more thoroughly the
art of engraving, made the mistake of producing too
much. When he reproduced works by Paul Veronese
or Tintoretto, he did not succeed in rendering their
grandeur and beauty, and without the charm of colour,
their designs are made to appear inadequate and
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 53
sometimes coarse. It is the same with an engraving
of 'Ecce Homo' after Correggio, which is a harsh
rendering of that great master's work. But in the
most famous of his works, in all respects worthy of
the favour it enjoys, the superb portrait of Titian,
Agostino Carracci has surpassed himself. The noble
master is represented in bust, wearing a cap and the
fur-lined cloak he loved so well. We can imagine
that in working at this portrait of Titian by himself,
the engraver was inspired by the genius of the master
whose features he was copying, for never before had
he showed so much talent or so thorough a compre-
hension of the human countenance.
The influence of the school directed by the Carracci
was great, and the artists belonging to it remained
faithful to the principles there instilled. Amongst
them there were many whose works until quite recently
were attributed to their masters. This led to many
names remaining unknown. Two artists have escaped
oblivion, Francesco Brizzio, author of the ' Repose in
Egypt,' after Correggio, engraved with a very heavy
graver, and Giovanni Valesio, a painter, poet, master
of the lute, of dancing, and of fencing, who, living at a
distance from his master, Agostino Carracci, neverthe-
less almost always reproduced his works. Giovanni
Lanfranco belongs to the same school, and his ability
as a painter his talent was too facile and his taste
sometimes doubtful gives him a distinguished place
beside the Carracci whose pupil he was. We are
54 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
indebted to him for some engravings after the
' Loggie ' of Raphael, dedicated to Annibale Carracci.
They are remarkable for an ease and skill rare
amongst the engravers of these immortal works.
When the influence of the school of the Carracci
began to decline, new artists arose who revived
the principles of their predecessors and restored the
art of Bologna to its former splendour. Guido Reni,
who left many admired paintings, also etched a num-
ber of plates. The ordinary type of his gainted
figures is feeble and insignificant, and he engraved
them with too much freedom. Good workmanship
is not all that is required ; we could have wished for
more grandeur in his ' Holy Families,' more majesty
in the heads of Christ and of the Virgin. These
etchings are well and artistically designed, but it
is a pity that the 'Virgin adoring the Infant Christ'
is too pretty and not sufficiently divine ; her smile
is often studied and unreal, and the general expres-
sion of her face insipid and affected. Still the exe-
cution is graceful and contains effects which none
of this master's imitators have been able to render.
Simone Cantarini, called the Pesarese, whose style
most resembled that of Guido Reni, was not so
successful with drapery, but in the pose of the head
he has quite equalled his master. Andrea Sirani,
Lorenzo Lolli, and some other painters preserved
Guido Reni's manner, and followed him accu-
rately in their etchings, but as these are mere
ENGRA VING IN IT A LY. 55
copies they do not deserve a place in the history
of art.
It is different with Domenico Zampieri, an artist of
high rank, who though born at Bologna, was thoroughly
imbued with the exalted principles of the Roman
school, and gained for himself an exceptionally high
place among artists. Poussin considered him one of
the greatest masters after Raphael, and Guido assigned
him similar rank. He did not engrave, at least no
plate is attributed to him with certainty. We may
well be surprised that his style and knowledge in-
spired so few of his contemporaries, for we cannot
consider the two we are about to mention his en-
gravers. Giacomo Margottini executed one plate, the
six 'Christian Virtues,' after this master, and Piero
del P6 sometimes followed his style, though generally
preferring the works of Nicolas Poussin. If contem-
porary artists cared little to reproduce Domenichino's
works, those of the next generation rescued them
from undeserved oblivion, and largely multiplied and
distributed them. Their plates have often served as
models to artists ; and although Domenichino's in-
fluence was not at first sufficiently great, it lasted long,
and his works are now, we are glad to say, estimated
at their true value.
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as
Guercino, may be considered the last celebrated artist
of the Bolognese school, but he attached himself to
no master in particular. He worked under the super-
56 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
vision of the Carracci, it is true, but he departed so
widely from their style, that, fairly speaking, he cannot
be considered their pupil. He holds a high place in
their school, we think too high. We do not approve
of his sudden changes from shadow to light. He
had little true love of art, though his facility of
production was immense, and his etchings exact re-
presentations of his numerous drawings, share their
faults. In them clever and rapid execution take the
place of correctness of drawing and nobility of ex-
pression.
Rome. At Rome there were not so many skilful
engravers as in other Italian cities. Like painting,
engraving developed there slowly, and the founder of
the Roman school, Marc- Antonio Raimondi was a
native of Bologna. We have already spoken of him,
but at that time he was still seeking his vocation,
hovering between the school of his master Francia
and that of the Venetian artists, and even influenced
by Albert Durer, whose engravings had just penetrated
into Italy. But his style was permanently formed as
soon as he arrived in the Eternal City, to which he
was attracted by the fame of Raphael. Guided by
this master, he engraved 'Lucretia stabbing Herself
with such success, that Raphael at once decided to
retain so clever an engraver near him ; and it would
appear that he gave him the exclusive right to re-
produce his works.
Fig. 5. Lucretia stabbing Herself. MARC- ANTONIO RAIMONDI,
U1U7BRSIT7
ENGRA VI NG IN ITAL Y. 59
Raimondi's engravings now succeeded each other in
quick succession. The ' Massacre of the Innocents/
* Adam and Eve/ * The Judgment of Paris/ and
* Poetry/ to mention only extraordinary works, are
splendid instances of the intelligence with which the
engraver rendered on metal the drawings of the
painter. Marc-Antonio reproduced drawings only,
and never attempted to copy direct from the paintings
of Raphael >a fact worthy of notice, as did one not
know the cause, the engravings, deprived of their
picturesque effects, might be accused of not giving
the tone of the original paintings. For those who
know Raphael's works this observation will appear of
little value. It is easy to perceive that ( Poetry/
engraved by Raimondi, is no more an exact image of
the fresco in the Vatican than is his ' St. Cecilia ' of
the painting in the Bologna Museum. Remembering
that engraving in Marc-Antonio's hands was not
suited to rendering his paintings, Raphael preferred
to give him his preparatory studies on paper, and in
this he showed his admirable taste and clear judgment.
Marc-Antonio devoted the greater part of his ex-
istence to multiplying Raphael's works. But he was
not content with this. We have already said, that
before founding the Roman school of engraving, he
hesitated a long time, and showed great perseverance
in seeking a path for himself. Arrived at Rome, the
great master whom he joined did not discourage his
looking round on the works then sharing public atten-
60 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
tion with his own ; and we could mention engrav-
ings executed in Rome by Marc-Antonio Raimondi
after other masters than Raphael. But he is so im-
bued with the exalted principles of the master of his
choice, that he cannot altogether ignore them. In
' The Climbers/ for example, engraved after the cele-
brated cartoon of Pisa by Michael Angelo, or in the
' Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,' by Baccio Bandinelli,
we find an amount of precision, a reserved power pro-
bably rather exceeding that of the original drawings.
Nor is it impossible that Marc- Antonio engraved some
compositions in which the figures, at least, were origi-
nal. But the plates attributed to his pencil, as well as
to his graver, are inferior in precision and knowledge
to the others. Must we not conclude that this artist,
so clever in interpreting the works of others, requires
a powerful hand to guide and a strong mind to advise
him. The truth is, that unlike most artists, Marc-
Antonio Raimondi obtained his great reputation
because he was able to renounce his own personality,
because he reproduced contemporary works faithfully,
with respect, almost with veneration, for the painters
at whose service he placed his knowledge and his
skill.
This rare power, added to consummate knowledge
of drawing and engraving, bore ample fruit. Having
obediently submitted himself to Raphael, Marc-
Antonio became a master in his turn. Pupils hurried
from all countries eager to take lessons from him and
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 61
profit by his counsels ; and, thanks to his influence,
Rome at length acquired a school of engraving. Those
who approached most nearly to the master's style were
Agostino Veneziano and Marco of Ravenna. Under
Marc-Antonio's direct influence, often working with
his eye upon them, they imitated his style so exactly
that their works were sometimes taken for his an
error which sufficiently proves their merits.
Like Marc- Antonio, Agostino Veneziano was a long
time finding his vocation. In order to acquire ease in
handling the graver, he copied some engravings by
Giulio Campagnola, rendered compositions by A.
Diirer, and on joining the Roman school, not having
as yet yielded to the all-powerful fascination of
Raphael, he rendered several compositions by Bandi-
nelli with all their exaggeration and bombast. He
did not place himself under Raphael's influence until
towards the end of that master's life, about 1516.
His manner at once acquired a power and nobility of
which there is no hint in his early works, and the
prints he engraved from this date are undoubtedly his
best.
Marco Dente, or Marco of Ravenna (he is known
under the latter name in France) was more ready to
assimilate himself to his master's style. He rendered
several of Marc-Antonio's engravings, and although
his copies have not the same precision of drawing or
firmness of touch, they give a very good notion of the
originals. If we admit, with some authors, that the
X?^^S\
PZU7ERSIT71
62 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
second plate, known as the ' Massacre of the Inno-
cents/ is the work of Marco of Ravenna, we must
add that the pupil has in this one case approached
his master very nearly. This engraving leaves us
very doubtful as to its author. The firmness of
touch, or, we should rather say, the general beauty,
is very striking, and places its author, whoever he
may be, beside Raimondi. If it be by Marco of
Ravenna, it is his only work of great merit, and but
for it, the modest office of copyist, to which he
almost exclusively devoted himself, would scarcely
have sufficed to give him a prominent place in the
history of art. Several artists, though they pro-
ceeded from his school, departed in some points
from Raimondi's rules. Amongst them was Jacopo
Caraglio, an artist of Verona, mentioned by Aretino
in the ' Cortigiana ;' according to him, Caraglio is the
cleverest engraver after Marc- Antonio. It is only
just to add that he owes this very favourable mention
to the ' Loves of the Gods ' engraved after Pierino
del Vaga and Rosso ; and it was probably the sub-
ject, rather than the execution, which interested and
fascinated the engraver's apologist. It is difficult to
define Caraglio's manner. It is manifold. Now he
engraves with a free hand, as in the ' Loves of the
Gods ;' now, as in an extensive series of ' Heathen
Deities in Niches/ his style is precise and correct,
and reminds one by its neatness of Marc-Antonio's
manner ; at other times his drawing is coarse and
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 63
offensive. Caraglio seldom expresses grace, he excels
more in force, as seen in his engraving of the ' Virgin
and St. Anne between St. Sebastian and St. Roch,'
which he composed himself, and which is really valu-
able for its rarity rather than for the exalted style of
the Virgin's beauty.
Giulio Bonasone departs still further from Marc-
Antonio's school than even Caraglio. His pleasing
graver often conceals gross negligence. His numerous
works comprise engravings of every sort. Executed
from 1531 to 15/4, they vary in value according to
the rank of the artists after whom they were com-
posed. Bonasone reproduced some drawings by
Raphael and Michael Angelo, and, though falling far
short of the originals, his engravings are not without
charm ; generally, however, he succeeded better with
less exalted masters, who were more within his reach.
Parmigiano supplied him with a great number of sub-
jects to engrave, and he has reproduced on copper
several compositions of his own. On the whole, re-
membering the originals of Bonasone's prints, we
think we cannot call them more than ingenious.
They have none of the best qualities ; arranged with
ease, perhaps with too much ease, they err in the
drawing which wants power, and they err in the
execution which is too hasty. The engraver has
sacrificed quality to quantity, working much without
caring to work well. Cesare Reverdino, a fellow-
countryman and contemporary of Bonasone, engraved,
64 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
sometimes with the needle and sometimes with the
graver, several small compositions which, in their size
at least, remind us of the works of inferior German
artists, or of the engravers of the school of Lyons.
He was the first Italian artist who succeeded in ren-
dering complicated subjects in such a limited space
without sacrificing the expression or losing the pic-
turesque effect. These engravings were executed
from 1531 to 1554. The 'Master of the Die* was
one of the cleverest of the artists, who were strongly
influenced by Marc- Antonio, and endeavoured to copy
his style without taking direct lessons from him. He
often copied Raphael, and when not following him he
did not leave the Roman school, but sought his
models in the works of Giulio Romano and Balthazar
Peruzzi. The ' History of Psyche ' was entirely en-
graved by the 'Master of the Die.' Several of these
important plates have been considered Marc- Antonio's
compositions, but the engraving is more clumsy than
his and the design less scholarly. In spite of this
the care with which the artist has preserved the cha-
racter of the drawings attributed to some Fleming
copying Raphael's works, gives the 'Master of the
Die ' a high position in the Roman school.
A native of Parma, ^Eneas Vico, came to Rome as
soon as he knew enough to profit by regular instruc-
tion. He at once yielded to the influence of Marc-
Antonio. His first occupation on arriving in Rome
was to reproduce the engravings by that master in
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 65
order to gain facility in the use of the graver. Com-
pelled later to comply with the requirements of the
editor Tomaso Barlacchi, who shared with Andrea
Salamanca the trade in engravings at Rome, he
copied simultaneously the compositions of Mazzuoli,
of Perino del Vaga, and of Vasari. Towards 1545
he left Rome and went to Florence, where, under the
special protection of Cosmo II. of Medici, he occu-
pied himself entirely with the reproduction of the
works of Baccio Bandinelli. His talent had now
attained its fullest development, and the ' Leda,' exe-
cuted after Michael Angelo, must be considered one
of his best engravings. The execution in this plate
recalls to us the dignity of Marc-Antonio's works,
but at the same time Michael Angelo's drawing, full
of his genius and energy, is faithfully rendered.
^Eneas Vico remained only five years at Florence.
In 1550 we find him at Venice. There his first en-
graving was the ' Portrait of Charles V.,' which was
most successful. It was presented to the emperor
with ceremony, several descriptions of it were pub-
lished, and many artists copied it. At Rome ^Eneas
Vico was able to appreciate the monuments of an-
tiquity. Having been instrumental in the discoveries
of paintings and bas-reliefs made in the sixteenth
century, he engraved some of these venerable relics
of bygone civilisations. At Venice he turned towards
this kind of work from choice. He published several
collections of antique medals, and designed ornaments
F
66 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
in the manner of the ancients. In this he may be
said not only to have followed but to have inaugurated
a new style, and one which we own corresponded with
the requirements of the age ; erudition already occu-
pied a large place in Italian art, now, alas ! deprived
of its primitive charm.
An entire family of engravers, natives of Mantua,
adopted Marc-Antonio's style on arriving in Rome,
and they endeavoured to modify it to suit their own
inclinations, but the inevitable result of their study of
his works was that they became disciples of the great
Roman school. This family, the head of which was
Giovanni Battista Scultori, passed the greater part of
their existence at Rome. After working as a painter
in the ' Palazzo del T. ' at Mantua, under Giulio
Romano, Giovanni Battista practised engraving. He
has left about twenty plates, almost all after Giulio
Romano, which fairly render that master's manner.
They are carefully executed, and 'The Naval Combat/
Scultori's chief work, is distinguished by remarkable
knowledge of drawing, and great command of the
burin. But Giovanni Battista's two children, Diana
and Adamo, gained more renown than their father.
It is believed that they devoted themselves entirely
to engraving. As was natural, Diana at first took
lessons from her father, and she was also guided at
first by the influence of Giulio Romano, but when
she went to Rome and her taste became formed, her
style completely changed. As she arrived long after
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 67
the death of Raphael, she could not have the benefit
of direct instruction from this great master, and she
had nothing to guide her but the works of his inferior
pupils, Raphaellino da Reggio and the Zuccari. Yet
in her engravings she contrived to recall the style of
the great school which she knew only through the
works of Giulio Romano, and she did this with truly
marvellous skill in her later works after this master,
viz., ' The Nuptials of Psyche,' ' The Banquet of the
Gods/ and the ' Bath of Mars and Venus/ These
three engravings, which, with a fidelity of execution
rare in a woman, most faithfully reproduce the fres-
coes preserved in the ' Palazzo del T.' are the most
celebrated of Diana Scultori's works. Adamo, Diana's
brother, began work very young ; his father placed
the burin in his hand at a very early age. There exists
a 'Virgin nursing the Infant Jesus,' signed 'Adamo
Sculptor, an. xi.' So that when only eleven years old
he had already copied an engraving of his father's.
Beginning so young, his works were of course very
numerous ; we know more than a hundred engravings
which bear his name.
They remind us of those by Diana, and, like hers,
they render happily the compositions of Giulio Romano.
They show particular aptitude in rendering the antique
style of that master's works, and they even exaggerate
the appearance of bas-relief in certain of his com-
positions. Adamo Scultori engaged in trade in en-
gravings. We find his name under a great many
68 WONDERS OF ENGRA V1NG.
prints which he published without taking part in their
production. Amongst these some were executed at
the end of the century after Martinelli and Zuccharo.
We have restored their own name, Scultori, to these
artists. It is not many years since they passed for
members of the Ghisi family, because an artist of that
name, the most illustrious of the Mantuan engravers,
so completely combined all the essential qualities of the
school founded under the influence of Giulio Romano,
that he eclipsed the fame of the artists who preceded
him. But there was no relation between Giorgio Ghisi
and the Scultori. Their country was the same, that
was all. Giorgio was born about 1520. He is sup-
posed to have worked under Giovanni Battista Scultori
with Diana and Adamo, with whom he had several
qualities in common. He, however, soon surpassed
them and left the school of Mantua earlier than they
did. He went to Rome when still very young. There
he studied Marc-Antonio's engravings, trying to imitate
them, and taking his inspiration from compositions by
Raphael and Michael Angelo. He engraved the
' Prophets and the Sibyls," after the latter, in which
he showed consummate knowledge of drawing, and he
managed to translate the grandeur of the compositions
in the vault of the Sistine Chapel to his engravings.
And yet, his burin being rather heavy, it has given a
dull appearance to these noble figures, and the execu-
tion looks laboured. Nevertheless, these engravings by
Giorgio Ghisi are very superior to those by other
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 69
artists of the school of Mantua, and with Marc- Anto-
nio's works they are worthy to share the exalted posi-
tion held by Giulio Romano's paintings after Raphael.
In a word, they restore the style of that school, which,
after being formed under Giulio Romano, was destined
to rise to new eminence at Rome, where, at last, its
members could admire the noble masterpieces of that
great master, whose unrivalled style they had hitherto
only seen as interpreted by his pupil.
After Giorgio Ghisi's death the influence of Marc-
Antonio declined rapidly. Like the school of the
great masters, Raphael and Michael Angelo, which
disappeared completely in Italy at the end of the
sixteenth century, after having attracted to their
lessons not only nearly all the engravers of Italy,
but even Frenchmen like Beatrizet, Germans like
George Penez, Earth, Beham and Jacob Binck, his
school also rapidly lost its authority. A new school
sprang up at Rome, and the art was preserved for
some time, but it abandoned the old principles, and in
allowing themselves greater freedom of execution the
successors of Marc-Antonio lost the noble and beauti-
ful style so universal in Italian productions which had
flourished until the middle of the sixteenth century.
Mannerism replaced feeling, ease of style took the
place of careful thought and true expression. The
influence of Agostino Carracci now appears to have pre-
dominated, at least his manner was copied by a great
many artists, who came to Rome in the seventeenth
;o WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
century to the school of art which then attracted as
many foreigners as native Italians. Battista Franco
gave proof, at long intervals, of respect and admira-
tion for great traditions, and his work was principally
devoted to antique objects, but though his very careless
drawing does not recall the style of Marc-Antonio, yet
he was the only artist who still seems to have remem-
bered that master. As for those who followed Franco
Giov. Batt. Coriolano and Valerian Regnart, the first
engraved a number of vignettes coldly and incorrectly,
the pompous subjects of which were suggested by the
masters of his school ; and the second gave his time
to the reproduction of architectural drawings, armorial
bearings, and allegorical compositions ; for Allegory
was now forcing its way everywhere, and was often
incomprehensible by reason of its being so far-fetched ;
nevertheless, Oliviere Gatti, Francesco Brizio, Raffaelo
Guidi, and many other Italians, habitually took their
inspiration from it.
Cardinal Barberini, who became pope under the
title of Urban VI I L, patronised engraving, and sug-
gested a great number of these futile inventions ; the
bees of the Papal armorial bearings fluttered in swarms
about these prints, which were both harsh and wanting
in individuality. Cornelius Cort, Franz Villamene,
Jo. Fred. Greuter, and Theodore Cruger, arrived from
Germany ; Philip Thomassin, with a few competitors,
hastened from France ; and all, German and French
alike, yielding tothegeneral fascination, eagerly strove
ENGRA VING IN 1TAL Y. 71
to adopt the style of the most fashionable Roman
artists. It is too certain that all the plates executed in
Italy in the seventeenth century were so much alike that
they might have been attributed to the same artists,
had not their authors been careful to sign them. These
engravers took their inspiration from late painters of
Michael Angelo's school, and it is well known that
this once admirable school, whose chief had executed
such beautiful works, had already suffered from ex-
aggeration of style under Baccio Bandinelli. In the
works of the second generation of the disciples of the
painter of the Sistine Chapel the style became alto-
gether false, coarse, and bombastic.
Amongst the artists of the Roman school who
remain to be named we must not forget Pietro Santo
Bartoli, who with his skilful needle, seconded by his
burin, reproduced a great number of bas-reliefs and
antique statues. Winckelmann advised young people
anxious to form a good idea of works of antiquity, to
consult the engravings of Pietro Santo Bartoli, and
this advice from the famous historian of art surely
speaks well for the artist's works. But we are more
exacting now than formerly. In our day the means
of reproduction have attained such high excellence
that we are not disposed to give Bartoli such un-
limited admiration. His engravings after the Trajan
column, for instance, whilst giving valuable informa-
tion about the costumes and arms of the ancients, fail
to give a correct idea of the figures of this monument.
72 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
The casts in the museum of the Louvre, which enable
us to compare the copy with the original, compel us
to be somewhat reserved. But in any case, Pietro
Santo Bartoli was one of the first, if not to copy
exactly the true character of ancient monuments, at
least to devote his talent to them almost exclusively,
and it was by aid of his engravings almost as much
as by the works themselves, that Grecian and Roman
art were made known to most of the artists born at
the beginning of this century.
At the end of the eighteenth century, when engra-
ving seemed almost extinct in the rest of Italy, it still
survived in Rome. Two artists of about equal talent,
Domenico Cunego and Antonio Capellani, applied
themselves to reproducing several works by Michael
Angelo, which could only be known at Rome.
Domenico was born at Verona in 1727, and at first
devoted himself to painting ; he worked with Fran-
cesco Ferrari ; then, after studying the first principles of
engraving in Germany he established himself in Rome,
and it was there that he became so enamoured of
Michael Angelo, that he set himself to engrave the
paintings in the Sistine Chapel ; Antonio Capellani
joined him in this enterprise. Born at Venice about
1740, he had left his home to settle at Rome, and he
engraved 'The Creation of Woman,' and 'Adam and
Eve driven from the Garden of Eden.' Neither of
these artists drew with sufficient accuracy to copy these
almost sublime works. They fell far short of their
ENGRA VING IN ITAL Y. 73
models, their engravings are heavy and wanting in
ease, and give but a very inadequate idea of the
originals, and the principal merit of these artists is
that they rendered works which no one had hitherto
attempted to copy.
Here must close the history of engraving in Italy.
To pursue our inquiry further would be to exceed the
limits of our plan. We could doubtless further notice
the ultra-picturesque works of the brothers Piranesi,
and refer to artists nearer our own time, who for a
moment appeared likely to revive the art of engrav-
ing in Italy. Raphael Morghen, Paolo Toschi, and
Giuseppe Longhi, enjoyed a considerable reputation at
the beginning of this century, which was justified to a
certain extent by their skill in handling the graver.
But these artists, working almost entirely at pictures
produced two centuries before, could not identify them-
selves with their models, and therefore remained
inferior to them. In occupying ourselves only with
the masters of art, and mentioning the names of those
artists who at different times drew upon themselves
the attention of men of taste, and were remarkable
for great originality, we have perhaps given a better
notion of the grandeur of Italian art than we should
have done had we spoken of every one and meted out
to each a portion of praise or blame.
74 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
CHAPTER III.
ENGRAVING IN SPAIN.
Giuseppe Ribera and Francesco Goya.
IT is almost impossible to write the history of en-
graving in Spain. Scarcely anything is known
of the art of this country beyond its own shores, and
native historians, or those who resided long enough in
Spain to make the national art the object of their
studies, agree in stating that engraving was very
little practised and still less encouraged. We know
that some anonymous prints are attributed to Velas-'
quez and Murillo ; they do recall the style of these
masters, and are evidently reproductions of their pic-
tures, but we cannot name their authors with any
certainty. Without conclusive proofs all conjectures
are valueless. Ribera is the only celebrated painter
born in Spain whom we know to have been also a
line-engraver. His style is easy, and the colouring of
Fig. 6. A Poet. Engraved by GIUSEPPE RIBERA.
TUTI7ERSIT7]
ENGRA VING IN SPAIN. 77
his engravings, like that of his paintings, is somewhat
harsh ; his prints deserve the esteem in which they
are generally held ; ' Poetry ' and ' The Martyrdom
of St. Bartholomew,' Ribera's best works, would be
an honour to any school.
But after that of Ribera we find no famous name
until the beginning of the seventeenth century ; the
plates by Salvador Carmona, Manuel Esquivel, Fran-
cesco Muntaner and other artists equally inferior in
talent are not enough to represent a school. These
engravers, who confined themselves to the burin, gene-
rally copied valueless works, which they reproduced
barrenly and without beauty, and if they did turn to
a master, like Velasquez, they failed to render the
grandeur and harmonious colouring of that great
master's works. To find a man of real originality
and skill, therefore, we must pass on to Francesco
Goya, the only engraver of whom Spain may be justly
proud. He was born at Fuendetolos, in Aragon, on
the 3<Dth of March, 1746, and died at Bordeaux on
the 1 6th of April, 1828. He was in turn a painter,
an engraver, and a lithographer. His latest historian,
M. Charles Yriarte, has reviewed his frescoes, his genre
paintings, portraits, and engravings, in a large volume.
They are very numerous, but judging from those we
have seen and the copies in Yriarte's book, we think
Goya's reputation is enhanced when he is studied
through his engravings, for then his skill cannot be
denied, whereas we are of opinion that the merits of
78 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
many of his portraits and paintings, especially those
of sacred subjects, have been much exaggerated.*
They are remarkable for a certain sombre harmony of
tint, but the drawing of his figures is careless, and the
artist does not value beauty highly enough, he seems
voluntarily to set it aside, and to delight in horrible
scenes. His engravings show the same tendencies,
but they call up our admiration by the skill of the
execution ; and the truthfulness of the action depicted
in some measure rewards one for what is repulsive
and gloomy in the subjects chosen. Goya is the
painter of passion and of life, he is a sceptic, a mocker
never satisfied. He has constituted himself the
apostle of liberty for his oppressed country, and he is
entirely engrossed with this one idea. The awful
massacres at which he invites us to look, are the work
of despotism, and, as interpreted by his imagina-
tion, they appear more horrible than they were in
reality. Fancy plays a large part in Goya's en-
gravings, and the magic charm of chiaroscuro is
called in to conceal incorrectness of drawing and pal-
pable errors of taste. This engraver's special task,
the skilful combination of aquatint and etching, is
also full of interest. Goya was pre-eminently suc-
cessful in this method of engraving which no artist
* The greater number of engravings published by Goya were
after his own drawings, but some few reproduce portraits by
Velasquez. The latter, entirely etched, give a very good idea
of the original paintings.
Fig. 7. The Condemned. An etching by FRANCISCO GOYA.
ENGRA VING IN SPAIN. Si
before his time had employed, and he is the only
artist of genius of a distinctively Spanish character.
He will be remembered also because he introduced a
process of engraving which Rembrandt himself, the
master of chiaroscuro, the prince of etchers, had fore-
seen but not employed.
G
82 ENGRA VING IN
CHAPTER IV.
ENGRAVING IN THE LOW COUNTRIES.
Engravers on Wood in the i$th Century. Early Engravers on
Metal Holland : Rembrandt, Ruysdael, and Paul Potter
Belgium : Rubens, Bolswert, Paul Pontius and Anthony
Vandyck.
IT is difficult to abstain from studying the art of
Flanders and that of Holland together. From
the first these two countries had interests in common :
art assumed the same character for a time, and did
not attain to separate and distinct importance until
the middle of the seventeenth century, when Rem-
brandt on one side, and Rubens on the other, founded
and directed a school, each in his respective country.
The question as to whether the first wood en-
gravings were printed in Germany or the Low Coun-
tries has always been the subject of earnest debate.
Strange to say, the history of the origin of engraving,
which is intimately connected with that of printing,
becomes more and more obscure in proportion to the
, THE LOW COUNTRIES. 83
number of fresh documents discovered. Those who
bring out these documents, with a date throwing back
the invention for a few years, are generally too much
blinded by vanity to be much enlightened by them.
The greater number of the historians of engraving,
who are Germans at heart and by birth, are unwilling
to relinquish for their country the honour of the in-
vention of engraving, but the Dutch energetically
maintain a right of priority, which we consider worthy
of belief. Let us not forget to add, that the Italians,
not without? pride, bring documents to support similar
pretensions ; and that the French have attempted,
but it must be owned without any success, to take a
place among the first inventors of this art.
Engraving on Wood. We think that it was in the
Low Countries, at Haarlem, that the 'Speculum
Humanae Salvationis' first appeared. It is a religious
work ornamented with woodcuts, which show some
knowledge of art, and testify much more to a desire
for good composition than the single pictures pre-
viously published. Four editions of this work, all
without date, the name of the printer, or of the town
in which they were published, succeeded each other.
Two, however, are in Dutch, and two in Latin, and
certain scholars, good judges in such matters, think
the Dutch dialect the same as that spoken in the Low
Countries about the close of the fourteenth century or
the beginning of the fifteenth, thereby justifying our
opinion of the origin of these books. We look in vain
84 ENGRA VING IN
in Germany or elsewhere for any former work at all
equal to the ' Speculum Humanae Salvationist or the
' Biblia Pauperum.' In them the influence of the Van
Eycks is manifest, the style resembles theirs in every
particular. The authority of the Van Eycks was greater
than that of any painter until the beginning of the
fifteenth century. This fact must be borne in mind,
for a school does not really exist until it produces a
work worthy of admiration or interest ; in art, as in
everything else, an invention is not truly useful or
praiseworthy until its results are tangible.
Although compelled to deny to the Germans a
glory, in the defence of which they have employed so
much patient study, real knowledge, and long re-
search, we cannot but acknowledge, that the advan-
tage enjoyed by the Low Countries is more than
counterbalanced by the important part taken by
Germany in the development of engraving, and we
must carefully study the art at the head of which
stand two such great German masters as Albert Diirer
and Martin Schongauer.
To the Low Countries, then, in addition to the
honour of the discovery of printing (subsequently
turned to such good account by Gutenberg), belongs
also the equal distinction of having produced the first
woodcuts worthy of notice. The books quoted above
replaced the manuscripts hitherto in use. This was
a great boon, for the latter, requiring much careful
labour, were very expensive, and of course attainable
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 85
only by those in easy circumstances, the poor being
inevitably compelled to remain in ignorance. It is
true that several engravings with short legends at-
tached to them were published, but they could not be
considered efficient means of education. Printing
happily changed this great inequality, and we can
understand how useful xylography and typography
were to each other when combined.
The school of painting directed by the Van Eycks,
and in which Hans Memling was a pupil, became so
famous that a new impulse was given to engraving ;
many artists gladly availing themselves of it to mul-
tiply the works of these masters. Although not
sharing all the resources of painting this art is more
directly profitable and does not require such thorough
study.* At Amsterdam and Antwerp books were
published, which proved the usefulness of the discovery,
containing engravings remarkable for clearness of exe-
cution and rare truthfulness. There were, indeed, no
models to be found elsewhere equal to those that
Flemish artists had at their command, and when not
copying the master's works literally they could not
entirely free themselves from their influence.
The names of the numerous woodcutters of the
fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries
are unknown, and it is therefore difficult to describe
* The engravings on wood which appeared in the Low Coun-
tries about the I5th century are very numerous.
86 ENGRA VING IN
their works accurately. All early Flemish engravings
were influenced by the style of art in fashion at the
court of the Dukes of Burgundy, and the engraved
designs on box or pear-tree wood resemble each other
too much to admit of classification. The figures are
stunted, often deformed, the heads poor, the expres-
sions exaggerated ; but the movements are generally
justly rendered, and the actual cutting is skilful.
Those bearing the monogram LA. separated by a
double A. crossed by a V., and attributed to Jacob
Cornelisz or John Walter Van Assen, are picturesque
and cut with manual dexterity.
Engraving on Metal. Early engravers on metal in
the Low Countries resembled their predecessors, the
wood engravers, in their style, if one may apply such
a term to these primitive efforts. They were inspired
by the same influence, guided by the same mind. An
anonymous artist, called, for want of better information,
' The Engraver of 1480,' left a great number of prints.
We have examined them in the museum at Amster-
dam. The drawing of all exhibits the same inde-
cision, but they are well engraved. They are of sacred
subjects or gay scenes, and are fair specimens of the
art of the period. Designs which were thoroughly
worked out by miniature and other painters lost much
of their perfection under the hands of line engravers,
the movements of the figures became distorted, and
sometimes almost grotesque. The Van Eycks and
Hans Memling exercised but little influence over ' The
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 87
Engraver of 1480 ;' he failed, for instance, to give to
the face of the Virgin the purity and simplicity in
which the masters of the school of Bruges so much
delighted He preferred to take his inspiration from
the early painters of Cologne, and his style in conse-
quence partly resembles that of the school on the
borders of the Rhine, but he was thoroughly Dutch
in his mode of working on copper. This was his chief
merit, his line engravings are fine and of delicate
workmanship, and he may have been a goldsmith
before he became an engraver of prints.
Another anonymous artist, known as the ' Master of
the Shuttle/ or Zwoll, worked, according to historians,
about the same time as the ' Master of 1480,' but his
art is more advanced, and his style more decided.
The harshness of some of his plates recalls the early
school, but others seem to have been produced as late
as the middle of the sixteenth century. In ' Christ on
the Cross/ for instance, a very large engraving for the
age in which it appeared, the Virgin lying insensible
at the foot of the cross is not unlike the same figure
in a painting by Quentin Matsys, exhibited in the
museum of Antwerp. We do not mean to say that
the engraver copied the works of the great Antwerp
painter born about 1460, but we do think that he
was one of his imitators, or was at least aided by
his genius. He used the graver skilfully, but he was
ignorant of the progress made in other countries. The
' Master of the Shuttle ' probably never left the Low
88 ENGRA VING IN
Countries, or heard of the engravings of Italy and
Germany ; his style is entirely free from foreign
influence, and he copied none but compositions of
sacred subjects in the style of the school patronized
by the Dukes of Burgundy. He certainly would have
yielded to the influence of Martin Schongauer, who
lived before him, had he studied his works.
Soon after the artists we have named, a master arose
who revived all the peculiarities of the early school,
and occupies a large space in the history of art. We
allude to Lucas of Ley den, born in 1493. He learnt
engraving with an armourer and goldsmith, and gave
early proof of talent. In 1 508, that is, at fifteen years
of age, he produced his first engraving, ' which, with
his succeeding work, presaged a glorious future, al-
though his style as yet was timid. Lucas of Leyden
paid more attention to perspective than any former
engraver. This carefulness of relative proportions
added greatly to the apparent size of the space in which
the scenes were depicted. Lucas of Leyden knew
Albert Dtirer, and when that great artist visited Ant-
werp in 1520, exchanged some engravings with him,
but he did not borrow so much from the illustrious
German as other contemporary artists. He retained
his peculiar style of interpreting nature, and his mode
of engraving remained unchanged. Experience gave
him greater mastery over his tools, but his manner is
the same in his earliest and latest works. He took
his models from those around him, and did not hesitate
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 89
to dress the Queen of Sheba, Esther, or Dalilah in the
costumes of the richer classes of Holland. His innate
sense jof beauty enabled him to realize a glorious ideal
far nearer true beauty than that attained by any other
master of his time. His ' Ecce Homo ' may be con-
sidered one of his chief compositions from an artistic
point of view ; but it is also full of another kind of
interest The scene is laid in the public square of a
Flemish town surrounded by gabled houses, and here,
as usual, indifferent to historical truth, the engraver
has given the executioners and spectators the costumes
of his own age. We are, therefore, indebted to him
for a very important record of the manners and cos-
tumes of the people of the Netherlands in the first
half of the sixteenth century. Lucas of Leyden did
not despise homely scenes, although he preferred
sacred and exalted subjects. He produced works in
which peasants and beggars are the chief actors.
One of them, ' The Peasants Travelling,' known as
'The Uylenspiegel, is the choicest and most sought
after of all his works. This engraving, by an artist
devoted to elegance and refinement, led to the pro-
duction of an enormous number of prints of beggars
and peasants by Teniers, the Ostades, Dusart, and
their followers.
The contemporary engravers of Lucas of Leyden,
who worked with him, shared neither his genius nor
his style, they shook off his influence, and their works
are poor. Dirck van Staren, surnamed the ' Master
9 o
ENGRA VING IN
of the Star/ was an exception. He has proved him-
self a clever engraver and designer in some engravings
signed with the letters D. V., separated by a star, viz.,
* St. Luke painting the Virgin,' 'The Deluge/ and 'A
Fig. 8. The Uylenspiegel. Engraved by LUCAS OF LEYDEN.
Saint kneeling before the Virgin, holding the Infant
Jesus in her arms.' The figures are elegant and
refined, and rare skill in ornamentation is seen in the
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 91
decoration of St. Luke's studio. The style resembles
that of Lucas of Leyden, and these engravings by
the ' Master of the Star ' are worthy of all esteem.
The ' Master of the Crab ' worked about the same
time as the ' Master of the Star ;' he was of an inde-
pendent spirit, and troubled himself little about the
style of his predecessors. The Madonnas he engraved
are ugly and pretentious, exaggerated and badly
drawn ; his original figures are stunted and awkward,
he drew coarsely, and his work with the graver was
unskilful. Indeed, we think his works are famous for
their rarity rather than for their merit, which has
been much exaggerated. Albert Claas published and
signed a number of engravings about the same time
as the 'Master of the Crab.' He had not much
original power. At first he was content to be a mere
copyist. He imitated engravings by Lucas of Leyden,
Beham, Aldegrever, and Albert Diirer, and he might
be included amongst the petits maitres (the Little
Masters), but his style of engraving had not that firm-
ness of hand which is seen in the work of the artists
included under this title. His figures are not suffi-
ciently careful ; he used a sharp graver, and his strokes
are very far apart. He did not confine himself to
copies alone, but the drawings in which the compo-
sition and engraving are both attributed to him are
not original enough to render them worthy of esteem ;
they betoken facility of execution, but the design is
poor, and the expression worthless.
92 ENGRA VING IN
Cornelius Matzys, another Dutch artist, also partly
belongs to the school of the petits maitres. The
engravings signed with his monogram, produced
between 1537 and 1552, are mostly small. They are
also his best ; he is at home and interesting when he
represents peasant men and women talking in twos
and threes, running together, or telling one another
their troubles. Unfortunately he went to Italy, altered
his style, and unsuccessfully tried to improve himself
by studying Italian masterpieces. ' The Miraculous
Draught of Fishes/ a large engraving for him, fell
short of his former works ; he could not reproduce
Raphael, his rendering of the celebrated cartoon is
poor and incorrect. It was the same with all Matzys'
engravings produced under Italian influence. This
was not surprising, for the new principles, the new
traditions, were totally opposed to those of his own
land. A Dutchman might give a certain Italian
appearance to his works, it is true, but they could
scarcely fail to lose in the process. Unfortunately the
mania for Italy and the Italian style was universal in
the Low Countries in the sixteenth century, and artists
did not discover their mistake until the seventeenth
century, when Rembrandt and Rubens introduced a
new order of things. From the time of Lucas of
Leyden until then no work worthy of remark was
produced by the artists of Holland or of Flanders.
Lambert-Lombard, Adrien Collaert, Martin Hemrs-
kerke, Dirck Volkert Curenbert, and a number of
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 93
others spent the greater part of their lives at Rome, and
exhausted their powers in striving after an ideal beyond
their reach. The immense number of their works
only injured their art. Working for trade, engravers
inundated the market with sacred subjects, and devot-
ing themselves to allegory, the passion of Italy in her
decline, they forgot to care for beauty and truth in
their haste to produce fresh impressions.
It is a relief to turn to works which are the glory
of the school of the Netherlands, and prove how
powerful it really was.
Hitherto we have considered Dutch and Flemish
art together ; we can no longer do so, for their interests
and tendencies cease to be identical. Holland takes
an independent position ; a great master is born to
her, who abruptly changes the customs of her school,
and assumes the lead in art. His name is Rembrandt
Van Rhyn.
Rembrandt was born in 1607.* His birthplace is
* The date of Rembrandt's birth has been much discussed.
The registers of the municipality of Leyden, which alone could
have decided the question, are lost for the period under discus-
sion. We are, therefore, left to conjectures which rest on the
authority of Orlers, the Burgomaster of Leyden, and upon some
dated engravings and the artist's marriage certificate, in which
he declares himself to be 26 years old on the loth of June, 1634.
We here adopt the opinion of M. C. Vosmaer (Rembrandt
Harmens van Rijn> ses precurseurs et ses annees cfapprentissage,
printed at Hague, 1863, pp. iv.-vi.), who, after examining all the
accounts by historians of this master, concludes, although with
hesitation, that Rembrandt was born in 1607.
94 ENGRA VING IN
unknown, but everything seems to prove that he first
saw the light in Leyden, where his family had been
established for a long time. His father at first in-
tended him to study law, and began by making him
learn Latin, that he might be prepared to go through
the course required at the University of Leyden. But
Rembrandt had so great a taste for drawing and
painting, that his parents yielded to his wishes, and
placed him with Jacob Isaacson van Swanenburg, an
artist almost unknown in our time. Rembrandt
studied with this painter for three years ; he then
attended successively the studios of Peter Lastman
and Jacob Pinas. Having learnt the elements of his
art from them, he returned to his father's house at
Leyden to work alone. He soon gained an extensive
reputation, his first engravings and paintings were so
good that he received several orders for portraits from
Amsterdam. On the 22nd of June, 1634, Rembrandt
married a wealthy native of Friesland, Saskia Uilen-
burg. By this marriage he had two children, one of
whom died very young, and the other, Titus Rem-
brandt, followed his father's profession, but without
success. After eight years of married life Saskia also
died, leaving her entire fortune under her husband's
control, on condition that he should give her son a
thorough education and allot him a portion on his
marriage.
Rembrandt did not long remain a widower ; there
is no authentic record of his second marriage, but the
A iitotype.
JAN SYLVIUS.
From the Etching by Rembrandt,
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 95
registers of Amsterdam prove the birth of two chil-
dren some time after Saskia's death. Rembrandt's
life, devoted to study, furnishes small material for
biography. He seldom left Amsterdam, never went
abroad, and found plenty of models of every kind
ready to his hand. Rembrandt's works, now so sought
after and prized by amateurs, and which are disputed
for by museums and public buildings, were not thought
much of during his life. In 1656, after the production
of his best works, Rembrandt was declared insolvent,
and compelled to sell his house, his furniture, his very
studio ! This unfortunate occurrence was a terrible
blow to the artist. Although he worked hard and
produced many masterpieces, amongst others, 'The
Trustees of the Draper's Guild/ in the Museum of
Amsterdam (1661), he sank more and more into
obscurity. The date of his death remained long un-
known or was incorrectly reported, and it was not
discovered until lately in a document taken from the
civil registers of Amsterdam : " Rembrandt was buried
in this town on the 8th of October, 1669."
Rembrandt founded the Dutch school properly so
called, and we may add that he completely repre-
sents it. He created every variety of subject, and
in every style proved himself to be an inimitable
artist. In compositions of the highest order, such
as 'Jesus Christ healing the Sick,' or 'The Resur-
rection of Lazarus,' his magic needle obtained re-
sults from etching of which it was not deemed
96 ENGRA VING IN
capable. This branch of engraving would appear to
be suited only to homely subjects, or compositions to
be dashed off at one sitting, but Rembrandt's genius
raised it to the height of glory, and enabled it to
compete successfully with the engraving of history.
And when the master turns to domestic scenes, when
he leads us to the synagogue, or shows us the sculptor
modelling a statuette, or the cook surrounded by
her children tossing her cakes in the frying-pan, he
gives to these familiar subjects a spirit, a power, a
touch of nature, which are irresistibly interesting and
attractive. He surpasses every one in his noble
and life-like portraits. Jan Lutma, the Burgomaster
Six, or Rembrandt himself, will live for ever in
the etchings which so faithfully render the wit, the
energy, and the singularity of their physiognomies.
Rembrandt was also a thorough master of landscape
design. Holland has had many great landscape
painters, but none represented this artificial country
with so much truth as Rembrandt. The boundless
horizons of this flat country, the wondrous canals, the
windmills, are all given without monotony or exagge-
ration ; and so admirably has Rembrandt chosen his
point of view and arranged his subjects, that, whilst
strictly adhering to truth, he has given an interesting
and picturesque appearance to this damp and melan-
choly land. Rembrandt had some imitators, but
no pupils who followed his example step by step.
Too original himself to tolerate servile copying, or to
ir
.
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THE LOW COUNTRIES. 99
do more than encourage, his unthinking genius could
only arouse the ambition of some few engravers to
follow up the work he had begun. Thus J. Livens,
Ferdinand Bol, and Van Uliet, in attempting to con-
form themselves strictly to the examples of this
master's style, remained far behind their models, and
in the end obtained but a moderate reputation. The
inferiority of these artists is seen when, applying them-
selves directly to the works of Rembrandt, they sought
to reproduce the distinguishing beauties by the process
employed by that artist. These three imitators re-
peatedly engraved Rembrandt's works, and not with-
out talent ; their engravings never show more beauty
than when they trod in their illustrious master's foot-
steps. As for their own compositions, which they
produced on copper, they betray an intention to imi-
tate Rembrandt, and at the same time an exaggera-
tion in the drawing which spoils the figures ; and
though Rembrandt himself, even w,hen drawing com-
mon and low phases of life, always remained grand
and gave a poetry to the most insignificant subjects,
his imitators, less scrupulous because less clever, were
not afraid of deviating from truth in the action of
their figures which are often frightful.
We are indebted' to this love of humble subjects,
such as beggars and peasants, for a great number of
excellent Dutch compositions. The artists who chose
this kind of work were evidently painters as well as
engravers, and, unlike their predecessors, they did not
ioo ENGRA VI NG IN
go abroad, but were content with the plentiful models
close at hand. Their works are charming because
they are true. As their country did not offer types
of grandeur in the inhabitants, or varied aspects of
beauty in the scenery, they applied themselves to the
faithful representation of what really met their eyes.
The smoking rooms and taverns to which we are in-
troduced by Ostade or Brauwer are full of life and
animation. We see that their engraver was at home
in them. Adrien Brauwer, of Haarlem, is said to
have frequented them too much ; according to some
historians he led a life of drunkenness and de-
bauchery. He died at the age of thirty-four, leaving
some etchings of great delicacy and power. Adrien
Van Ostade led a less irregular life, and as an en-
graver he takes higher rank. He devoted his excep-
tional talent to the home scenes of his native land ;
his numerous engravings are delightful on account of
the spirit and life, of the figures. Whether gay and
joyous, or busy over household cares, his characters
do well what they are employed in ; their faces are
true, their gestures life-like ; they act, they live, they
are full of individuality. Ostade possessed this gift
of vivid representation in a great degree ; when he
shows us an artist at work in his studio in a tall cap,
we distinctly see how the painter's attention is fixed
on his work, how carefully he is covering his canvas.
The imitators of Ostade fell far short of their model.
Cornelius Dusart drew heavily, and his ideal is even
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 101
more insignificant and trivial than that of his contem-
poraries. It is strange that the Dutch, so successful
with physiognomy, could not represent youth ; their
lovers, male and female, are wrinkled and frightfully
ugly ; the children playing round their parents are old
and clumsy, their attitudes are all that is young about
them. These second-rate Dutch artists never so much
as dreamt of representing beauty and elegance of
form. Cornelius Bega, another pupil of Ostade, imi-
tated his master as closely as did Dusart He, too,
delighted to represent peasants at table in taverns., gos-
siping at the door of an inn, or busied with household
cares, but his engravings are wanting in the delicacy
which distinguishes those of Ostade. They are harsh,
and the faces of his beggars are not always correct.
We have said that Dutch artists of the seventeenth
century did not attempt to make the human figure at
all beautiful. To atone for this, a number of artists
equally skilful with brush and graver, applied them-
selves with the greatest success to the representation
of animals in all their beauty and nobility. Of these
masters Paul Potter is the most distinguished, and the
animals he painted or engraved are grander than any
before produced. He idealised his model without
compromising truth. His- engraving of the ' Friesland
Horse' is bold in execution, and competes with the
productions of these schools which were famous for
their grandeur.
Nicolas Berghem was as successful with animals as
102 ENGRA VING IN
any of his fellow-countrymen. His much-sought-for
paintings and engravings are equally delicate, clear,
and refined. His compositions in which the animals
are better than the figures are set in landscapes
designed with great care. He delighted in foliage ;
his delicate needle has thrown the light on the right
places, the shadows are never confused, the air circu-
lates freely, giving life to all it touches.
Adrian Van der Velde painted both animate and
inanimate nature, but he engraved animals only. He
had great original talent, and the power and correct-
ness of his work recalls the style of Berghem. Theo-
dore Stoop was less confined and crowded in his
work ; he gave his chief attention to horses, and the
figures he introduces are cleverly designed and ar-
ranged. Philip Wouvermann has signed but one en-
graving. But in this finely caparisoned young horse
he has shown with what success he could work at
etching. His evident inexperience has not injured
the correctness of the forms, and in spite of its soiled
appearance this engraving is well worth the attention
of amateurs. Karel Dujardin evidently loved the life
of the fields. He strictly followed Paul Potter as long
as he remained in his native land. He engraved num-
bers of animals, illustrating their habits and explain-
ing their natures. Some sleep in sheer idleness,
stretched on their sides or wallowing in the mud ;
others accustomed to work, ruminate peacefully, or
browse carelessly upon the grass. Dujardin's en-
gniun
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 105
graving is clear, the outlines bold and distinct ; he
never betrays weariness. One day, under pretence of
seeing a friend off who was going to Leghorn, Karel
Dujardin set out for Italy. He was so much struck
with the skies and landscapes of the Roman Empire,
that he deserted animals and became a landscape
painter. His works in Italy were large, but the ar-
rangement of them is not always good, and the exe-
cution is laboured. No wonder the successful Dutch
artist found such a complete change of style very
difficult, and felt almost intimidated before the gran-
deur of the scenery round Rome.
Other landscape painters followed Karel Dujardin's
example, and went to Italy after studying in Holland,
but these distant wanderings were less injurious than
we should have feared, as the emigrants did not leave
their country until they knew enough of their art to
be able to profit by the novel instructions they were
going to receive. John Both, the most celebrated of
them, gained the surname of ' Both of Italy.' He was
born at Utrecht in 1610. In company with his brother
Andrew Both, with whom he generally worked, he
travelled first through France and then through Italy,
making a long stay in the latter. It is strange that
he learnt to understand Italian art through the works
of the well-known French artist Claude Gellee. The
influence of the Lorraine master is more evident in
his paintings than in his etchings ; in his engravings
he addressed himself directly to nature. He truth-
106 ENGRA VING IN
fully rendered the vast horizons bounded by high
mountains and enlivened by large trees and well-
known buildings. His art accommodated itself to
the peculiarities of different countries, and his style
was affected by the beauty of the landscapes he
subsequently visited. William of Heusch, a fellow-
countryman and disciple of John Both, followed his
example and sought his models in Italy. He engraved
the scenes of that country very truthfully, and we
must not be severe in our criticism, remembering how
much he accomplished by means of a process so little
fitted to render the grandeur of the scenes he chose.
Herman Swanevelt spent the greater part of his life
in Italy, and yielded entirely to the influence of
Claude Lorraine, addressing himself directly to that
master's works. His engravings show this influence,
but the execution is cold and monotonous.
Jacob Ruysdael, the greatest landscape painter of
Holland, did not know Italy, and never left his native
town, Haarlem. We need not here speak of his talent
as a painter, and some of his engravings are quite
equal to his pictures. His style is easy, his drawing
skilful and decided ; he is pre-eminently successful
in rendering trees and foliage ; his work is always
clear and distinct. The light is vivid and cleverly
distributed, whilst the shadows are rendered with
truth and care. The warm colouring of his pictures
is reproduced in his engravings. His works are not
numerous ; ' The Corn Field/ and the ' Travellers,'
UNIVERSITY
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 109
are good illustrations of his great and noble genius.
The first is an unrivalled work. A simple corn-field
shut in by tall trees, the leafy boughs, the tangled
shrubs, the gentle breeze, the tender light, even the
refreshing fragrance of the country, are all happily
and clearly rendered. Anthony Waterloo never left
Holland, and was seldom absent from Utrecht, his
native place. Unlike most of the artists we have
named, he acquired greater reputation as an engraver
than as a painter. His fame exceeded his merits.
His etchings are monotonous and laboured, and he
had recourse to the burin to bring any object, such
as the trunk of a tree or a tangled bough, into promi-
nence. This practice was new to the Dutch school,
and had its disadvantages. It is easy enough to make
soft and pleasing strokes with the graver, but they re-
tain undue importance when the rest of an etching
begins to fade from the worn-out plates. Bad impres-
sions are the result, and Waterloo's works were no
exceptions. The scenes he represented are of little
variety or extent. A corner of a forest with a wind-
ing lane, a mill above a torrent, a cottage over-
shadowed by a few trees, such are the aspects of
nature in which this artist delighted. He never at-
tempted to render Holland's characteristic landscapes,
its vast horizons, or its boundless plains watered by
countless canals.
The sea shared with the forests, the green hillocks,
and the plains of Holland, the enthusiasm of inter-
1 10 ENGRA VING IN
preters, and Rembrandt, who inaugurated the marine
style, was as successful in it as in everything else.
Those who followed him were not so fortunate. Louis
Backuysen, one of the cleverest Dutch painters, en-
graved several sea-pieces with the needle, which are
wanting in his usual skill. The effect of the wind
on the sea is well given, but his last efforts were too
hastily executed, and the figures on the sterns of the
vessels are clumsy and incorrect. On canvas Backuy-
sen renders eloquently the most majestic aspects of
the sea, but on copper he is weak and irresolute.
Isaiah Van der Velde was not more successful ; he
tried to represent seaports crowded with ships, or
skaters gliding over the ice ; but the abrupt and harsh
hatchings of his needle, crossed by strokes of the
graver, most inadequately render the appearance of
the sea, the river, or the canal he is drawing. Peter
Bout used a very fine needle, and drew charming little
villages-washed and shut in by the sea ; but the figures
in his sea-pieces want character, and his designs are
not well finished Nevertheless, he accomplished some-
thing, and his five or six known sea-pieces give a true
idea of the appearance of the North Sea. Rene
Nooms, now generally known under the name of
Zeeman (seaman), was born at Amsterdam about 1612.
He was so passionately fond of painting the sea, that
he embarked as a simple sailor, and made several
voyages in order to study the fickle element in her
smiling and angry moods, and to learn the construe-
THE LOW COUNTRIES. in
tion of vessels. It is to this special education that
his engravings owe the truthfulness so little shared by
contemporary works ; and if the gazer does not find
in Zeeman's engravings an understanding of effect, or
great beauty in the execution, the historian will prize
them for their truthfulness and precision, as well as
for the information they afford.
Side by side with the followers of Rembrandt, who
produced famous and valuable etchings, arose an
equally celebrated school of artists who employed
the graver, and left to posterity striking proofs of
their talent. We have spoken of the unfortunate ten-
dency of beginners to desert their own land for Italy,
and especially for Rome, where they learnt of the
artists of the decadence, and parodied their works.
We have now to consider artists who took a higher
tone. They too left their country for a time, but
when they had learnt all they could from foreign
masters they returned home and devoted the greater
part of their existence to reproducing the works of
their fellow-countrymen. This school of Dutch line-
engravers did not arise till the seventeenth century.
After Crispin Van de Pass, who gave to his works a
warm and pleasant tint, we find a number of artists
who, we may say, used the graver too boldly. At
first Henry Goltzius was timid and almost too anxious
about delicacy and precision, his small portraits
rivalled miniatures, and were equal to the most deli-
cate works ever engraved, but as soon as he felt himself
1 1 2 ENGRA VING IN
master of his instrument, he took an entirely different
course, and, recalling Albert Diirer's style, he pub-
lished some of the most extravagant prints imagina-
tion ever conceived. By means of deep strokes at wide
intervals he tried to reproduce works complicated and
pedantic, and succeeded too well in literally copying
these exaggerated forms, and whilst gaining the repu-
tation of being one of the cleverest line-engravers of
Holland, he lost that of a correct and skilful designer,
which his first works had gained for him. It is to be
regretted that he had many imitators. His manner
attracted those who were fond of novelty and cared
little by what means they attained notoriety.
Amongst the least intelligent of Goltzius' imitators
were John Saenredam and John Miiller. It is impos-
sible to exceed their skill in using the needle, or en-
graving on copper ; but their very ease of execution
led them to delight in terribly distorted forms. Their
ambition was to vanquish apparently insurmountable
difficulties and they were always absorbed in the
desire to show their power. They took their models
chiefly from Bartholomew Spranger, the most affec-
ted artist of the school. James Matham, another
pupil of Goltzius, was not content with his master's
lessons. He made a long stay in Italy, and at Rome
took counsel with his countryman, Cornelius Bloe-
maert. But this new teaching spoilt his originality,
although he learnt from it to seek something better
than complicated subjects and exaggerated forms : he
Fig. 12. Costume. Engraved by HENRY GOLTZIUS.
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 115
engraved after Zuccaro, and sometimes even after
Raphael and Titian. His prints merely produce with
a weary monotony the works of these great masters.
His portraits alone, which show careful study of
physiognomy, are worthy of notice. Henry Hondius
never left the Hague, his native place. For fifty
years he superintended a studio there in which many
artists were educated. It is not easy to define his
manner, it is dry and wanting in grandeur. He
had not sufficient talent to give his pupils and the
artists he employed for he was rather a publisher
than a master-engraver a true impulse ; the prints
which bear his name, either as publisher or engraver,
are of no particular value.
After line-engraving had been practised in Holland
for a long time, with more or less success, a moment
came when this art attained to so considerable a
position that neighbouring countries might well have
been jealous. In the middle of the seventeenth cen-
tury a national school of painting arose entirely under
the influence of Rembrandt, and engravers sprung up
ready to reproduce the new painters' compositions
and their own, and to spread abroad the fame of those
who guided them. A Dutchman, Peter Soutman,
born at Haarlem about 1580, who attended Rubens'
studio, and successfully engraved some of his works,
seems to have given the impulse to this new school of
engraving. He attracted and won the confidence of
young engravers. Jonas Suyderoef entered his studio
1 1 6 ENGRA VING IN
and borrowed from his master the convenient process
of combining line engraving with etching. In this
mode of working aquafortis plays a secondary part,
being employed merely to prepare the plate and is
disused altogether when the graver begins its work.
Amongst Jonas Suyderoefs works important on
account of the portraits after P. Soutman, Franz
Hals, and Rubens, which they contain there is one
plate which would alone suffice to render him famous
as an artist. We allude to the ' Peace of Munster/
after Gerard Terburg, which contains no less than fifty
portraits those of the plenipotentiaries met together
to sign the treaty. This grand engraving shows ex-
ceptional knowledge of physiognomy, the picture is
reproduced with extraordinary exactness, and in this
case we may safely assert that the engraver was a
worthy rival of the painter. Cornelius Visscher was
also a pupil of P. Soutman. His style differs from
his master's more than did that of Jonas Suyderoef.
From Soutman, it is true, he learnt scrupulously to
respect the models before him ; but his mode of re-
producing the works he composed or copied was very
different. He seldom used aquafortis, but worked on
the bare copper with the tool. At first his style was
very formal, and his plates resembled the feeblest
efforts of a Polish painter, Jeremiah Falck, who spent
some time in Holland. His manner, however, rapidly
changed as his talent became developed. Visscher
engraved the portrait of Peter Scriverius under the
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 117
direction of Peter Soutman, and he did not fail to
bear witness to his master's share in this work, which
he signed thus : ' Corn. Visscher sculpsit. P. Soutmanuo
dirigente! An act of respect the more praiseworthy,
as in this engraving the pupil is already seen to be
superior to his master. Visscher's works are too
numerous for us to name all the best, it will be better
merely to single out those which are universally ad-
mired : ' The Ratcatcher ' and ' The Cook ' are worthy
of taking first rank in the history of engraving. This
artist was still more successful with his portraits ; he
excelled in representing flesh, and his works, like his
subjects, are of infinite variety. A clear and powerful
colourist, a skilful and accurate designer, he knew how
to profit by the examples of his predecessors, and his
works bear witness to his great admiration for Rem-
brandt, Franz Hals, and Van der Heist.
Cornelius Van Dalen, who followed C. Visscher's
instructions, did not handle the graver with equal
ease. But in this excellent school he acquired respect
for good drawing and knowledge of colouring. The
portraits of Alphonse d'Este, of Aretino, and of
Boccaccio are considered Cornelius Van Dalen's best
works ; they are certainly his simplest. C. Van
Dalen required to work from a good model or from
nature ; when employed on an inferior composition
his want of interest is evident. When he engraved
works after Rubens or Flinck, which suited his taste,
he rendered the powerful colouring of these masters
Ii8 ENGRAVING IN
with peculiar skill, and at the same time gave proof
of his own great knowledge. But his portraits are his
best works. Whether he drew from nature or bor-
rowed his model from Gov. Flinck, J. Livens, or other
less famous Dutch portrait-painters, his works are
remarkable for powerful execution and knowledge of
physiognomy.
Abraham Bloteling also belonged to the school of
Cornelius Visscher. He was born at Amsterdam in
1634. His works are very numerous and more varied
than those of the artists we have named ; and although
they do not take first rank, they show that their
author had a certain skill in different styles. His
etchings are poor with the exception of one master-
piece, the portrait of the painter, Gov. Flinck ; but
all his portraits are better than his compositions.
He employed mezzotint largely and has left many
engravings in it. He only attained true superiority
when he left his own country for England, and worked
at pictures by Sir Peter Lely and other clever portrait-
painters.
At the end of the seventeenth century Dutch art
began to decline, or rather it almost entirely disap-
peared. Genius became rarer and rarer. We find
good workmen it is true, but they were workmen, not
artists ; the skill of Rembrandt and his imitators, with
Cornelius Visscher at their head, was gone never to
return. Romyn de Hooghe engraved a great variety
of subjects with surprising rapidity ; battles, ceremo-
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 119
nials, costumes, portraits, were all rendered by this
artist's fertile imagination, but he had no taste and
was ignorant of the laws of drawing. John Luyken
although far less skilful than Romyn de Hooghe, had
also a fertile imagination and rare facility of execu-
tion, but his needle served his intellect badly, it was
heavy and monotonous, so that his] etchings are dull
and without character. James Houbraken strove in
vain, during a great part of the eighteenth century,
to revive the beautiful style of etchings brought to
so high a pitch by Cornelius Visscher and his pupils.
His drawing is incorrect, and he only showed great
skill in handling the graver. In addition to his nume-
rous portraits he produced some clever engravings
after C. Troost which represent scenes of local in-
terest.
In the year 1780, the date of the death of Hou-
braken, the history of engraving in Holland must end.
If we pursued our inquiry further we should have to
name a number of inferior artists, and this, we think,
would lead to confusion and be unjust to those who
really advanced their art, and deserve to be remem-
bered.
We have named Rembrandt as the inaugurator of
the Dutch school, and Peter Paul Rubens takes the
same position in Flanders. We do not mean to ignore
numerous painters who preceded him and took lessons
of Van Eyck and Memling ; but we are considering
the history of engraving, not of painting, and we think
120 ENGRA VING IN
we may justly assert that a true school was not founded
in Flanders until Rubens gave engravers an aim, and
aroused their ambition by his works. The art could
not, of course, spring into fame and power at once, and
before it made its name known many inferior engravers
were at work. The engravings of Wierix are executed
with talent, still they do not betoken any great know-
ledge, unless we except a few portraits which are
finished with great beauty and delicacy. The Sadelers
made up for want of skill by great fertility of imagina-
tion. Ad. Collaert devoted himself to allegory and
sacred subjects ; the compositions of Martin de Vos
and Stradan were his chief favourites. Finally, Cor-
nelius, Theodore, and Philip Galle excelled the en-
gravers we have named ; their early works show great
power, but their genius was not fully developed until
they came under the influence of Rubens, to whom
was reserved the honour of founding the national
Flemish school of engraving.
Peter Paul Rubens was born at Siegen, in May,
1577 ; he spent his early years there, and then went
to Cologne for a time ; he did not reside at Antwerp
with his mother until the year 1588, after the death of
his father. When settled in Antwerp, the first care of
Maria Pypeling, Rubens' mother, was to obtain a good
education for her son. His studies over, Rubens
entered the service of the widow of the Count of
Lalaing, Margaret of Ligne, as a page. He did not
long remain in this, to him, uncongenial position, but
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 121
obtained his mother's permission to adopt the profes-
sion of an artist, for which he had long shown a great
inclination. His first master was Tobias Verhaegt,
a painter almost unknown now ; he did not remain
with him long, but before going to the studio of his
true master, Otto Venius, to complete his studies, he
was for a time under Adrian Van der Noort. After
four years with Venius, Rubens determined to go to
Italy. He left Antwerp on the Qth of May, 1600, and
visited successively Venice, Mantua, Rome, Genoa, and
Milan. He lived by preference at Venice, and during
a long stay there, enthusiastically copied paintings by
Paul Veronese, Titian, and Tintoretto. It was in
Venice, too, that he made friends with a gay young
officer of good family, who took him to the court of
the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo da Gonzaga. The
duke, who was devoted to literature and the fine arts,
liked to be surrounded by the chief authors and
painters of the day ; he retained the Flemish artist
near him, and entrusted him with the execution of
several works. Better still, he discovered that Rubens
had the qualities of a courtier as well as those of a
great painter, and that he might be more useful than
many of those who studied diplomacy as a profession.
He was so convinced of this, that when he wished to
send some splendid presents to Philip III., king of
Spain, he chose Rubens as his ambassador. The
painter having proved himself worthy of the confidence
reposed in him, received a great reward on his return ;
122 ENGRA VING IN
the duke gave him permission to go to Rome to study
the masterpieces of which the Papal city is full.
Rubens lingered some time in Italy, and was thinking
of going to France, when sudden tidings reached him
at Milan which abruptly ended his wanderings ; his
mother was seriously ill and longed to embrace her
son before her death. Rubens set out without delay,
but his haste availed him nothing, his mother died
whilst he was still far from Antwerp. Overcome with
grief, he took refuge in the convent of St. Michael,
where she was buried, and devoted the leisure hours
of this voluntary seclusion to raising a tomb in his
mother's honour, the designs for which he supplied
himself. He composed the epitaph also, and placed a
picture he had painted at Rome beneath the Mauso-
leum. When the first sharpness of grief had passed
away, Rubens returned to society, and took up his
abode in Antwerp, where he had a house built which
he embellished with works of art of every description.
He now devoted himself entirely to work, and many
long years of study; but little occurred worthy of
notice. On the I3th of October, 1609, he married
Isabella Brandt; in 1620 he went to Paris to paint
the Luxembourg Gallery by order of Maria de
Medicis. He remained some time in Paris and then
returned to Antwerp, which he did not again leave
until the death of his wife, when, being unable to
continue his art by grief, he accepted a mission en-
trusted to him by the Archduke Albert and the
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 123
Archduchess Isabella. The rest of Rubens' existence
was devoted rather to politics than art. He was sent
to Spain and England to negotiate peace between the
two countries which had been at war with one another
for many years. He had occasion to use his brush
in these successive missions, as he often explained the
object of his mission while taking the portraits of the
monarchs to whom he was accredited. He has left
many glorious traces of his visit both at Madrid and
London. In November 1630, he married again. His
second wife was his niece, Helen Fourment, by whom
he had five children. Rubens died at Antwerp of an
attack of gout on the 3Oth of May, 1640. His funeral
was celebrated with very great pomp. In him Flanders
not only lost her greatest painter but one of her
greatest men.
Rubens' influence upon engraving was most decided.
Not only were his paintings excellent models for the
artists who engraved them, but he superintended their
works himself, and touched them up with great skill,
never allowing a print to be published without his
approbation. It is to this constant vigilance, to this
self-respect, so to speak, that Rubens owes his immense
reputation. Engravings of his works are widely dis-
tributed, and give an excellent idea of the painter's
genius to those who have not seen the originals. It is
worthy of remark, that Rubens' paintings, famous as
they are for their life and power, for their harmony of
tone and vividness of colouring, offered exceptional
124 ENGRA VING IN
difficulties to engravers, who have only two colours,
black ink and white paper, at their command ; but all.
difficulties were surmounted by the great master's
untiring supervision ; and engravers, who confined
themselves to the burin, brought out copies in all
respects worthy of the originals. We are assured that
Rubens himself executed some engravings ; but we
find it difficult to believe that the plates signed,
' Rubens fecit' l invenif or ' excudit} were really by
him. Only one engraving, ' St. Catherine/ can, we
think, be attributed to him with any justice. It has
qualities of the first order, although the execution is
not very superior. When we have studied the works
of those who generally copied Rubens on copper, we
shall scarcely regret that he did not leave more of his
own engravings.
The most skilful of the artists formed in Rubens'
school was Schelte of Bolswert, who was born at Bols-
wert, in Friesland, about 1586. With his brother,
Boethius of Bolswert, an artist of less talent and inferior
reputation, he came to study engraving at Antwerp,
where he was a fellow-pupil of Paul Pontius. He was
the first who tried to do more than coldly imitate a
painting in engraving, he chose as models works full
of life and vivid colouring, and tried to express these
qualities in his work. He succeeded perfectly. He
was a complete master of the process and obtained
the most pleasing results by his skilfully disposed
strokes. The white paper throws up high lights and
Frg. 13. Saint Catherine. Engraving attributed to P. P. RUBENS.
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 1 27
the dark portions are admirably given by bold strokes
ending in dots. In the works which Bolsweft exe-
cuted in the zenith of his powers there is no display of
his own personal talent ; he did not parade his skill
as a line-engraver, his ambition was something higher ;
he aimed to render as faithfully as possible, by a
process which could not call in the aid of colour, the
works of his contemporaries. He naturally preferred
Rubens' paintings, for that master was at the head of
his school ; but he was not therefore indifferent to
good works by Rubens' pupils. His engravings of
' The Musicians,' after Jordaens, and the ' Drunken
Silenus,' after Anthony Vandyck, may rank with his
magnificent copies of ' The Assumption,' ' The Mira-
culous Draught of Fishes,' and * The Resurrection/
Paul Pontius, who worked side by side with Schelte
of Bolswert, and shared with him the friendship of
Rubens, was almost equally gifted, and reproduced
the master's works as successfully. His engraving
was plastic and correct ; he rendered the colour and
consistency of flesh and the flowing folds of drapery
with equal power. Paul Pontius carried the science
of chiaroscuro further than any engraver of Rubens'
school, and his constant endeavour to give the luminous
appearance of paintings in his plates saved him from
undue striving after brilliant execution.
He engraved many of Rubens' pictures ; and ' The
Feast of Pentecost,' ' The Assumption,' ' Susannah
at the Bath,' 'The Presentation in the Temple,' and
128 ENGRA VING IN
others, are by no means inferior to Bolswert's best
plates ; they have the same knowledge of design and
execution, the same conscientious drawing, which
neither excludes originality nor fetters the individual
imagination. One of the best known and most
famous of Paul Pontius' engravings is after the cele-
brated picture by Jordaens in the Museum of the
Louvre, entitled ' Le Roi Boit,' or ' Le Fete du Roi.'
The spirited engraving gives the somewhat coarse
colouring of the picture and the life-like expression
of the figures with surprising felicity.
The style of Lucas Vorsterman differs somewhat
from that of the preceding artists. His manner of
engraving is not so spirited, but it is equally clever ;
he reproduced Rubens' pictures by means of the com-
bination of many different kinds of work. By varied
lines he appropriately rendered the different parts of a
picture ; curved and facile strokes give the outlines of
the limbs, and draperies are produced by more or less
condensed lines, according to the strength of the light
upon them. ' Susannah and the Elders,' ' The Ado-
ration of the Shepherds,' and several ' Holy Families,'
show the great genius of Vorsterman, and prove him
to have been one of Rubens' most faithful interpre-
ters. His ambition was not contented with producing
Rubens' works with fidelity, and therefore he went to
England, where he spent eight years in copying paint-
ings of another and different style. Whether he turned
to Raphael, to Annibale Carracci, or Caravaggio, he
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 1 29
could not shake off the influence of Rubens. Under
his graver, Raphael's outlines lost their exquisite
purity and grace, and the figures acquired an appear-
ance of good living of which the great Italian master
certainly never dreamt. Vorsterman could never shake
off the style of the naturalistic school in which he had
been reared ; he could not realise the majestic and
noble ideal of these masters. He was more at ease
with a canvas by Michaelangelo of Caravaggio, ' The
Virgin Adored by Two Pilgrims/ the sober colouring
of which he faithfully rendered ; but it was a fellow-
countryman of his, Anthony Vandyck, who inspired
the best engravings he produced in England.
Peter de Jode, the younger, also belongs to the
school of Rubens. He was born at Antwerp in 1606.
He studied and worked for a long time with Peter de
Jode, the elder ; and in his early works, which were
clumsy and inexperienced, he reproduced his father's
style. It is not easy to distinguish his first engravings
from those of the elder Jode. Peter, the younger,
showed no original power until he ceased to work for
the publisher Bonenfant, with whom his father had
placed him. He then turned to paintings by Rubens,
Vandyck, and Jordaens. In his engravings after
these masters he shows himself a worthy rival of
Bolswert, Paul Pontius, and Lucas Vorsterman. His
touch is easy yet powerful, he delights in rich com-
binations, and is extremely successful in rendering
pictures full of colour on copper. ' The Marriage of
K
130 ENGRAVING IN
St. Catherine,' ' The Three Graces/ after Rubens,
'St. Augustine/ after Vandyck, and 'The Miracle of
St. Martin of Tours/ after Jordaens, place Peter de
Jode, the younger, amongst the best engravers of the
Flemish school.
The school which Rubens raised and directed in-
cludes many other artists. We have spoken of the
most illustrious ; but there are some amongst the
second-rate artists of the same time who occasionally
most successfully imitated their master. Amongst
them was Peter Soutman. Dutch by birth, he crossed
the Scheldt, and came to Antwerp to study under
Rubens. He r used etching largely, and was chiefly
skilful in rendering the delicate figures in his master's
works. We will enumerate a few others : Hans
Withdceck, who heightened his engravings with tints,
and by this method made them look like chiaroscuro
on copper ; Cornelius Galle, who engraved ' Judith
and Holofernes ' somewhat clumsily ; Andrew Stock,
a Dutchman established at Antwerp, whose engraving
of the ' Sacrifice of Abraham ' is not equal to the
original ; Peter Van Sompel, a pupil of Peter Sout-
man, and an expert designer, who, though superior to
the others, never mastered the difficulties of repre-
senting colour; Michael Natalis, who joined the
studio of Cornelius Bloemaert at Rome, where he
acquired a frigid and inharmonious style of engraving,
which he could not shake off, even when working at
paintings by Rubens ; James Matham, a pupil of
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 1 3 1
Goltzius, who could not free himself from his master's
mannerism, and whose engravings, with all their pro-
found knowledge of art, failed to give the colouring or
symmetry of Rubens' works ; Alexander Voet, who
drew incorrectly, but, being a pupil of Paul Pontius,
excelled in colouring, and whose engravings after
Rubens ('Judith and Holofernes' amongst others)
give a fair notion of the originals, although the bold
and masterly drawing is wanting. To conclude this
list, Christopher Jegher, a German wood-engraver,
left his country to establish himself in Flanders. His
engravings were noticed by Rubens, who wished to
have some of his own works reproduced by this pro-
cess. The great master himself drew some designs on
wood, and the engraver had only to follow scrupu-
lously his outlines and hatchings. The engravings
thus executed by Jegher are true fac-similes of Rubens'
designs. Sometimes, like the Italians, Jegher imi-
tated several tints by means of successive plates, the
tinting thus rounding off the outlines ; and to this day
these cama/ieux, as they are called, give us with a valu-
able exactitude copies of the Flemish painter's designs.
The artists who took lessons from Rubens did not,
however, confine themselves exclusively to his paint-
ings. We have already spoken of engravings after
Jordaens, Seghers, and Vandyck, by followers of
Rubens. Works of this kind are very numerous ;
and Anthony Vandyck's paintings were especially
admired and patronised by engravers.
132 ENGRA VING IN
When considered apart from other painters, Anthony
Vandyck is a master of the first order ; his figures
are all unrivalled in distinguished character, deli-
cacy and elegance, but, as compared with Peter Paul
Rubens, he can only take the second place. This is
but just ; he came after Rubens, and profited by his
example, neither had he the same wonderful creative
power as his master. In his portraits, however, Van-
dyck is not inferior to Rubens ; he looks at nature
from a different point of view, caring, it is true, more
for character than grandeur, but then, his works have
greater interest for us than those of his master. Let
us explain. He was not content merely to look over
engravings after his works by Bolswert, Paul Pontius,
or Vorsterman, or to superintend engravers ; he used
the tools himself, and has left brilliant proofs of his
skill in this kind of work. His compositions are not
his best works : ' Christ Crowned with Thorns/ and
' Titian and his Mistress/ do not show much talent, his
work is laboured, he covered his paper too closely in
copying flesh ; but he made up for this in the eighteen
portraits which he most delicately and skilfully en-
graved with the needle. They are of artists and
amateurs, friends of the painter. The features are
lifelike and wear their best expression. Vandyck
was more successful than any earlier painter in seizing
a likeness. After a few impressions had been taken
of the portraits which this great master himself drew
on copper, they were retouched and completed with
Fig. 14. Portrait of Snyders, an etching, by ANT. VANDYCK.
THE LOW CO UNTRIES. 1 3 5
the graver by professional engravers ; a uniformity
was thus given which fitted them to be included in the
series of ' Icones Pictorum/ published successively by
Giles Hendricx and Martin Van den Enden. En-
graved by L. Vorsterman, Bolswert, Paul Pontius,
Peter de Jode, and others, this magnificent series does
justice to the genius of Vandyck. There are a
hundred personages, all drawn with surprising correct-
ness, who appear to be living, thinking, moving beings ;
their attitudes are natural and simple, whether pensive
or animated, the features reflect the intelligence of the
sitter, and the engravers of these portraits have faith-
fully rendered the master's work. They gave the
spirit, the grace, and even the colouring of the ori-
ginals, although they used the graver, which is not so
facile an instrument as the needle.
The example set by Vandyck was followed by
many of his contemporaries, and other Flemish painters
largely employed etching. They deserve mention,
although their talent did not equal Vandyck's. Cor-
nelius Schut, a pupil of Rubens, and the most diligent
of these engravers, had not very refined taste. He
drew heavily, his figures are clumsy and vulgar, his
Madonnas and heathen deities are very much alike.
The same head surmounts the bust of the Virgin and
that of Ceres ; it is not easy to distinguish one from
the other. It is the delicate work with the needle
which justifies the fame of Cornelius Schut's en-
gravings ; he wanted only rather more taste to have
136 ENGRA VING IN
produced valuable works. Francis Van den Wyn-
gaerde, who traded in engravings at Antwerp, and
signed a number of good plates of that school,
with exc. (excudii) after his name, used the needle
also. His manner is not easy to define, for he tried
every style, and fell short of his models in all. His
' Holy Family/ after Cornelius Schut, is badly drawn
and coldly engraved. The same faults are seen in a
'Flight into Egypt/ after John Thomas, a Flemish
painter who is now scarcely known, but who succeeded
better with etching than most of his contempo-
raries. Van den Wyngaerde, who used a very fine
needle, engraved several battles, which have the one
fault of being too confused. He shows real skill in
' Hercules and the Nemsean Lion/ 'after Rubens, and
the ' Portrait of Lucas Vorsterman/ ,after J. Livens ;
his style, although still rather clumsy, faithfully
renders the manner of these masters. Theodore Van
Thulden studied with Rubens, and accompanied his
master to Paris when he went to decorate the gallery
of Luxembourg. He worked with Rubens at many
of his pictures, and left several works at Paris, amongst
others, the paintings which filled the choir of the
' Eglise des Mathurins/ since destroyed. These pic-
tures represent many episodes in the life of St. John
of Matha ; Van Thulden reproduced them himself,
and these engravings give a better notion of his talent
than those of the l History of Ulysses/ after pictures
at Fontainbleau by Nicolo dell' Abbate, which were
THE LOW COUNTRIES. 137
designed by Primaticcio. We think that these en-
gravings have only one good point, they are repro-
ductions of compositions which are now lost, but they
have none of the characteristic taste of the Italian
master. William Panneels, a painter and engraver of
Antwerp, also took lessons of Rubens. He engraved
so many of his master's works, that he must evidently
have admired Rubens extremely ; but his talent did
not equal his admiration, and his engravings fell far
short of the powerful originals. With an idea of
showing his great knowledge of chiaroscuro, he made
the most abrupt changes from deep black to clear
white ; his engravings, in consequence, were harsh and
gloomy, unlike his earlier works, which were either
bathed in soft light, or lit up with splendour.
The Flemish school of engraving declined and
finally became extinct, in the hands of these second-
rate artists. It attained its highest distinction under
Rubens, and disappeared almost entirely in the
eighteenth century ; the works produced at that
period scarcely merit notice. The constant wars
which desolated Flanders were little calculated to
encourage artists ; they dispersed abroad, some esta-
blished themselves in France, where art was at its
greatest height ; and when we treat of the French
artists, we shall meet with many engravers from
Antwerp. They largely influenced the progress of art
in France, and we must carefully note the novelties
introduced by foreign masters into that country.
138 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
CHAPTER V.
ENGRAVING IN GERMANY.
Early Engravers on Wood. Maximilian's Engravers. En-
graving on Metal. The Master of 1466, Martin Schongauer
and Albert Diirer.
IT would be useless to resume the discussion as
to Germany's right to be considered the first
inventor of engraving. Scholars of high position give
the best reasons for so many diverse opinions that the
question is further from settlement than ever. We
will therefore pass it by and confine our attention to
works of excellence without caring whether they were
of the earliest date or not. We repeat that we con-
sider the first specimen of engraving the ' Speculum
Humanae Salvationis ' for instance to be the work of
some carver of images of the Low Countries ; German
historians refuse to give this credit to others, although
they will probably agree with us when we say that no
wood engravers were equal to the German masters of
the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the six-
teenth centuries.
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 139
The ' St. Christopher ' of 1423 is a good starting
point for every discussion ; we shall not do more than
glance at it or at the many early anonymous wood-
cuts ; passing on to the second half of the fifteenth
century before we find real talent in Germany or else-
where. Engravings produced before 1450 were mere
copies of little talent. We have not forgotten that
the ' Biblia Pauperum ' has been attributed with some
justice to German artists, and that bibliographers
mention primers which were published, and probably,
also, composed in Germany ; but, nevertheless, no true
artist was born until 1460. Until then wood-engraving,
of which we are at the present moment speaking, was
under the universal influence of the school of Bruges,
and a distinctive German style was scarcely recog-
nisable. Pfister is for us the earliest German wood-
engraver. He learnt the trade of a printer and engraver
from Gutenberg, established himself at Bamberg
about 1458, and, out of his private resources, published
a number of works mentioned by M. Leon de Laborde
in his important work, ' Les Debuts de rimprimerie a
Mayence et a Bamberg.' These engravings in early
printed works are decidedly coarse and of little talent ;
but then they are entirely free from foreign influence,
and are interesting to us because thjey decide the origin
of wood-engraving at least to have been German.
Although xylography was quite a new art in Ger-
many and elsewhere in the fifteenth century, an
immense number of woodcuts were published at this
140 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
period both separately and in printed books. This
fertility of production had its disadvantages ; the
gifted artists who supplied the designs did not watch
their engravers enough, and the work produced did
not do justice to the originals. Ugliness and deformity
were carried to extremes by these early engravers ;
their sole merit indeed was their skill in carving wood.
The ' Bible ' of Koburger contains eighty-six cuts of
better execution than most of the early engravings ;
they are not now thought much of, although some
were honoured by being copied for Holbein's Bible,
and Albert Diirer borrowed from them for his apoca-
lyptic designs. In the stunted figures and the stiff
heavy folds of drapery we recognise productions of
the German school ; but we are not, therefore, justified
in considering all these engravings to be by Michael
Wolgemuth and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, to whom they
are attributed by the printer, Koburger, in his preface.
Their styles are too diverse and their merits too un-
equal to stamp them as the work of two artists only.
Wolgemuth and Pleydenwurff may have superintended
them, or even have executed some of the more impor-
tant plates, but many are unworthy in every respect
of artists whose other works have obtained for their
authors something closely resembling celebrity.
Michael Wolgemuth was Albert Diirer's master, and
the glory of the pupil is reflected on the teacher. In
these days of universal scepticism, people are unwilling
to consider Albert Dtirer a wood-engraver; they
ENGRA VI NG IN GERMANY. 141
attribute to artists working under his supervision the
splendid engravings of the ' Apocalypse,' and those of
the ' Life of the Virgin,' and the greater number are
said to be by Jeremiah Resch, a wood-carver and
medallist. Such, at least, is the opinion of a historian
of Nuremberg. We must needs bow to the decision
of a man whose knowledge cannot be denied ; but we
hardly like to exclude these masterly engravings from
the list of Albert Diirer's works. If he did not him-
self engrave the plates he must have watched over
the artists to whom he entrusted them with untiring
solicitude, for they never worked better than when
interpreting the designs of Germany's greatest painter.
Lucas Cranach, born in Saxony about the same
time as Albert Diirer, was not uninfluenced by the
example of his contemporary. His style, however, is
very different ; he cared less for beauty and finish
than the master of Nuremberg. The engravers he
employed for it is very doubtful whether he himself
used the graving tool worked in a more picturesque
though less correct style than those who followed
Diirer, and the beauty of the designs at which they
worked were also of a less exalted type. Lucas
Cranach was an intimate friend of Luther, and enthu-
siastically adopted the principles of the Reformation.
He painted portraits of Luther and his wife, of Melanc-
thon, and Frederick the Wise ; he placed his talent at
the service of the new religion, and illustrated with
engravings the outspoken pamphlets of the Reformer.
142 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
In his works we meet with many attacks on the
papacy. He was full of zeal for the new religion, and
his crude way of treating Biblical subjects proves how
prejudiced he was, and that art was not his only
occupation. The wood-engravers who reproduced his
designs aimed at an exact copy, they avoided cross-
hatchings, and simplified their work as much as pos-
sible ; indeed they sacrificed most unselfishly their
own originality to that of their master.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century a new
impulse was given to wood-engraving. The Emperor
Maximilian entrusted to the best artists of Germany
four works which were to immortalise his glory, and
in the composition of which he himself took a part.
' The Wise King ' (' Der Weisse Kcenig ') contains a
number of woodcuts designed by Hans Burgmair,
and engraved by several artists of different ability.
The ' Theuerdanck/ a moral and allegorical poem by
the Emperor Maximilian and his secretary, Melchior
Pfintzing, is illustrated by engravings, the designs of
which are attributed to Hans Schauflein. The most
important of these works, and that which most con-
tributed to the sovereign's glory, was almost entirely
confided to Hans Burgmair, who proved himself
worthy of his great commission. To him we are also
indebted for the male and female ' Saints of the
Imperial Family/ which are equal in beauty and im-
portance to the engravings mentioned above. The
death of Maximilian interrupted these noble works,
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 143
various difficulties prevented their immediate publica-
tion, and for many years only rare specimens were
known of the ' Triumph of Maximilian/ and of the
'Saints of the Imperial Family.' Later, a lucky acci-
dent led to the discovery of the original blocks, which
had happily not been entirely destroyed by worms.
This discovery was followed by another. At the back
of the original engravings the names of the engravers
were found. This was most fortunate. Thanks to
these inscriptions, we can name the skilful artists who
interpreted the designs of the masters employed by
Maximilian. They were Jeremiah Resch, Jan of Bonn,
Cornelius Liefrinck, Wilhelm Liefrinck, Alexis Lindt,
Josse of Negker, Vincent Pfarkecher, James Rupp,
Jan Taberith, Hans Franck, and Saint - German.
These well-authenticated names of engravers of the
sixteenth century are of assistance even now in the
deciphering of monograms, and they throw a light on
the eventful history of the origin of engraving in
Germany.
Hans Baldung Grim was born in Swabia in 1475,
and died at Strasburg in 1552. He worked under
Albert Diirer. Jackson tells us, in his 'Treatise on
Wood-Engraving/ that the pupil's reverence for his
master was so great that he preserved a lock of
Diirer's hair as a precious relic all his life. This re-
spect was still more evident in the designs he caused
to be engraved. His style much resembled Diirer's,
but it was exaggerated ; and Grim seems to have had
144 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
an unfortunate affection for ugliness when left to his
own devices ; he invented stunted figures, grinning
heads, and unnatural movements, which were only too
literally rendered by his engravers. Baldung Griin
was a painter and a designer, but his pictures are not
now highly valued, although his master thought well
enough of them to offer one to Joachim Patenier.
They are confounded at present amongst the innume-
rable anonymous paintings brought to light by the
researches of enthusiasts.
Hans Ulrich Vaechtlein, also known by the name
of the ' Master of the Crossed Staves/ or of the ' Pil-
grim,' worked about the same time as Baldung Griin.
The date of his birth is unknown, but M. Loedel, who
has devoted much study to this artist, thinks his life
was spent at Strasburg. A skilful and well-improved
artist, he is in Germany considered the inventor of
engraving en camaleu. His valuable and rare plates
are remarkable for the skill of their execution, and for
an exactness of design which is less exclusively Teu-
tonic in style than that of most of his contemporaries.
Eleven of his works are known which show that he
was not indifferent to Albert Durer's works, but they
are famous rather for cleverness of style than for
inventive power.
We have not nearly exhausted the list of German
wood-engravers. In addition to anonymous artists,
and those known only by their monograms, there are
many who merit notice. It is true that among trios*,
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 145
we are about to name, Jost Amman, Henry Alde-
grever, Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Sebald Beham,
Virgilius Solis, or Daniel Hoffper did more as copper-
plate than as wood engravers, and, as we shall have to
allude to them later, we will now close our notice of
German wood-engravers. We must, however, pause
for one moment at Bale, where a great master was
born, and where also numerous very clever wood-
engravers exercised their craft.
Urs Graf, who worked at the beginning of the six-
teenth century, died at Bale in 1530. He designed a
great number of vignettes for wood-engravers which
were of no great imagination or refinement. He was
slightly influenced by Martin Schongauer, whose
school he attended for a time, but he did not care
enough for grandeur of style, and always copied that
master's feeblest works. He is almost the only known
artist of the numbers who were born at Bale and pub-
lished their works in that city, but he took no part in
the revival of art which was going on under his eyes,
and which was, so to speak, completed by Hans
Holbein the younger.
It is generally believed that Hans Holbein was
born at Bale about 1498. He was fortunate enough
to have a wood-engraver beside him who reproduced
almost all his works, and spread abroad his fame. Both
as a painter and designer Holbein has left a great
name. For a long time the numerous engravings on
tc?cle-pages, head-lines, and tail-pieces in books printed
L
146 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
at Bale were supposed to have been designed and
engraved by Hans Holbein. A monogram of * H. L.'
somewhat puzzled the critics, but it would have been
passed over had not an unexpected circumstance re-
vealed to the clear-sighted an alphabet generally
attributed to Holbein, with this remark accompany-
ing it : ' Hans Lutzelburger, Formschneider, genant
Franck/ which gave the honour which was his due to
Hans Lutzelburger, the real author. Although this
artist succeeded better with Holbein's designs than
any others, he did not confine himself to them. He
was called by the Abbe Zani "the prince of wood-
engravers." Mariette, so good a judge of engraving,
says, in his manuscript notes, that it is impossible to
admire sufficiently the delicacy of his work and the
fineness and spirit of his touch. " I think," he says,
" that Holbein's designs, which were not too well
finished, needed the completeness given to them by
this artist, who deserves the esteem in which he is
held by the publisher of Lyons. His name, which
deserves to be transmitted to posterity, remains in~
oblivion, but his initials, H. L., are seen on the lower
part of a bed on which reclines a young woman at the
point of death." This name, unknown to the scholar
Mariette, is no longer a mystery. Hans Lutzelburger
is certainly the author of the * Dance of Death ' (1538),
and of ' The Old and New Testament ' (' Icones Histo-
riarum Veteris Testamenti ' ; Lyons ; Jean Frellon ;
1547). His powerful and facile graver rendered these
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY.
147
compositions by Holbein with extreme delicacy. They
are small if the size be measured, but large and grand
in conception and thought. Certain of his subjects
which might be contained within the surface of a die,
if executed on a large scale, would lose nothing of
their merit, so well balanced is the general composi-
Fig. 15. Engraved from Holbein's Dance of Death, by H. LUTZELBURGER.
tion, so careful and accurate the design of the figures.
The talent of Lutzelburger was shown in the power
with which he interpreted the master's designs on
wood in a very limited space by means of the skilful
disposition of his strokes. Many other artists repro-
duced Holbein's works, but none whose works we have
148 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
seen, with the success of Lutzelburger ; their style is
heavy and exaggerated, and they missed the power
and life of the master's compositions.
Engraving on Metal. If, since the Abbe Zani's
discovery, Germany's pretensions to the invention of
engraving on metal have been overthrown, we must not
deny the part the Germans took in the early history of
this art because we refuse to consider them its inven-
tors. About the same time that great works of art
appeared at Florence, in 1452, a number of engravings
were published on the other side of the Rhine. Many
of the anonymous plates brought out by the German
school appear, by the roughness of the drawing and
imperfectness of execution, to be of a very ancient
date. After examining these specimens of an art in
its infancy we do not hesitate to assert, though we
can give no formal reasons, that the means of taking
impressions on paper from engraved metal was dis-
covered simultaneously in Italy and Germany. Italy,
as having produced the first work of genius by means
of Maso Finiguerra, must take the precedence ; but
Germany followed closely in her steps, and soon gave
birth to an artist of great talent, whose name, alas, is
unknown. He is generally called the " Master of
1466." Amongst the many anonymous artists who
preceded this engraver, M. Duchesne considers the
' Master of the Streamers ' to be the author of a few
plates which, though roughly drawn, are engraved in
a peculiar manner, and much sought for on account of
Fig. 16. Samson and the Lion. Engraving of the MASTER of 1466.
ENGRA VI NG IN GERM A NY. 151
their archaic style. The figures in this unknown
artist's works are covered with imperceptible strokes
which appear to have been obtained with a pointed
instrument, and not with a cutting one. The metal
must have been very soft ; it is rather fretted than
hollowed out. It does not appear to have been printed
from ; indeed, neither the metal nor the small quantity
of ink spread upon it could have borne much pressure-
There is one important fact in favour of our opinion
that impressions were obtained by friction ; there are
no marks made by the plate in any part of these
engravings, and we have seen some of the proofs by
this anonymous artist which are in a sufficiently per-
fect condition to have shown the marks of the edges
of the metal had they undergone much pressure.
From this we may conclude that the ' Master of the
Streamers ' (so named on account of the ribbons
covered with legends on all his figures) did not know
all the resources of his art, and may, therefore, be con-
sidered one of the earliest engravers of the German
school.
Another anonymous artist whose engravings, signed
E. S., with the date 1466 and 1467, are very nume-
rous, is justly called a Master. He was wonderfully
expert with the graver, and although the drawing of
his varied and well-conceived compositions is not
always correct, it is easy and expressive. 'The
Adoration of the Magi ' forcibly reminds us of one of
the justly admired miniatures of the preceding century.
152 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
The " Master of 1466 " made the limbs of his figures
too attenuated and thin, but when he had to design a
piece of jewelry, a paten, or a branch of ornamental
foliage, he was in his element and produced tasteful and
graceful compositions. He was a thoroughly Gothic
artist his ideal of beauty was different from ours,
different from that of the early Italians ; with him
grandeur of form and design were secondary to justice
of expression and simplicity of feeling. In this he
resembled the extraordinary artists too long depre-
ciated, who built Strasburg Cathedral, and other
superb monuments of the Middle Ages. Like them,
he understood the disposition of ornament, and he
treated the human figure with a simplicity not with-
out majesty. The heads, it is true, are too large, the
hands and feet too small, the folds of drapery too
irregular, recalling the wood carvings of his pre-
decessors ; but art requires something more than a
literal representation of reality, she requires to give
expression to an idea, to a sentiment, and from this
point of view the " Master of 1466 " deserves all
praise, for he was the first German engraver who
devoted his talent to rendering feeling and expression.
Martin Schongauer almost immediately followed
the " Master of 1466." He may be considered the
father of the German school, so great was his influence
over it. He is now justly famous ; but after being
honoured in his own age to such an extent, that un-
scrupulous publishers did not hesitate to place his name
Autotype.
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.
From the Engraving by Martin Schongauer.
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 153
under works by others to enhance their value in the
eyes of inexperienced amateurs. He was classed
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with
all his contemporaries, amongst those Gothic artists
in whom even well-informed historians recognised no
talent. To this unfortunate injustice is due the loss
of many paintings, which, not being sought for, as
their merits deserved, were damaged or destroyed.
And when at last modern Criticism, with better judg-
ment, turned to these leading masters, she was in a
dilemma, for the long despised authentic specimens of
early art, and important documents relating to their
authors, had disappeared ; so that we do not even
know when and where Martin Schongauer was born.
Aided by some signed and dated works, we think
we may consider 1420 about the time of his birth.
His family, natives of Strasburg, say he was born
there ; some authors, finding traces of his living at
Ulm, call that his birthplace ; but the greater number
agree in saying that he first saw the light at Colmar.
He certainly lived there for a long time, and produced
many paintings in the latter town ; and he died on the
day of the Purification, 1488, as proved by the certifi-
cate of burial in the registers of the parish of St.
Martin of Colmar, a fac-simile of which has been
recently published. Although we cannot write the
biography of Martin Schongauer, his authentic en-
gravings enable us justly to appreciate his genius.
He evidently knew and was influenced by the engrav-
154 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
ings of the "Master of 1466," but he was a more
skilful designer, and although the limbs of many of
his figures are out of proportion, some of the extremi-
ties being too small, and in others enormous feet sup-
Fig. 17. The Infant Jesus. Engraved by MARTIN SCHONGAUER.
porting small bodies, he invented and engraved some
very different compositions. One justly celebrated
engraving, ' The Bearing of the Cross/ was honoured
by Raphael's notice, and considered worthy of study
by him. ' The Temptation of St. Anthony/ copied,
ENGRA VING IN GERM A NY. 155
according to an old tradition, by Michael Angelo, and
' The Conversion of St. Paul/ are works unrivalled by
any of the German school. Besides these justly
famous engravings, Martin Schongauer produced
several excellent compositions. The face of the Virgin
in his ' Annunciation/ a work of small dimensions,
wears a sweet and tender expression which is almost
beautiful, and there is a grace about the head of the
celestial messenger, reminding us of the Milanese school.
In the ' Flight into Egypt/ Martin Schongauer's best
work, as we think, the Virgin clasping the divine
infant in her arms, is passing, riding on an ass, beneath
a palm-tree covered with angels, and St. Joseph is
gathering some dates from the tree. This ingenious
composition is remarkable for the evident joy with
which the Virgin embraces her Son, rescued from the
wrath of Herod and adored by angels. It was in such
touching subjects that all the Gothic artists excelled.
They had faith, and their faith determined, enlightened,
and ennobled their ambition. How many works bear
charming witness to this ! We might name many
engravings by Schongauer, as remarkable for feeling
as for successful execution : ' The Death of the
Virgin/ ' The Wise and Foolish Virgins/ ' The Sym-
bols of the Four Evangelists/ 'Jesus Christ crowning
the Virgin/ and others, are works of high excellence.
In them all the artfst's power of invention, his know-
ledge of drawing and skill in engraving, are clearly
manifested.
156 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
But the great German artist did not devote himself
entirely to exalted subjects, he also engraved some
homely scenes, such as the ' Departure for the Mar-
ket/ known up to the i/th century as the ' Uylen-
spiegel,' because it was like an engraving of that name
by Lucas of Leyden, and * The Peasants ' playing or
wrestling together. He gave brilliant proof also of
his powers as an inventor, and engraver in design
for jewelry or ornaments. It is the glory of Schon-
gauer, that surrounded as he was by artists absorbed
in their love of literal truth, he was able, in his artistic
compositions, to realize an ideal beauty of a noble and
elevated order. His right to the title of " Master of
German Art " is indisputable. His works were admired
by his successors, and influenced them strongly even
when they were not actually copying them.
We consider that the artists who came after Martin
Schongauer enjoy greater renown than they deserve.
Albert Glockenton has merely coarsely and inade-
quately reproduced the master's engravings, robbing
them of their exquisite simplicity and their graceful
charm. He also executed a few plates from designs
of his own, but they are without originality, and
although the drawing is correct the engraving is always
harsh. Israel Van Mecken owes his fame rather to
the quantity than the quality of the engravings bearing
his name. We are glad to suppose that the author of
these plates was as much a print-seller as an artist.
The style of more than one of these engravings is
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 157
earlier than its execution, and perhaps the plates
being dimmed by the first printings, were retouched in
Mecken's studio, and there received the name they bear.
All the engravings which were at all celebrated in
Van Mecken's time, were copied in his studio. The
'Paten' of the "Master of 1466," the ' Bearing of the
Cross, and the 'St. Anthony,' by Martin Schongauer,
' The Three Graces,' by Albert Durer, served as
models to his pupils ; their copies, however, were so
rough as to be of little value, they reproduced neither
the masterly boldness of the drawing, nor the skill of
the original engravings. In default of artistic power,
we own, however, that some of the rarer works pro-
duced in Van Mecken's studio, are valuable on account
of the interesting information they contain on the
habits of life, and the costumes of that period. Van
Mecken was far more successful with home scenes
than when copying engravings by great masters. He
interpreted nature and copied living figures with un-
deniable talent, and one well-known engraving, ' The
Concert,' shows what he could do in this secondary
style.
Franz Van Bocholt, another copyist of Schongauer,
spent his life in inventing and engraving works which,
though they resembled, did not equal the compositions
of the master he imitated. He shows real genius in
the ' Virgin at the Foot of the Cross,' which is his
best work. The Virgin's face is full of genuine suffer-
ing, and the draperies are arranged with fair enough
1 58 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
taste. An artist called Mair, who signed his works in
full, appears to have followed Israel Van Mecken
rather than Martin Schongauer. The engravings we
know signed by him are of domestic scenes and cos-
tumes, more valuable to. the historian than to the
artist. The figures, in the dress of the fifteenth cen-
tury, are poor, and the bad drawing, partly disguised
by the draperies, is too evident in those parts which
are uncovered. Martin Zagel also professed great
admiration for Van Mecken. He had an incredible
love of ugliness, and produced a number of harsh and
inferior engravings, which were not all even original.
We do not meet with another true master in
Germany until the end of the fifteenth century. At
that time, however, an artist of Nuremberg arose whose
influence nearly equalled that of Schongauer and whose
fame is greater. Albert Diirer was the third of
eighteen children. His father established himself as
a goldsmith at Nuremberg in 1455 ; he could not
afford to give his son a thorough education, but he
tried to give him the love of work. Albert Diirer
learnt his father's trade and quickly surpassed his
teachers. But as soon as he was in a position to
study painting he left the goldsmith with whom he
had been working, and entered the studio of Michael
Wolgemuth, whose fame had already spread through
Germany. Anthony Koberger, the celebrated printer,
and Albert Diirer's godfather, probably knew of this
intention, for he published his ' Chronicles of Nurem-
ENGRA VI NG IN GERMANY. 159
berg ' about this time, and entrusted the supervision
of the engravings for this book to Wolgemuth. Natu-
rally, young Diirer was readily and kindly received by
his godfather's colleague, and when he had served his
apprenticeship he visited in succession the Low Coun-
tries and the north of Italy. The route he followed
is unknown, and we could not speak positively about
this trip, but for the evident proofs of his influence in
works of the schools of northern Italy and Flanders
from the beginning of the sixteenth century.
In 1494 Albert Diirer was summoned back to Nu-
remberg by his father, who had arranged a marriage
for him with Agnes Frey, the daughter of a mechanic
of the town. Report says, perhaps with exaggeration,
that this was not a happy marriage. There was
certainly incompatibility of temper between Albert
Diirer and his wife. He was open-hearted and gene-
rous, she was cold, selfish, and disagreeable. It was
impossible for two such uncongenial dispositions to be
happy together, and, therefore, on the death of his
father in 1502, after providing for his mother and his
brothers, Hans and Andrew, Durer left his native
town and directed his steps towards Venice, where he
was most cordially welcomed. He had scarcely ar-
rived before he received an order for a painting for
the 'Fondaco dei Tedeschi,' and Giovanni Bellini,
anxious to know so famous an artist, sent for him and
requested a picture, for which he was even willing to
pay, a pleasing announcement to Diirer, who often
160 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
complains in his letters of the parsimony of the Vene-
tians. This visit r to Venice and his constant excur-
sions to Bologna, formed the happiest time of his life.
Young, courted, loaded with honours, alone, and free,
he forgot for a time his petty domestic troubles.
At last, however, he was obliged to return to Nu-
remberg, and, fortunately, -he undertook a long piece
of work, which lessened his regret for Venice, with its
bright skies and refining recreations. Nuremberg,
too, appeared under a more favourable aspect to him
now. His great genius, as is often the case, being
first recognised by strangers, attracted the artists and
men of note of the city to his house. His friendship
and society were courted by the most distinguished
men of the country. The Emperor Maximilian, a
great patron of art, delighted to visit him and watch
him at work. He showed the greatest regard for him,
and wrote and thanked both him and his friend Perk-
heimer for the dedication of the beautiful series of
wood engravings which Diirer drew for his ' Triumph.'
After a long sojourn at Nuremberg, Albert Diirer was
again seized with a longing to travel. He set out,
but this time he took his wife and servant with him,
and went into the Low Countries, where he had before
been so heartily received. He has left a journal of
this journey, in which he records day by day the
honours rendered him, the visits he received and paid,
the works he produced, his expenses, his impressions,
and the facts which interested him.
ENGRA VI NG IN GERMANY. 161
But on a certain Friday in 1521, the report spread
to Antwerp that Luther had been taken prisoner, and
put to death. Albert Diirer immediately wrote a true
profession of faith, and in the form of a prayer pub-
lished his admiration for the bold Reformer. This
enthusiasm met with no approval in the Catholic
Netherlands. The Archduchess Margaret, who had
hitherto shown great favour to Diirer, became cold
and reserved towards him.
The news of the artist's disgrace quickly spread,
and the consequences to him were disastrous. People
shunned him ; those who had most admired his talent
gradually changed their minds, and turn-ed from him.
Fully aware of the sudden alteration of opinion,
Albert Diirer prepared to return to his native country,
when Christian II., King of Denmark, who had just
arrived at Antwerp, gave him an order for his portrait.
The painter undertook it, and for a moment hoped for
a return to favour, but at a dinner given by the king of
Denmark at Brussels, at which the Archduchess Mar-
garet and the Queen of Spain were present, the sove-
reigns avoided taking the slightest notice of him, and
he felt that there was nothing left for him to do but
to return to Nuremberg.
A few months after his return he lost his father-in-
law, Hans Frey, and two years later his mother-in-law.
Left alone with his wife, whose temper was still more
soured by adversity, he endeavoured to find in work
a peace which his home could not afford him. But
M
1 62 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
his powers were inferior to his will. On the 6th of
April, 1528, he expired. His funeral was magnificent
An epitaph, composed by his friend Pirckheimer, and
engraved on a brass plate, at first marked the spot in
the cemetery of St. John at Nuremberg, where Albert
Diirer reposes. Later, two inscriptions were substi-
tuted for it, one in Latin, placed there by the care of
Sandrart, and the other in German verse. They are
posterity's homage to the greatest artist Germany
ever produced.
Albert Diirer owes his great reputation to his many
paintings, and the knowledge of the human figure
shown in them ; but his engravings are perhaps even
more admired than his paintings. Had Albert Diirer
devoted himself entirely to painting, we should have
had to admire him on trust ; for his pictures, little
valued at first on account of the Gothic style, so much
disliked for two centuries, are now nearly all lost or
destroyed, and those which remain would not have
justified his contemporaries in calling him a master.
Happily, his great genius and his habitual tendencies
are seen in the engravings he signed and dated.
Albert Diirer cared more for truth than beauty ; he
drew a great variety of objects with scrupulous fidelity,
and instead of shrinking from human ugliness, he
ventured to employ his marvellous skill in engraving
an old woman with a swollen body, clumsy hands and
feet, and a hideous face, to whom he gave the name
of ' Nemesis ;' she is now inappropriately called ' La
Fig. 18. The Virgin and the Infant Jesus. Engraved by
ALBERT DURER.
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 165
Grande Fortune.' Diirer had not a true idea of
beauty. He knew nothing of the works of antiquity,
and had he studied them, it is probable he would have
compromised his own originality without gaining any-
thing in exchange. He was his own good model for
his figures of Christ. The head of the Son of God,
as interpreted by him, is manly and full of power ;
long hair shades a face betokening physical suffering
and inward peace ; thick eye-brows imply strength ;
the lines of the lofty forehead intellect, the deep-set
eyes thought and sorrow. The Virgin is a good
mother, watching her child with loving eyes, or press-
ing him tenderly to her breast ; sometimes she is more.
She is compassed about with majesty, and though her
features are not strictly beautiful, her attitude and
expression are full of true nobility. In the Madonna's
flowing robes Albert Diirer shows his great skill in
arranging draperies, and his command of all the mys-
teries of his art.
Albert Diirer is unrivalled as an engraver ; he drew
figures and moulded outlines with inimitable skill.
With a very fine graver he hollowed out the metal
with an infinite number of lines, which are admirably
suited to his designs. His justly celebrated original
engravings show no signs of fatigue, although they
required such slow, careful, and laborious work. ' Me-
lancholia* (a design we scarcely understand), 'The
Horse of Death/ 'The Nativity/ 'St. Hubert/ and
several small Madonnas, well suited to arouse alike
1 66 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
the zeal of Christian believers, and the admiration of
artists, are perhaps worthy of honour, rather on ac-
count of the great manual skill than the inventive
power displayed in them. Albert Diirer excelled all
goldsmiths in carving metal, and all artists in his skill
as a designer, and in his knowledge of engraving.
All Albert Diirer's landscapes, intersected and en-
livened by rivers and full of fortified castles and tur-
reted houses, are engraved with a pleasing fineness of
execution. It is true that the aerial perspective is not
very good, but the incorrectness of the relative propor-
tions is in a great measure atoned for by the delicate
finish of the distances. Albert Diirer excelled in
every style. His engraved portraits show his great
knowledge of physiognomy, his execution is always
good, and his works are excellent models for his suc-
cessors, who have only to yield to his influence to be
successful.
Albert Altdorfer lived at Ratisbon ; yet he was
entirely under the influence of Albert Diirer, and
tried to imitate his style. He is supposed to have
introduced into Germany the fashion of engraving in
miniature a practice which gained for the German
engravers who adopted it the title of petits maitres.
Following Diirer's example, most of these petits
maitres went to Italy, where they gained a certain
beauty of style hitherto unknown in their country.
Altdorfer, however, who copied many of Marc- An-
tonio's engravings, and palpably borrowed from them
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 167
in his own compositions, did not gain anything either
by his reproductions or his thefts. His drawing
remains inferior, without character or expression ; his
heads are ugly, and sometimes grotesque ; his en-
graving, which is delicate and often skilful, is only of
real interest when he employs himself in goldsmith's
work or ornaments. These German petits maitres
were all jewellers ; and as they always looked at nature
in miniature, it is only as workers in gold that they
repay study.
Bartholomew Beham felt the expediency of con-
fining himself to this kind of work, and executed
with rare delicacy, ' The Virgin Nursing the Infant
Jesus/ ' Cleopatra/ ' Children Lying by Deaths'
Heads/ and twenty other engravings, in which the
skilful and careful work makes up for some unfor-
tunate errors of taste, which are to be regretted in an
artist of talent Two portraits of Charles V. and
Ferdinand L, engraved in 1531, are Bartholomew
Beham's principal works ; and they are so true to
nature, that they may rank among the best produc-
tions of the German school. Hans-Sebald Beham, like
his uncle and master, Bartholomew Beham, worked at
Nuremberg. He scrupulously followed the lessons
he received ; and his engravings differ so little from
those of his master, that it would be difficult to dis-
tinguish them from each other, but for the initials
beneath them. Neither of them shrank from ugli-
ness, and both were equally skilled in all the resources
1 68 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
of the graver, which enabled them to cut into the
copper with a rare dexterity. Hans-Sebald Beham
produced more works than his uncle. Unfortunately
he sometimes exceeded the bounds of propriety, and
some of his engravings gained for their author the
reputation of a debauchee and drunkard, which is
contradicted, however, by the rest of his works. No-
thing but constant application and hard work could
have enabled him to produce so many engravings ;
and we cannot therefore believe that a man who
produced so many works with so much patience and
talent could have passed his life in public-houses.
We will therefore erase from the history of art this
imputation which Sandrart has cast on Hans-Sebald
Beham ; we prefer to consider him, what he in reality
was, an earnest and hard-working man, who made the
mistake cf sometimes turning aside to represent
scenes which were not condemned in his day as they
are in ours.
James Binck, who was born at Cologne, and died
at Konigsburg about 1 560, copied from all the great
masters Marc- Antonio, Albert Diirer, Martin Schon-
gauer, and Hans-Sebald Beham ; and succeeded in
fairly imitating the style of each. With Albert Diirer
and Marc-Antonio his engraving is soft, with Beham
it is father heavy.
When engraving his own original compositions, he
is scarcely the same artist. The close and clear-cut
strokes of his work, when he is reproducing copies
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 169
by the great masters, is replaced by thin and widely-
distanced lines, which scarcely suffice to mark the
outlines. Binck's style of figures is not so ugly as
that of most of his contemporaries. He spent two
years in Italy (1529 and 1530), and was not unin-
fluenced by the beauty he was able to study there.
If George Pencz had engraved nothing but ' Jesus
surrounded by Little Children,' he would have ranked
high among these petits maitres. In this well-
arranged composition, the mothers and children are
dressed in the German style of the sixteenth century ;
and it is therefore not only a really artistic work, but
also an authentic record of the costumes of the period.
The same may be said of his other numerous works.
His figures are generally represented in the costume
of that time, and this custom, which has in our day
brought upon it so much criticism, is more trustworthy
evidence on this vexed question than the false histo-
rical records in favour during the following centuries.
If Italy influenced George Pencz, it was northern
Italy ; Venice and her painters pleased him better
than Rome and the pupils of Raphael, and he doubt-
less had Giovanni Bellini, Titian, and Giorgione in his
mind when designing some of the figures of his com-
positions. It is true that he chiefly looked at the
smaller and more minute side of nature a peculiarity
of many goldsmiths who, even when most talented,
diminished not only the size, but also the character,
of all they represented.
i;o WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Among the best of petits maitres who faintly
reflected Diirer's style, Henry Aldegrever must take
a place. He was born in Westphalia in 1502, and
died about 1555 ; he passed the greater part of his
life at Nuremberg with Dtirer's engravings constantly
before him. He caught his style in a great measure,
especially in the pose of his heads. Aldegrever tried
every style, but was most successful when he merely
represented the people of his time ; no invention was
needed in them, and his copies are admirable ; he gets
rid of his usual exaggeration, or the undue length of
his figures is disguised by the draperies, which do not
hang in such abrupt folds as in designs of his own
invention. He surpassed all competitors in the orna-
ments and figures with which he embellished the
sheaths of knives and daggers, showing far more skill
and imaginative power in them than in works with
the human figure for its principal object.
Some few artists practised etching at the time when
line-engraving was justly rising to such distinction in
Germany. Albert Durer set the example ; but he
did not succeed so well with it as with his other works.
His style and manner were not much copied. This
mode of engraving seems not to have suited the
Germans ; they preferred a less expeditious process,
which would allow them to mature their conceptions
before giving expression to them. The Hopffers
David, Jerome, and Lambert had little taste for
drawing, and their etching shows but little variety.
Fig. 19. German Costume. H. ALDEGREVER.
^
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 173
It would not be easy to explain the esteem in which
their works are held, for the copies of their prede-
cessors' compositions are valueless on account of their
inexactitude. Hans-Sebald Lautensack and Augus-
tine Hirschvogel, both painters from Nuremberg, also
left a number of etchings ; but they do no more
to raise our opinion of German etchers than those
by the Hopffers. Although drawn with a fine and
incisive needle, these small landscapes by Lauten-
sack do not equal his portraits in line-engraving.
The latter are remarkable for much character
and for the truth of the physiognomy ; they even
excel his portrait of George Rockenbach, which is
merely etched. Neither do Augustine Hirschvogel's
plates raise our opinion of etching in Germany,
although they may be of value to collectors of
curiosities. It was scarcely worth while to notice
these artists, as they left no good specimens of their
work.
Line-engraving declined when the school founded
by Albert Diirer began to lose its renown. The taste
for small things, such as ornaments and jewelry, sur-
vived, but the art was doomed. It had lost much that
it had once possessed in the hands of the skilful en-
gravers we have named. The period of originality
had gone by, and we find none but second-rate artists,
who had lost their own individuality in imitating their
predecessors.
Virgilius Solis was born at Nuremberg in 1514, and
174 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
died in the same town in 1570. Like the petits
maitres, he attempted to perpetuate the style of his
predecessors ; but he was very inferior to them. He
could scarcely draw a life-like figure if he did not
copy it. His work is, meagre, and without softness
or charm ; among his numerous works a few prettily
decorated pieces of jewelry are alone worthy of
notice. Virgilius Solis and Jost Amman engraved a
series of portraits of the kings of France, which added
nothing to their reputation. Jost Amman, who sup-
plied numerous designs to wood-engravers, has left a
number of fine and delicate, but monotonous, etchings.
The designs are small and confused. One of Amman's
best works of this kind is a portrait of Gaspard de
Coligny, surrounded with ornaments and small scenes
relating to his life. His own wood-engravings, and
those he caused to be executed after his designs, are,
however, far superior to any of his etchings ; and
the series of costumes published in his name show
little knowledge, but a varied and fertile imagina-
tion, and contribute more to his fame than all his
etchings.
Theodore de Bry also belongs to this group of late-
coming imitators of the petits mattres. He was
born at Liege in 1528, and established himself at an
early age at Frankfurt, where he died in 1 598. He
was one of the most industrious artists of the sixteenth
century. His works prove his great predilection for
jewelry. He was aided in his large publications, such
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 175
as ' The Long and Short Voyages/ by his sons, espe-
cially by John, who often showed himself equal to his
father. But he appears to us to have succeeded best
with small subjects in which thousands of small figures
are represented, or when he engraved ornaments,
which betoken a decided style and a vivid imagination.
In this he resembled those engravers who rivalled
goldsmiths in their delicate handling and love of small
dimensions. Theodore de Bry closes the list of
German engravers who worked in miniature, and
aspired to no style and to no ideal.
At the end of the sixteenth century German art
took a new direction ; or. to be more exact, it lost all
its originality. Native engravers were monopolised
by publishers, who were more anxious that they
should work much than well. Matthew Merian, the
author of an immense number of views of towns ;
the Kilian family, all engravers of portraits ; Dominic
Gustos, a Fleming naturalized at Augsburg ; Martin
Greuter, a great admirer of allegorical subjects and
armorial bearings ; the Hai'ds, who employed mezzo-
tint engraving ; and many others, are only worthy of
remembrance in the history of art on account of their
portraits of distinguished persons, and their copies of
monuments and compositions which are now destroyed.
Many of their engravings are skilfully executed, that
is all. The Germans of the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries all yielded to the same temptation,
and thought too much of fine strokes. They de-
WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
lighted, above all things, in showing off their skill of
execution, and forgot that knowledge of drawing is
indispensable to a good engraving.
Wenceslas Hollar was an exception to this. In his
frequent and long journeys he was able to compare
Multer Bafilienfir . 3\9 r
Fig. 20. A Lady of Bale. W HOLLAR.
rival schools, and all his engravings are so entirely
original that not one betrays the influence of his
master, Matthew Merian. Hollar's execution is vivid
and harmonious, Merian's cold and dull. The pupil
UHI7IRSITY
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 177
excelled in copying the human face, he rendered
admirably the transparency of glass, the brilliancy of
metals, the hair or feathers of animals, and the gloss
of textile fabrics. But he required a good model
before him, and when he was without one his en-
gravings were decidedly inferior.
Wendel Dieterlin, unlike Hollar who travelled in-
cessantly, never left Alsace. He was not content with
being a skilful architect and a celebrated painter, he
also published, in a collection which is now highly
valued, a number of specimens of decorative art of a
most original style. Highly gifted and full of en-
thusiasm he was daunted by nothing ; with admirable
spirit he invented forms of the greatest variety, and,
had he not imprudently introduced figures of question-
able taste into these ornaments, he might have taken
honourable rank among the architectural engravers
of the Renaissance. His adventurous needle, while
remaining entirely under his control, went boldly to
work on the copper, producing ingenious and .facile
strokes, and his wildest efforts were often crowned
with unexpected success.
After these artists, true art appears to have become
extinct in Germany. J.-E. Ridinger, Ch. Dietrich,
.Ch.-B. Rode and Weirotter were painters of inferior
talent, who occasionally used the needle, but with
very little success. Hans-Elias Ridinger owes the
little reputation he has rather to his hunting-pieces
and scenes from animal life, than to the talent of his
N
i;8 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
engravings. Dietrich struggled hard, but without
avail, to recall Raphael's style, but he did not impose
even on the most ignorant ; his engraving was clumsy,
his drawing bad, and he knew nothing of chiaroscuro.
Christian-Bernard Rode, born at Berlin in 1725, jour-
neyed a great deal ; but gained nothing by his travels ;
his engravings are pretentious and very careless ;
there is no real thought in his pompous composi-
tions, they have neither order, taste, nor knowledge of
effect. The landscapes of Francis Edmund Weirotter
are of scarcely any interest, and to complete our
review of engravers of the German school we must
cross the Rhine and go to Paris, where artists appear
to have assembled to learn from French masters
the secrets of an art which their own country had
lost.
John George Wille and his friend George Frederick
Schmidt went to France at an early age, and there
began to study engraving. They remained in that
country and earned their living by working with the
publisher Odieuvre. Wille soon out-distanced his
competitors by his ease of execution. Hyacinthe
Rigaud soon saw some of his engravings, and at once
recognised their merits ; he aided the young artist by
introducing him to amateurs and enabling him to
copy important works, and the young German's repu-
tation was soon greater than that of any French
engraver of his time. Every distinguished visitor to
Paris who cared at all for art, solicited an introduction
ENGRA VING IN GERMANY. 179
to him, and each one justly acknowledged the great-
ness of his genius and the refinement of his taste ;
for John George Wille possessed a large collection of
art objects and pictures, and many of the latter are
reproduced in his engravings. The chief beauty of his
best works is their brilliant and careful execution ;
none knew better than he how to vary his work to
suit the object represented. This perfect execution
has its drawbacks. It gives the engraving a decidedly
metallic appearance, and we are distracted by the
beauty of the details when we would fain admire the
work as a whole. The artist thinks more of his own
fame than that of his model ; and in this he has
mistaken his aim ; for should not an engraver identify
himself entirely with his original and devote his whole
energy to re-producing faithfully the work of the
painter he has chosen ?
George Frederick Schmidt began life with his in-
timate friend and fellow-countryman Wille. They
came to Paris together, and their early struggles were
the same. Schmidt found a friend in Nicholas Lan-
cret, as Wille had in Hyacinthe Rigaud. Schmidt
was introduced to the engraver Larmessin and pre-
pared his plates for him, employing his few moments
of leisure in engraving small portraits for the publisher
Odieuvre, which, if they added little to his reputation,
at least helped to earn him a living. He soon thought
of setting up for himself, and Hyacinthe ^Rigaud, who
had seen some of Schmidt's works, again proved his
i8o WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
sagacity by entrusting to the young artist a portrait of
the Count of Evreux, which he had finished. He was
completely satisfied with the result. This was most
fortunate for Schmidt, as Rigaud, convinced of his
powers, gave him, with the prelate's consent, the por-
trait of St. Albin, archbishop of Cambray, to copy,
and the cordial and well-deserved reception of this
beautiful engraving completely established its author's
fame. From this time (1/42) Schmidt brought out
engravings every year, all testifying to his knowledge
and industry.
His style of engraving somewhat resembled that of
Wille. He generally used the graver only, and, in
addition to ease of execution, the beauty of his pro-
ductions is enhanced by his knowledge of colouring.
Sometimes, unfortunately, his cleverness led him also
astray, and he did not copy with sufficient care the
painting he was rendering. He was less successful
in etching. Although some of his portraits in this
style fetch a high price at sales, we cannot admire
them much. Etching needs great freedom of execu-
tion ; and in this branch of art Schmidt did not
excel. He seems to have entered with his needle into
a hopeless competition with the graver.
In any case J. G. Wille and G. Fr. Schmidt, who
went to study French art, themselves greatly in-
fluenced it. Their fame exceeded that of their fellow-
students. Bervic, the master of modern French en-
graving, studied diligently under the judicious direction
ENGRA VI NG IN GERMANY. 181
of J. G. Wille, and afterwards faithfully transmitted to
his own pupils the lessons he had himself received.
After these self-exiled masters, Germany can
proudly name several artists who had the restoration
of engraving in their native country much at heart.
Christian Frederick Miiller gained well-merited dis-
tinction by his engraving after the ' Madonna di San
Sisto.' Joseph Keller in his engraving after Raphael's
celebrated cartoon of ( The Dispute on the Sacra-
ment/ and other works, has shown his power of faith-
fully rendering the grandeur of the most exalted
compositions. Finally James Felsing, who did not
aspire to works of equal difficulty, also gave proof of
the practical skill he had acquired by his studies of
the works of his predecessors.
1 82 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
CHAPTER VI.
ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND.
Engraving on Wood W. Caxton The Influence of Foreign
Masters on English Art Its Originality in the Eighteenth
Century, and its Influence on our Age.
IN England there are schools both of painting and
engraving. They are worthy of careful study,
whatever those may think who have never crossed the
Channel. They were established rather late, but are
now more than a century old, and in this short time
they have reached the same excellence as the schools
in neighbouring countries ; if England has attracted
to her shores foreign masters such as Holbein, Van-
dyck, Petitot, Largilliere and others, she has profited
by their examples, and the French, who were at one
time aided in the same manner by the Italians, should
be the last to reproach her with this. Besides, in
modern times, the English school has had a great
influence upon the French, which it would be uncandid
to deny. We allude to the romantic movement which
replaced the principles of David (still followed by
some few Frenchmen) by others of a very different
kind. However, we have now to consider engraving
only, and we must begin by stating that the English
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 183
were at first less enthusiastic than the French about
the new discovery, although they were equally ready
to avail themselves of it. This coldness may be
accounted for by the strictness of their religion, which
excluded paintings from their churches and engravings
from their prayer-books ; whereas the earliest wood-
cuts of Italy, Germany, France, and the Low Coun-
tries appeared in devotional works.
It is strange that the earliest book printed by the
first English printer, William Caxton, is in French,
and it is also the first printed in that language.
Its title is, ' Cy commence le volume intitule le
recueil des hystoires de Troyes compose par vene-
rable homme Raoul le feure pretre chappellain de mon
tres-redoubt seigneur Monseigneur le due Philippe
de Bourgongne en 1'an de grace mil cccc Ixiiii.' Un-
fortunately, in England as in other countries, en-
graving had at first no individual character. William
Caxton seldom illustrated his books with engravings,
and when he did indulge in them he could only
employ awkward carvers of images ; and on this
account his plates are of no artistic value. The second
edition (but without date) of the first book printed in
England in 1471 ('The Game and Playe of the
Chesse'), contains representations of a player at a
chess-board, a king, two knights, and a bishop, but
there is nothing to betray their origin or nationality
except the text which surrounds them. It is the
same with another book not quite so rare, ' Thymage,
1 84 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
or Mirrour of the World/ 1481. The few engravings
in it represent a professor teaching grammar, or a
logician lecturing his pupils from his chair, they are
as devoid of art as the preceding ones, a decisive
proof of the small skill of the early English en-
gravers. In an edition of ^Esop's Fables (' The Subtyl
Hystoryes and Fables of Esope') published three
years later, in 1484, by Caxton, we find some en-
gravings copied from preceding Latin and French
editions, which would seem to confirm our opinion of
the inferiority of other nations to ourselves, if any
comparison be possible between works of no talent
and possessing archaeological interest only.
There were certainly many other books containing
woodcuts published in England in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, but it would not be worth while
to detain the reader by mentioning them. We will
merely state that English authors asserted the merits
of their own engravings, and took part in the discus-
sion on the origin of the invention, emphatically repu-
diating the claims of all competitors by the assertion
that engraving is not a modern invention at all,
because, according to a certain verse in Genesis, Tubal
Cain invented it.* The argument is original, but it
* The text of Genesis upon which the authors who fix 2975
B.C. as about the date of the invention of engraving rely, is as
follows : " And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor
of every artificer in brass and iron : and the sister of Tubal-
. cain was Naamah." Gen. iv. 22.
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 185
would be waste of time to refute it. Instead of going
so far back, we will commence our study when English
engraving acquired an individual character and was
practised by men of talent.
We begin with John Payne, who was born in
London in 1606, and died in the same place in 1648.
He did not form a school or at once rise to eminence,
but his engravings, executed with the graver alone,
are superior to those of his predecessors. He was a
pupil of Simon de Passe, a Flemish artist, who spent
many years in England. John Payne executed, some-
what harshly, vignettes, ornaments, and portraits,
succeeding better, like most of his fellow-countrymen,
with the human face than with anything else. William
Faithorne was born in 1620, about the same time as
John Payne, and died in 1691. He raised engraving
in England to a high standard of excellence. His
biography is interesting. A pupil of Peack, an Eng-
lish painter, Faithorne, like his master, embraced
the cause of Charles I. ; was made prisoner on the
fall of that monarch and shut up at Aldersgate. He
employed the leisure moments of his captivity in
engraving, and it was in prison that he executed the
portrait of the Duke of Buckingham. The reputation
of his early works, and the influence of his friends,
obtained him his liberty. But on leaving prison he
refused to swear allegiance to Cromwell, and was
therefore banished from his country. He came to
France and continued his studies, first with Philip of
1 86 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Champagne and then with Robert Nanteuil, whose
lessons were of great service to him. He soon became
famous, and when events allowed of his return to
England in 1650, he was cordially welcomed by his
fellow-countrymen on account of his talent. Like his
friend and master, Nanteuil, he drew portraits in three
shades with perfect success, and they soon became
much in vogue. Fortunately, he did not give up
engraving, and he was most apt in seizing the expres-
sion of the physiognomy, as seen in the numerous
engravings and drawings he has left. It would be
impossible to excel his interesting and life-like por-
traits. Formed by the lessons he received from Nan-
teuil, and imbued with his principles, he sometimes
equalled him, but never imitated him so much as to
lose his own originality. Nanteuil's portraits betoken
a profound knowledge, and at the same time, are in
the self-contained and reserved style peculiar to the
French school ; whilst Faithorne's engravings after
Vandyck or his admirers, or designed by the artist
himself, show the influence which the illustrious pupil
of Rubens exercised on the rising school, and are
remarkable for a power of colouring to which the
French engraver never aspired. The portraits of
R. Bayfeild, William Paston, William Sanderson, and
others, fully justify the esteem in which the works of
William Faithorne, surnamed the Elder, are held.
His other engravings are not equally clever. 'The
Holy Family/ after Simon Vouet, or 'The Virgin
Fig 21. Portrait of R. Bay feild. Engraved. by WILLIAM FAITHORNE.
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 189
caressing the Infant Jesus,' after Laurent de la Hyre,
which slightly recall the style of Couvay and of
Mellan, without all their talent, would not alone
entitle Faithorne to very high rank.
Many artists endeavoured to follow the manner of
William Faithorne, but not one had sufficient origin-
ality to merit a place in our review of the English
school. They were all inferior. Their fellow-country-
men had so poor an opinion of them that they sent
across the Channel whenever they wished to have a
valuable work engraved. Nicolas Dorigny was sent
for from France to reproduce on copper Raphael's
famous cartoons, preserved at Hampton Court ;*
Baron copied the paintings of Rubens and Van-
dyck in English collections, and it was not until the
eighteenth century that we find artists in England
sufficiently skilful with the graver to reproduce the
best works of art which had accumulated in their
country.
We must not suppose that there were no engravers
in England during this long period. Wenceslas
Hollar, a German established in London, gave a
praiseworthy impulse to etching. Again, Prince
Rupert introduced into the United Kingdom the
style of engraving called mezzotint or the English
style, so successfully have English artists adopted it.
We must speak more particularly of these two
processes later, now we are concerned merely with
* Now in the South Kensington Museum.
WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
line engraving and we must again allude to French
influence.
Robert Strange, born in 1723, died in London in
1795. When quite young he crossed the Channel
and went to study in Paris with Philip Lebas, who
taught him the first elements of engraving. But
Robert Strange soon surpassed his master in the
handling of his tools, and left the studio in which his
talent had been developed to go to Italy and study the
great masters. He spent five years in that country,
working with enthusiasm at paintings by Raphael,
Titian, Correggio, Guido, and Carlo Maratti. He did
not return to establish himself in London until his
studies were so complete that he imagined he had
nothing more to learn. Unfortunately he overrated
the advantages of his ease of execution, and his en-
gravings show insufficient knowledge of drawing.
Few artists excelled Strange in engraving ; his work
is pleasing and well shaded, his strokes are admirably
managed, rounding off the outlines and crossing each
other without monotony or confusion. There are no
signs of weakness or weariness in any engraving of
his ; all show thorough and profound knowledge of
the resources of his art. What a pity that all this
should be marred by imperfection of drawing ! The
artist with all his intelligence thought more of giving
the exact appearance of the designs before him than
of interpreting their character and style.
William Woollett, also born in England, and a
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 191
pupil of John Finney, directed his attention to land-
scape. He engraved figures also, and some important
compositions, such as ' The Battle of the Hogue,' and
the ' Death of General Wolfe/ but he never succeeded
better than in his reproductions of pictures by Claude
Lorraine, Wilson, or Pillement The beautiful grada-
tions and fine proportions of his plates are unsurpassed ;
no predecessor obtained such varied results by the aid
of the graver alone. The distant horizons, lit up by
a last ray from the setting sun, are accurately designed,
and are perfectly distinct although so far away. They
diminish gradually whilst the trees and grass of the
foregrounds stand out in bold relief. The latter are
cut with a very large graver which deeply penetrates
the copper, leaving large grooves far apart from each
other into which the ink is plentifully absorbed.
Claude, whose works, as is well known, have always
been highly prized in England, inspired Woollett's
best engravings. The engraver was irresistibly at-
tracted by the grand and masterly disposition of the
forms, the deep infinite horizons, and the beautiful
scenery of the landscapes, and he succeeded in in-
terpreting the great qualities of the painter. Claude
Lorraine was never better understood than by Wool-
lett, and he so thoroughly identified himself with his
model, that his engravings are rivalled by none but
the superb etchings from the great landscape painter's
own hand.
Francis Vivares, though born in France near Mont-
192 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
pellier, may be included in the English school, because
he spent the greater part of his life in England, and
learnt his art there. He rendered Claude. Lorraine's
works with almost as much skill as Woollett. He
too confined himself almost entirely to landscapes of a
particular style by Lorraine, Caspar Poussin, or Patel.
His plastic style of work admirably suited grand
compositions such as theirs. The judiciously distri-
buted light, affecting each object differently, in which
these masters delighted, is transmitted to copper with
remarkable accuracy. It would appear impossible for
art to render the sun, especially with no resources at
its command but black ink and white paper, and
yet his rays seem to inundate these engravings by
Vivares. Like the master from whom he took his
inspiration, the engraver thoroughly understood the
laws of light and shadow. A man of ingenuity and
resource, he arranged his shadows so that those
parts meant to be in the direct rays of the sun were
scarcely covered by light strokes, and by being placed
in juxtaposition with condensed lines were thrown up
with extraordinary brilliancy by the shadows which
surrounded them.
William Wynne Ryland, born in London in 1732,
learnt engraving with Ravenet, a French artist
established in England. He afterwards- went to
France, entered the studio of Boucher, where he
etched two landscapes after that -master, with some
ability. He then took lessons for a time from James
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 193
Philip Lebas, and returned to his native land after
five years' absence. Unfortunately, on his return to
England, he neither profited by what he had learnt in
France, nor by the examples set before him, but was
attracted by a new style introduced by an Italian
engraver, Francesco Bartolozzi, which consisted in imi-
tating with the graver the effect produced on paper
with a pencil. In the hands of a good draughtsman
this process could, and did, accomplish much ; but
Ryland had not talent enough to turn it to good
account ; and then he generally worked at the vulgar
creations of Angelica Kauffmann, thereby gradually
losing the position he had gained by his first works.
An accidental circumstance, however, suddenly com-
pelled him to give up engraving. He was accused of
forgery, tried, convicted, and condemned, and after
that his name was never heard again.
The list of English line-engravers is soon exhausted :
there remain two only, George Vertue and Abraham
Raimbach, who may be said to have attained any dis-
tinction in the history of English art. George Vertue
excelled in reproducing the pictures of Sir Godfrey
Kneller. His engraving is very correct, almost monoto-
nously so ; but the English aristocracy patronised him
because he was very skilful with physiognomy, and
rendered most happily the distinguished air of lords
and ladies. The Prince of Wales charged him to
make a collection of engravings for him, and Horace
Walpole, who stood high as a man of letters and a poli-
194 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
tician, did not scorn to use the notes on English artists
collected by the engraver. In the first edition of his
Anecdotes of Painting,' published in 1762, he places
his own name after that of George Vertue ; and at the
end of his work he has a long note on the English
artist, in which he awards just praise to the talent of
his fellow-countryman.
Abraham Raimbach closes the list of English en-
gravers. He seemed born to interpret the works of
the painter Wilkie. He has reproduced the well-con-
ceived and spirited pictures called * Blind Man's Buff/
'The Rent-Day,' and the 'Village Politicians' with
surprising delicacy and skill. In spite of their large
size these prints are what are called genre engravings ;
they are prepared and nearly finished in etching, and
then almost entirely retouched with the graver ; and
as combined by Raimbach, the two processes pro-
duced most pleasing results. The joyous or grave
faces of the children playing round their fathers, or
the small tenants impatiently waiting to pay the
money which is due, are faithfully transferred to the
metal. The bright and pleasing appearance of the
paintings is also rendered, and there is a general
harmony about Raimbach's engravings which Wilkie's
canvasses have now in some measure lost. Abraham
Raimbach is certainly worthy to rank high among his
fellow-countrymen ; and in a general history of the
art of engraving, his works class him amongst those
who best understood all the resources of their art, and
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 195
excelled in rendering the different passions depicted
in the human countenance.
Francis Barlow deserves mention on account of his
delicate and skilful etchings of animals.
Although there were so few clever line-engravers or
etchers in England, in spite of the efforts and attrac-
tive example of Wenceslas Hollar, Mezzotint Engrav-
ing, introduced, as we have said, by Prince Rupert,
was at once enthusiastically adopted in that country.
It was more successful in England than elsewhere,
and its rapid triumphs are easily accounted for. The
works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Gainsborough, and of
Sir Thomas Lawrence, softly and agreeably coloured,
and not very strictly drawn, were well suited to this
kind of engraving, which allows of vagueness of out-
line and great freedom of treatment. Anthony Van-
dyck's portraits taken in England were equally good
subjects. This was at once recognised by a number of
English artists. Not only were there more mezzotint
engravers in England than elsewhere, they were also
more skilful and of readier invention than any of their
foreign competitors. We are not sure who founded
this school of engraving, who was the first master, or
what influence he exercised over his contemporaries.
Richard Earlom, whose name is perhaps the best
known, did not, like most of his contemporaries, excel
in portraiture, he owes his reputation rather to his
justly admired engravings of fruit and flowers after
Van Huysum , and his ' Bathsheba leading Abishag
196 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
to David ' is considered the chef-(T<zuvre of mezzotint
engraving. We ourselves do not admire his works
sufficiently to consider him the founder of a school,
and we still hold to our opinion, that English artists
treated portraiture better than historical or genre
paintings. It is easy to review other English works
of exalted style, but it would take a long time to enu-
merate only the best of the portrait-painters. Sir
Joshua Reynolds, the most celebrated of them, sup-
plied eager engravers with numerous subjects, and a
review of his works would introduce us to all the
mezzotint engravers of England. Amongst so many
beautiful engravings it is difficult to know which to
prefer. J. R. Smith, in his portraits of Master John
Crewe and Lady Caroline Montagu, shows equal talent
to that of V. Green in the portraits of the Duke of Bed-
ford, of W. Chambers, or the Lady Caroline Howard ;
and MacArdell, J. Watts, James Ward, J. Faber, J. and
Thomas Watson, E. Fisher, John Dixon, W. Dickin-
son, G. Clint, C. H. Hodges, C. Turner, John Murphy,
C. Corbutt, S. Paul, J. Grozer, John Jones, J. Spils-
bury, and R. Dunkarton, engraved with equal
skill the portraits of Mrs. Beaufoy, Joseph Baretti,
Richard Burke, the Duke of Devonshire, Drummond,
the Archbishop of York, John Paterson, Garrick,
Lady Elizabeth Lee, the Duke of Leinster, Lady
Charles Spencer, Robert Haldane, John Lee, Viscount
G. Maiden and Lady Capel, the Duke of Portland.
Mrs. Chambers, Viscountess Spencer, Lady Seaford,
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 197
Fox, Miss Jacob, and Miss Horneck. These engrav-
ings are such exact imitations of the originals, that
Reynolds must himself have superintended the artists.
None of the engravers, however, had any individual
character to distinguish them from each other. In
spite of the difference of their educations they all
worked with about equal skill, all were acquainted
with the resources of mezzotint, all equally careful to
render the gradations of shade in the works they
copied. Many used bistre instead of black ink, as
being better suited to the transitions from light to
dark, and producing altogether a more harmonious
effect.
Godfrey Kneller, although born at Lubeck in 1648,
and formed in Rembrandt's school, must be included
among English painters, notwithstanding his foreign
origin and education. He established himself in
London when very young, and never again left it ; his
style of painting resembles that of English artists
more than any other, and he seems to have forgotten
the lessons he had received from the moment he
set foot in Britain. Many line-engravers copied
his paintings, but J. Smith was almost the only one
who rendered them in mezzotint, and in return the
painter took the engraver's portrait, which he at once
transferred to copper. Amongst the other portraits
engraved by J. Smith after Sir Godfrey Kneller, the
principal are those of William III., King of Eng-
land, the painter William Vandevelde, the Countess
198 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
of Salisbury, and John, Duke of Marlborough. These
engravings are exact copies of the master's somewhat
formal paintings, but the execution is heavy and rather
inharmonious.
Thomas Gainsborough, a charming painter, whose
works were deservedly successful during his life, had
not the will or the opportunity to gather around
him engravers to reproduce his works. Yet mezzotint
is peculiarly well suited to render the light effects of
his paintings ; and portraits of the Prince of Wales
engraved by John Raphael Smith, of Richard Warren
by John Jones, of the Earl of Derby by George Keat-
ing, and of Henry Duke of Buccleuch by J. Dixon,
not only show the talent of their engravers, but also
how well mezzotint could interpret the brightness and
freshness of these pictures which are true and grand
representations of the English aristocracy. Unfortu-
nately only a few of Gainsborough's paintings have
been engraved, and the very pretty picture called
'The Blue Boy/ which was so justly admired in the
Exhibition of 1862, was not reproduced by engravers
in the time of the painter. Sir Thomas Lawrence was
more fortunate ; he had not, it is true, many imitators,
but he met with one engraver, Samuel Cousins, who
produced a fine masterpiece after one of his paintings.
We allude to the portrait of Pius VII., the best mezzo-
tint engraving of modern times. Thoroughly well-
instructed in his art, the engraver has preserved all
the life and grandeur of the original ; he has managed
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 199
the light with the greatest tact, and drawn the pontiff's
head with a power unknown to most of his contempo-
raries. Charles Turner also engraved an excellent
portrait of William Pitt after Lawrence ; and he him-
self, England's last great master, was fortunate enough
to find many contemporary artists who thoroughly
understood his works, and interpreted them with
praiseworthy talent.
We have not yet spoken of the humourist school.
It however gained great distinction in England ; and
we intend to close our study of English engraving
with a notice of this style, which is of rather historical
than artistic interest, as it borrowed its subjects largely
from literature, politics, and contemporary customs ;
and would lose much by being considered from a
merely artistic point of view.
William Hogarth is the master of this style. Born
of poor parents, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith
instead of being sent to a good master, who could
have prepared him for a literary career. His father
had struggled in vain all his life, in spite of a good
education, to attain a higher position than that of a
printer's overseer, and his example early showed his
son the illusory character of a literary life. He turned
resolutely from literature, and this m#n, who was to
inaugurate a new style of art, began life by chasing
metals, and engraving armorial bearings, figures, and
arabesques on silver, gold, or bronze. It was thus he
learnt the trade of an engraver. After working for
200 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
some years with a goldsmith, he determined to leave
the humble profession of a copyist and devote himself
to art properly so-called. He studied nature with
enthusiasm, looking always at the picturesque side of
every .creature and of every thing, and noting in his
memory or on paper that which struck his attention
on his rambles. The wretched life of his parents had
left a tone of sadness on his observing and inquiring
mind, which made him see the saddest and most pain-
ful side of humanity. Thus his ideal was not beauty
of form, or elegance of outline, not graceful action or
noble attitude, but truth and power of expression.
Though harsh and rough sometimes, his work is always
full of energy and character. Fielding said of his friend
Hogarth : "The figures of other painters breathe, those
of Hogarth think." He was right. Hogarth is more of
a philosopher than an artist. His paintings, often dull
and inharmonious, are no doubt cleverly composed,
and some figures are really artistic ; but the thought
is everything ; the subject absorbs all attention and
interest at the expense of the drawing and execution.
'The Harlot's Progress/ 'The Rake's Progress,' or
' Marriage a la Mode,' are really comedies in several
acts, moral comedies in which the author does not
shrink from a coarse and revolting representation of
certain actions, for the sake of teaching how terribly
they are afterwards expiated. William Hogarth did
not confine himself merely to composing pictures, he
also engraved them, a fortunate circumstance, as his
fc-C
ENGRA VING IN ENGLAND. 203
works retained their original style and attractions
better than they could have done in the hands of other
artists. His engravings were nearly completed in
etching, and then most skilfully retouched with the
graver. Thinking above all of expression, he used
the needle or graver for that purpose as readily as the
brush, and his engravings not only possess all the
qualities of his pictures, but excel them in their har-
mony.
There is a wide difference between William Hogarth
and other English painters of manners and carica-
turists. The master is anxious about the philosophical
side of his work, and desirous of giving to his com-
positions all the value of a moral lesson, but the cari-
caturists who succeeded him cared little to make their
works of general interest. If they intended to ridicule
anyone they exaggerated his physical defects, or re-
presented him in rags, or wretched and scorned, that
was all ; and if they did depict one of the thousand
miseries, of life they carried buffoonery to the greatest
extreme, the figures, the gesture, the expression, the
dress, are exaggerated to such an extent that they do
not always provoke even a laugh.
James Gillray, the most famous of these carica-
turists, was born at Lanark, in 1757 : like Hogarth,
he began work under a goldsmith, but his passion for
the theatre was so great, that he quitted the studio,
which he had but irregularly attended, to join a stroll-
ing company of players. In this new career, he had
204 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
to endure mortifications of all kinds. After wander-
ing from town to town without meeting in any with
the success he had dreamt of, he had the good sense
to leave those who had led him astray and return to
the paternal roof. On his return to London he went
through the course of study at the Royal Academy,
and we are told joined the studio of W. Ryland. He
began as a caricaturist in 1779 and devoted himself to
this kind of work without intermission. Every event
of any importance furnished him with materials for
caricature, and every conspicuous person had to
appear before Gillray's tribunal. When at the height
of his power, William Pitt is represented playing at
cup-and-ball with the terrestrial globe. Later, in
1797, when the minister, lately so powerful, could not
meet the rush upon the funds caused by the fear of
invasion, he is drawn as King Midas, with an ass's
head. The Emperor Napoleon is said to have sup-
plied the English engraver with the subject of many
caricatures. The greater number are coarse. A
political caricaturist, Gillray placed his talent at the
service of the passions of the moment, and this entitles
him to be considered one of the artists who contributed
much to throwing light upon the history of England in
the reign of George III.
Thomas .Rowlandson may be classed with Gillray,
although he did not take up exactly the same line.
He was born a year earlier, in July, 1756, and directed
his attention rather to the manners of the people than
ENGRA VI NG IN ENGLAND. 205
to politics. The action of his characters is excellent,
and he was most successful in the arrangement of a
number of figures in one group. He used the needle
as much as the pencil or pen ; he engraved merely for
the sake of multiplying the grotesque scenes he
invented, without caring at all about the process he
employed or to display his own skill. His chief aim
was to expose the absurdities of his contemporaries,
and in this he generally succeeded. Towards the
close of his life Thomas Rowlandson designed vignettes
for books. The illustrated book which gained him
the greatest success in England was ' Doctor Syntax/
an account of the innumerable adventures of a luck-
less traveller pursued by misfortune. The etchings,
coloured by hand, which accompany the text show
the witty side of Thomas Rowlandson's talent, and
may be considered some of his best productions.
Rowlandson squandered his fortune in Paris, partly at
play. When his resources were all but exhausted he
wisely determined to work hard again. He returned
to London and went through the course of study at
the Royal Academy. But his old propensities regained
the mastery and led him into fresh follies. He needed
the spur of necessity to make him work, and his life
was a series of alternations between want and prodi-
gality. When old and infirm, with faculties as much
impaired by dissipation as by age, he sank into
poverty and died on the 22nd of April, 1827.
George Cruickshank, who was also a caricaturist,
206 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
flourished soon after the artists we have named. His
name is attached to an immense number of most
comic vignettes. Although he produced some few
good political engravings, he preferred scenes of man-
ners which were simply and avowedly grotesque. He
and his brother Robert learnt drawing with their
father, Isaac Cruickshank, and he remained so long
under the paternal tuition that it was quite late in life
before he signed his works. The works of the father
and the two brothers are so much alike that it is not
easy to distinguish them. George was nevertheless
the most talented. He may be considered the chief
of the comic and humourist school which still exists
in England. He is now old and works less than he
did ; but his influence is still great over young artists,
and his style is still much in favour.
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 207
CHAPTER VII.
ENGRAVING IN FRANCE.
Engravers on Wood Engravers on Metal The School of
Fontainebleau Portrait-painters Nicolas Poussin and
Jean Pesne Charles Lebrun and Gerard Audran The
School of Watteau Vignette Engravers The School of
David.
RANGE has small claim to the invention of
engraving, although she did not remain inac-
tive while the movement was taking place in other
countries. Several French woodcuts are known to
belong to the middle of the fifteenth century, and are
in fact contemporaneous with the earliest engravings
brought out in other countries. Better still, some
playing-cards of undoubted antiquity, as proved by
the emblems on them, which were in use in certain
reigns only, were brought out in France before the
time of engravings, properly so called ; and the bar-
barous style of some prints, with a text or legend in
French attached to them, would furnish material for
the researches of modern learning. But it would be
208 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
useless to revive the question of priority ; we will leave
it to the archaeologists, and only notice the time when
French art manifested itself in a decided and definite
manner. The first book embellished with engravings
appeared in France at the end of the fifteenth century,
but the * Romance of Fierabras ' (Lyons, 1480), ' Belial,
or the Consolation of the Poor Fishers' (1484), and
other works with wood-cuts, have a fictitious value
only in the eyes of amateurs on account of their
antiquity, and can scarcely be regarded as really sig-
nificant specimens of wood engraving. In fact, Antoine
Verard's publications, ' The Sea of Histories ' (La
Mer des Histoires), amongst others, printed by Jean
Dupre in 1491, are the first works in which this art
takes a true position ; the hatching of the engraving
is still coarse ; the ornaments are without delicacy,
and recall in many points the complicated arabesques
of French architectural monuments of the fifteenth
century ; but the invention is often happy, and we see
the same love of truthful representation in them with
which we are familiar in earlier miniatures. The sim-
plicity of the expressions, the life of the figures, make
up for the want of knowledge of composition, and
render us indulgent to the faults of drawing, and the
imperfections which abound in these early efforts.
The ' Dance of Death,' printed for the first time in
1485, by Antoine Verard, and often reprinted since,
perhaps contains more interesting engravings than the
' Sea of Histories.' The persons successively sum-
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 209
moned by Death, each receive the gloomy messenger
in a characteristic way ; the face of each has its own
individual expression ; the Pope prepares to follow
the skeleton which draws him to the tomb, with a
resignation of which the Emperor is incapable ; the
merchant leaves his business with despair ; the usurer
cannot make up his mind to relinquish his treasure ;
the knight tries to struggle with Death, who is hurry-
ing him away ; in fact, each one is rendered in his true
character, and surely the inventor of these figures is
worthy to be included amongst the engravers who
first raised themselves to the rank of artists.
When the French became accustomed to engrav-
ings in their histories and romances, which brought
the scenes recounted visibly before them, they wished
to have the same thing in the devotional books issued
for their edification. They were not content with the
old missals and prayer-books ornamented with minia-
tures, as none but rich men could possess them, and
the invention of printing had created a passion for
reading unknown before. Wood-engraving found a
good opening in these religious works, and largely
profited by it. Numbers of artists were employed by
publishers anxious to meet the wishes of the public ;
and although the names of these men of talent are
lost, we can enumerate the printers who employed
them and facilitated their efforts. Antoine Verard
and Simon Vostre occupy the first place among these
printers. Books issued by them and bearing their
P
210 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
marks, contain small ornamental subjects, which frame
the verses of psalms or short prayers, and are not
always applicable to the accompanying text. The
artist has turned to the Old and New Testaments,
and sometimes to private life, for the subjects of
his ornaments. Occasionally, by some strange whim,
a profane object, such as a centaur drawing a bow,
is introduced among sacred ornaments. The com-
position is as varied as the invention, but the style
of the engravers is always the same. The figures
always stand out on a back -ground covered with
stippling, which is supposed to imitate the golden
back-grounds of miniatures. The figures are dis-
posed without affectation, the action is simple and
life-like. There is a larger engraving at the begin-
ning of each service, which generally represents a
biblical subject; 'The Creation of Eve/ 'The An-
nunciation/ ' The Visitation/ or ' The Resurrection.'
Although simplicity is their chief merit, there is a
certain attempt at composition which shows, that
although still in its infancy, the art was gradually
progressing. Here and there we can detect foreign
influence ; some engravings recall German works,
others Flemish figures, but the greater number seem
to have taken their inspiration from the French minia-
tures, those excellent models which French engravers
of the end of the fifteenth century should never have
lost sight of.
The impulse once given, numbers of printers placed
ENGRA VING IN FRA NCE. 2 1 1
their presses at the service of the new art. Philip
Pigouchet and Simon Vostre together brought out in
1488 a ' Book of Hours ' according to the Church of
Rome. Thielman Kerver either borrowed or had
copied the engravings of the same printer for his
books of devotion. Gilles Hardouin, with the same
object in view, employed a succession of artists,
who produced some interesting works, although they
were too much influenced by German art. William
Eustache, William Godart, and Francis Regnault,
also took part in the movement, and brought out
curious works, but their publications were inferior, as
they had not such skilful artists at their command.
At last, however, trade encroached on art, and the
demand for cheap editions led to the production of
works by no means equal to the earlier ones.
But, fortunately, the sixteenth century was now
opening ; the movement known as the ' Renaissance '
was beginning, and France, perhaps, took as active a
part in it as any other country. The sculptors, Jean
Goujon and Germain Pilon ; the architects, Bullant,
Philibert Delorme, and Pierre Lescot ; the painters,
Jean Cousin and the Clouets, had added entirely new
lustre to French art. Engraving did not linger
behind. Guided by these masters, wood-engravers in
their humbler sphere showed talent at least equal to
that of their neighbours. They cut wood with the
same ease and delicacy, and they copied the excellent
models before them so faithfully as sometimes to
212 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
sacrifice their own personality to that of the masters
whose works they were rendering. The most indus-
trious of these second-rate French masters is known
under the name of the ' Petit Bernard.' He never
added his name or monogram to his engravings, and
we should not know who was the artist who produced
so many prints in the sixteenth century, in which the
delicacy of the work rivals the nicety of the drawing,
but for the following notice in an edition of the Bible,
dated 1680 : "The figures which we give here are from
the hand of an excellent worker, known in his day
by the name of Salomon Bernard, or the Little
Bernard, who was always well thought of by connois-
seurs in this sort of work." These small compositions
are animated by thousands of figures in easy groups ;
their action is natural, and they are drawn with
elegance. French art in them clearly displays its
national wit and vivacity.
The extraordinary success of the engravings of
* Petit Bernard ' naturally led other artists to attempt
the same style. They soon became skilful in it. At
first publishers ordered devices from them to distin-
guish their publications from others, then followed
borders of flowers, tail pieces, capital letters, in which
minute works rare talent was shown, proving that art
requires neither large spaces nor public applause to
make its way everywhere. Unfortunately, it is dim-
cult to class the publications of this period. One
thing is certain, they are by different artists. But
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 213
not one took the precaution of signing his works, and
if a few names have escaped oblivion, it is not always
certain under which works they should be placed.
The name of the talented artist who drew and en-
graved two small works which may be considered the
best wood-engravings of the sixteenth century, is ab-
solutely unknown. We allude to the ' Figures of the
Apocalypse' (Paris, Estienne Groulleau, 1547), and
' The Loves of Cupid and Psyche ' (Paris, Jeanne de
Marnef, widow of Denis Janot, 1546). The transla-
tion of the * Dream of Polyphilus' (Paris, 1546), also
contains engravings of a most elegant style. They
reproduce the engravings of the Italian artist who
adorned the edition published by the brothers Aldus
at Venice in 1499, but they are modified to suit French
taste. We have long sought in vain for any trust-
worthy evidence as to the name of the artist. Hitherto
one only of this great number of wood-engravers has
been the subject of a special work, and by means of
the numerous engravings collected and published by
his biographer, we can form a very fair idea of his
talent. Geoffrey Tory, of Bourges, whose life has
been completely written by M. Auguste Bernard, was
at the head of a school of engravers, and all the works
issued from his studio were marked with a double
cross, which was, to use a modern expression, their
trade-mark. The master himself worked at engraving,
and although he seldom employed any sign but that
common to the studio, he doubtless hoped that his
214 WONDERS OF ENGRA VI NG.
peculiar style of working on wood would suffice to
prevent his productions from being .confounded with
those of his pupils. Indeed, it is not difficult to detect
the manner of Geoffroy Tory in a certain number of
engravings marked with the cross of Lorraine only,
which evidently at least passed through his hands.
If we take as a guide the ' Hours of the Virgin/
published by Simon de Colines and signed in full,
Geoffroy Tory, we are sure not to make a mistake.
The drawing of the ornaments and figures is that of
an artist acquainted with all the resources of the art.
The cutting of the wood scrupulously follows the
direction of the required form, thousands of small
broken-off strokes attest alike the inexperience of the
engraver and his intention not to swerve from the
outlines given. The style of the arabesques is bor-
rowed from the purest sources, and resembles the
antique ; the supple graceful figures show the love of
elegance which the artists of Fontainebleau carried to
extremes. Reasoning by analogy, and without refer-
ring to any engravings but those bearing the cross of
Lorraine, we can without hesitation ascribe to Geoffroy
Tory 'The Entry of Henry II. into Paris in 1549,'
' The Old and New Covenants/ an allegorical compo-
sition engraved on a design, recalling the manner of
Jean Cousin, and ' Francis I. listening to Machault
reading his Translation of Diodorus Siculus.' These
engravings, which are worthy of the first place in every
choice collection, are the only ones which we feel sure
Fig. 23. Henri II. From the " Entry of Henry II. into Paris in 1549."
By GEOFFROY TORY.
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 217
were entirely engraved by Geoffrey Tory. But we
must not expect too much ; we can, it is true, name
but few of the early French engravers, but this appears
to us an additional reason for not slighting those
worthy of our notice. Let not the French follow the
example of some nations, who, blinded by a mistaken
national pride, and thinking to enhance the glory of
their fellow-countrymen, have passed over in silence
many French wood-engravers of the sixteenth century,
and left the most remarkable productions in oblivion.
After Geoffroy Tory and the anonymous engravers
of his time who tried to imitate his manner, wood-
engraving rapidly declined. Engraving on metal was
coming into favour. Olivier Codore, the author of the
plates which decorate the ' Entry of Charles IX. into
Paris on the 6th of March, 1672,' worked heavily, and
in spite of the correctness of his drawing and his
careful execution, seems to have heralded the deca-
dence of this art. Wood-engraving, with which some
French artists had succeeded so well, soon fell into
the hands of artisans who looked upon it merely as
an economical way of depicting passing events, or an
easy mode of satisfying with biblical and fabulous
subjects the popular love for allegorical and religious
pictures.
It was then that Perissim and Tortorel engraved on
wood the sad events of the reign of Charles IX. ;
their engravings met with such success that they were
immediately copied on copper in France, Holland,
218 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
and Germany, and multiplied in immense numbers.
This success was owing rather to the subjects them-
selves, drawn in the heat of the moment, as they
occurred day by day, than to the talent of the artists
who produced them.
At the foot of the large engravings of religious or
secular subjects brought out in the sixteenth century,
there are the names of many little-known publishers,
who may themselves also have handled the graver ;
Jean Leclerc, Denis de Mathoniere, Marin Bonnemer,
Germain Hoyau, Nicolas Prevost, Francois de Gour-
mond, and some few more, must be considered not
only as traders in the engravings of others, but also
as artists who both directed studios, and set an ex-
ample to their pupils by themselves taking part in
the work. Unfortunately, the necessity for rapid pro-
duction was detrimental to these engravings. They
still retain a faint and distant resemblance to the
graceful and spirited works of French art of the six-
teenth century, but they are clumsily and carelessly
executed. Sometimes, however, in spite of all the
hasty work of the engraver, the drawing shows excel-
lent taste and incontestable ability ; it is only when
trade encroaching on art first invaded and then took
possession of it, that wood-engraving, so successfully
practised in France for more than a century, dis-
appeared entirely, to remain in complete oblivion for
two centuries ; that is to say, until our own time, when
some picturesque publications forced themselves on
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 219
public notice, and a great and unexpected demand
arose for similar productions. In the eighteenth
century the works of Papillon, the somewhat diffuse
historian of wood-engraving, created little interest
The heavy and monotonous execution of the inferior
designs reproduced by him could scarcely attract atten-
tion at a time when so many copper-plate engravers
were designing and engraving with such charming
grace all kinds of vignettes, groups of flowers and
tail-pieces for the ornamentation of books. The time
was ill-chosen. Far more talent than Papillon pos-
sessed was required to effect a revival of wood-en-
graving, and his attempt proved abortive. Fifty years
later the same design was conceived, and being worked
out with talent and enthusiasm, it met with decided
and brilliant success. Large publications were set on
foot, and owing to the earnest intelligence of those
who conducted them, they prospered beyond expecta-
tion ; publishers called the most experienced designers
to their aid, who in their turn trained engravers ; the
different processes were improved or perfected, good
taste was generally diffused; the long-neglected art
flourished once more, and no one now dreams of dis-
puting the superiority -of France in this popular style
of engraving.
Engraving on Metal. The French have no more
claim to the invention of this than of wood-engraving.
Some authors look upon certain plates engraved by a
220 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
peculiar process, called manure criblee, as the oldest
specimens of engraving, but we do not think this
opinion will have any weight with those who know
and appreciate the ( Pax' of Maso Finiguerra. Nor
is France the only country which availed itself of this
process.
One word only as to the execution of works done in
the maniere criblee. After covering his plate with an
infinite number of small white dots on a uniformly
black ground, the artist if a worker of this kind
deserve the title marked out the shape of the figure
he tried to copy with heavy strokes, and, not content
with a mere copy, he even attempted shading by
means of small lines produced with an instrument
which rather fretted than made incisions on the metal.
Being engraved on very soft material, on silver or on
tin, these plates are of archaeological value only in-
teresting from an historical, not an artistic point of
view. The name of Bernard Milnet, given without
consideration to the author of engravings in maniere
criblee, because of an inscription at the foot of the
' Virgin with the Infant Jesus in her Arms,' is now
more than doubtful. Different interpretations have
been given of this inscription. Every one is agreed
that scarcely an artist of the fifteenth century, what-
ever his merit, cared enough for fame to sign his name
in full ; the greatest masters sometimes placed their
monogram or some figurative sign in a corner of their
plates, but many left no mark by which they can be
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 221
recognised. The work, however, is so different that it
is evident one artist could not have produced all the
engravings of this kind. Many engravers then used
the manifoe criblee according to their ability, but none
passed that boundary so difficult to define which
separates true artists from artisans.
There was no distinguishing original power in the
engravings in Breydenbach's book, called ' Holy
Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the adjacent Neighbour-
hood' (Lyon, Michel Topic de Pymont and Jacques
Heremberck, 1488). They reproduce on copper, wood-
engravings published at Mayence two years before,
and they give us panoramas of Venice, Parenzo,
Corfu, Modon, Candia, Rhodes, and a general view of
the Holy Land and its environs. The engraving is in
a very backward stage, but the architectural designs
are careful, and on this account their author called
the Engraver of 1488 deserves honourable mention
in a comprehensive review of French artists. Noel
Gamier, who came soon after him, and was quite a
primitive engraver, signed the greater number of his
prints in full or with his initials. His copies of en-
gravings by Albert Du'rer, George Pencz, and Hans-
Sebald Beham are characterized by deplorable feeble-
ness, and show no talent whatever ; he must not
escape severe judgment, for at the time he lived good
models were not rare, great masters were within his
reach (some of the engravings he copied were exe-
cuted as late as 1 540) but he could not avail himself
222 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
of the advantages around him and the inferiority of
his work is without excuse.
The first engraver on metal of whom France may
be proud, and who deserves the title of master, is Jean
Duvet. He was born at Langres in 1485. However
much Italy may have influenced his genius he still
retained his native individuality. Mantegna seems to
have been his favourite master, and Jean Duvet's best
work, 'The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian,' belongs to
the school of the Paduan master. The series of
' The Apocalypse' and the engravings relating to the
' Amours of Henry II.,' however, seem to have been
produced quite independently of foreign influence.
These compositions are rather confused ; the work
is too much alike, the accessories are brought out as
carefully as the principal figures, and the result is
that the interest is divided and the eye does not at
once seize the intention of the whole. Two artists
of Lyons, Claude Corneille, and Jean de Gourmont
signed their engravings with their monograms ; a double
C and a J and G interlaced. They were probably
jewellers before they became engravers. Their style
of working on copper resembles that of the second-
rate wood-engravers who flourished at Lyons in the
sixteenth century, and they were probably guided by
them. They chiefly excelled in small compositions.
They delighted in complicated architecture, and
peopled their porticos and unfinished rotundas with
small biblical or fabulous personages, which they drew
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 223
with some spirit ; the neat and careful execution be-
traying their former occupation of goldsmiths. One of
them, Jean de Gourmont, was also a painter. There is
a picture of his in the Louvre, ' The Nativity/ which
was formerly in the magnificent castle of Ecouen, and
the same delicacy of touch and taste for architecture
are observable in the painter as in the engraver.
Jean Cousin, one of the greatest artists of the
' Renaissance/ with whom most modern historians
begin the history of painting in France, did not disdain
to handle the needle. He was not content with supply-
ing wood-engravers with the excellent designs which
illustrate his " Treatise on Perspective' and his ' Book
of Portraiture/ he wished himself to fathom the diffi-
culties of an art which, although almost at its zenith
in other countries, was only beginning to make head
in France. He engraved and signed three plates :
' The Conversion of St. Paul/ ' The Annunciation/ and
' The Entombment/ impressions from which are very
rare. Boldly and skilfully engraved, they would alone
suffice to give a very complete idea of Jean Cousin's
talent, In them we find the grandeur of style and
the subdued elegance which are characteristic of this
master. The different expressions of the figures are
all appropriate, each face well conveys the meaning
intended by the artist. Look at the holy women who
are wrapping Christ's body in its shroud, they testify
their grief in different ways ; some bathe the feet of the
corpse with tears, others, wrapped in fervent contem-
224 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
plation, are content to adore. In the ' Annunciation,'
the celestial messenger is a contrast to the modest and
shrinking Virgin, who receives the news with gratitude,
mingled with a kind of dread. Finally 'St. Paul/
stretched on his back, among his soldiers, seems to
implore Divine mercy, with his arms extended towards
Heaven. We look in vain amongst early French
engravers for the grand style of beauty, for the truth
of action and expression which are so conspicuous in
the works of this talented master.
In the sixteenth century engraving advanced in
France with rapid strides. Line-engravers and etchers
of great original power are very numerous, even with-
out including those of the school of Fontainebleau.
The style of Pierre Woeiriot, an artist of Lorraine, in his
engravings after his own designs, resembles that of his
predecessor, Jean Duvet. He, too, overdid the work
in his figures. All his portraits are not of equal merit,
but we are favourably impressed by his engraved like-
nesses of Louise Labbe, Francois de Serocourt,
Antoine Le Pois, and of himself. In them he is seen
to great advantage, either because these faces suited
him better, or because they were really superior models,
they entitle him to rank among the excellent and
prolific portrait-takers who flourished throughout the
sixteenth century in France.
Nicolas Beatrizet and Nicolo della Casa, fellow-
countrymen of Woeiriot, passed their lives in Italy.
They were French by birth only, and their style
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 225
resembles that of many Italian masters the Ghisi,
for instance far more than that of any Frenchmen.
Their talent was not so great that the French need
care to lay claim to it ; they yielded to the influence
of Michael Angelo's successors, and, like all the late
disciples of this great master, they copied his exag-
gerations, and missed the true beauty and style of his
works. Etienne Duperac, who also lived at Rome,
devoted himself entirely to copying the picturesque
sites and monuments around him. His style is cold,
but his drawing is correct, and there is much valuable
archaeological evidence on the ancient monuments of
Rome to be found in his works.
Paris was not, in the sixteenth century, what she
became later, a centre of attraction to all artists.
Until then the provinces also had their schools of
engraving, and each department, so to speak, could
cite some honourable name. Orleans, amongst others,
could pride herself on having produced the engraver
Etienne Delaune. He was certainly one of the most
prolific of the clever engravers of the French Re-
naissance. His style gives evident proof that he had
studied a goldsmith's trade. This accounts for his
love of small works. He did produce two or three
large engravings, after compositions by Jean Cousin ;
but he was not nearly so much at his ease in this style.
When left to himself, or when he engraved his son's
designs, he managed to produce complicated compo-
sitions in very small spaces, and yet, with so much
Q
226 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
exactness, that each person and object is admirably
proportioned and could not be better placed. In
engraving he first drew a general outline, and moulded
it into shape with little dots, now and then heightened
with strokes a usual practice with goldsmiths who
had to finish off every portion of their plates with
minute and loving care, as they were submitted to
the direct gaze of the public. Numerous ornaments,
some elegant arabesques, some pieces of jewelry, and
two rare engravings of the interior of a goldsmith's
studio, complete the works of the engraver of Orleans,
and justify the esteem in which he is held.
Jean Chartier and Pierre Vallet were born and
worked at Orleans. The former executed, with a
certain harshness, about ten engravings of allegorical
figures 'Force/ ' Abundance/ ' Justice/ &c. The
drawing shows that the artist had kept pace with
the progress made in France in his age, but the
engraving has fallen far short of the designer's inten-
tion, and is miserably poor.
Pierre Vallet was much more skilful. He etched
the celebrated map of Paris, prepared by Francois
Quesnel, with ease combined with exactness. He
was an equally true interpreter of the human counte-
nance, as proved by his own portrait and that of the
botanist, Jean Robin ; and in his engravings of the
romance of ' Theagene' and ' Chariclee/ he has shown
that he could also cleverly render the designs of others.
Joseph Boillot was a native of Langres. He has
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 227
left two works of totally different styles ; in his ' Livre
des Termes,' the engraving is heavy and the plate is
overloaded with useless strokes ; but in another of
his books, M'Art Militaire' (1598), on the contrary,
his work is picturesque, harmonious, and easy, without
being incorrect.
Pierre Sablon etched his own portrait at Chartres,
and has taken care to tell us to what we are indebted
for his likeness in the following lines :
" Me contemplant un jour en deux diverses glaces
Je veis le mien profil despeinct naivement
Lors je de'libere en moy soudainement
De graver ce pourtraict dont vous voyez les traces."
At Bourges, Jean Bouchier, a very clever artist, but
of little celebrity, whose works show real talent,
engraved six pilates with so much elegance and grace,
that we think he must have taken his inspiration from
the school of Parma. His best work represents the
' Virgin Standing with the Infant Jesus in her arms,
who is holding up his mouth to kiss her.' The
divine Child's action, stretching up to reach his
mother's face, is prettily conceived, and the artist has
most happily rendered the mother's joy in finding
herself thus beloved. Jean Bouchier's engravings are
distinguished rather for correctness of drawing and
justice of expression than for practical ability, for the
execution is unskilful, and shows that the artist had
not studied the process. Other provincial engravers
worthy of notice might be named, but it is not
228 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
desirable to pursue this inquiry further ; by naming a
few we have sufficiently indicated the state of the art
of engraving in France in the sixteenth century.
Paris, too, had her share ; indeed, she was the centre
in which the engravers of greatest talent met together.
Pierre Biard executed an extensive series of original
engravings in a picturesque style ; but he succeeded
better when he followed the designs of others ; and
two copies ' The Slave/ after Michael Angelo, and
1 Venus jealous of Psyche urging Love to avenge her
wrongs/ after Giulio Romano although rather too
freely rendered, give a more favourable idea of his
talent than all his other works.
In some engravings which adorn the ' Ballet
Comique de la Royne faict aux nopces de Monsieur
le Due de Joyeuse et de Madamoyselle de Vaudemont'
(Paris, 1582, in 4to), Jacques Patin gave proof of
considerable talent ; the drawing of the large figures
might be better, but the finely-executed engraving, as
a rule, deserves all praise.
Side by side with these artists arose a group of
engravers who were content to reproduce the works
of others, probably because they themselves lacked
all power of invention. There being no well-organised
school of painting in France, although many of their
neighbours possessed an almost embarrassing number,
some sought their models in Flanders, some in Italy.
Charles Mallery, Pierre Firens, and Jean Baptiste
Barbe took their inspiration from the works of Wierix,
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 229
and did not fail to imitate his feeble style of inter-
preting nature. Like their patrons, they succeeded
better with portraits than with religious subjects.
The latter, indeed, are executed with wearisome
monotony, everything is worked out with equal care,
and the art of bringing the interesting parts into
relief is altogether wanting. Philip Thomassin, Va-
lerien Regnart, and other Frenchmen of the same
period, turned to Italy ; but instead of studying the
masterpieces of Marc-Antonio and his pupils, they
addressed themselves to Cornelius Cort, a Flemish
artist established at Rome, and tried to imitate his
pompous and insipid style. By this strange fancy
they gained nothing and sacrificed their own origi-
nality. Their harsh engravings of these compositions
of questionable taste could give them but a very
inferior position as artists.
The engravers of whom we have been speaking
were indifferent to the school of Fontainebleau, to
which Francis I. had attracted experienced masters
from all countries. It was otherwise with those who
are now to occupy us. Italians, French, and Flemish,
while breathing the same air, seem to have forgotten
their own nationality, or rather their works were com-
binations of the styles peculiar to each country.
Two Italian masters, Rosso and Primaticcio, directed
the school. They were both highly gifted, and their
works taught better lessons than any amount of the
best theoretic instruction could have given. While
230 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
architects enlarged the king's favourite palace, artists
assembled in France covered the walls with immense
frescoes, which supplied engravers with innumerable
subjects.
Among the best engravers of the school of Fon-
tainebleau whose names are preserved to us we must
name Antonio Fantuzzi, Leonard Tiry, Rene Boyvin,
and Guido Ruggieri. They left many works signed
in full, or with a monogram, and w r orked under the
supervision of Rosso or Primaticcio. This accounts
for the marvellous exactness with which they copied
the almost exaggerated grace and elegance of some
of these masters' paintings. Antonio Fantuzzi, some-
times called Maitre Fantose in France, was the most
talented of the engravers of the school. He seemed
born to copy the designs of Primaticcio. In the
* Parnassus,' a composition full of figures, he succeeded
by the nicety of his work in giving to each group, to
each figure, its. true distinctness and its true pro-
portions. In an equally complicated composition
representing ' Jupiter sending Juno, Venus, and
Minerva to Paris,' he heightened his etching with
some strokes of the graver, which relieve the work
without injuring the harmony of the engraving ; but
when he used the graver only, as in the ' Grottoes of
Fontainebleau,' signed in full, 'Ant. Fantuz. J. D.
Bologna fecit an. D. MD. 45,' he was evidently fettered
by the limited capabilities of his tools, and his work
is cold compared with his etchings.
ENGRA VING IN FRA NCE. 2 3 1
Leonard Tiry, a Fleming by birth, who passed part
of his life in Italy, and came to France when his talent
was developed, was the most prolific of the engravers
of Fontainebleau. He was a true artist ; his etchings
are easy, and his line engravings so free that we forget
the process employed. He rendered the works of
Rosso and Primaticcio with perfect fidelity, and with
such facility that he seemed to be working out his own
ideas, rather than compelled to follow the designs of
others. His landscapes show a strange mixture of
the styles of the countries he had successively in-
habited. His architecture proves his visit to Italy,
his costumes his sojourn in France, and the general
appearance of his engravings, the slim, jagged, abrupt
strokes, tell plainly that he lived in that country whose
scenery has been rendered with such marvellous exact-
ness by Francis Hogenberg. Vasari not unreasonably
conjectures that Leonard Tiry (called by some his-
torians of engraving, Leon Daven), was formerly a
painter, and had worked with Rosso, which would
account for the engraver's great ability.
Rene Boyvin was born at Angers. Nothing is
known of his life, of the date of his birth, or the name
of his master. But we are aware, and this, perhaps,
is all that is necessary, that he was a very skilful
engraver and a zealous admirer of the painters of
Fontainebleau. He employed the graver only, and
this instrument, so difficult to manage, became lissome
and graceful in his hand, producing excellent results.
232 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Boyvin's numerous engravings after Rosso, Prima-
ticcio, and Lucas Penni, show profound respect for
the talent of those masters, and prove that line-
engraving under a clever artist is as well fitted to
render complicated subjects as etching. The series
called the ( History of Jason/ after Rosso, speak well
for Rene Boyvin's powers. Each small subject is
enclosed in a different border, showing the painter's
fertile imagination and the engraver's ease of handling
the burin. Guido Ruggieri followed Rosso and Prima-
ticcio when in France ; he, too, used the graver, and
succeeded in rendering with it the works of the
masters whom he took as models. His productions
are not numerous, but they are such as to justify the
favour in which he is held.
Leonard Limousin, the celebrated enameller, pro-
duced a few engravings only, which were mere speci-
mens of patterns to be reproduced in enamel. They
were original, and their style resembles that of the
school of Fontainebleau. Four plates with his initials,
dated 1544, are of subjects from the New Testament ;
they are rather harsh, but the handling is clear, bold,
and free. The compositions, too, are happily con-
ceived ; the drawing is firm, correct, and powerful.
The outlines merely of the figures are given, the
artist reserving the rest of the work for a process
which he understood better.
Geoffroy Dumonstier, a member of a celebrated
family of painters in France, produced some vigorous
ENGRA VING IN* FRANCE. 233
etchings of an ultra-picturesque style. His slender
figures of the Virgin or the Shepherds adoring the
infant Jesus are exggerations of Rosso's favourite
forms (we may remark that the painter-engraver
treated this subject five times), the distribution of the
light, which is concentrated on the Divine Infant, is
all that redeems the work of Dumonstier, who owes
his reputation to his name rather than to his pro-
ductions.
Jacques Prevost, born at Gray, has left a portrait of
Francis L, which is full of life and character. He has
copied the toothless mouth of the old monarch with
an exactness which must have been displeasing to the
king and his courtiers ; but it is attractive to those
who value correctness of drawing and persevering
pursuit of truth, as it proves that the artist of Franche
Comte thought more of these than of Court favour.
We will merely mention the existence of the nume-
rous anonymous engravings inspired by the artists of
Fontainebleau ; any discussion of their merits would
delay us too long. Their authors are known under
the collective name of the anonymous engravers of
the school of Fontainebleau.
Engraving only played a secondary part in the
general movement of art at this period. It served to
multiply and spread abroad the works of the school,
but it was not appreciated at the time ; not until age
and successive mutilations had injured the palace of
Fontainebleau was its real usefulness apparent. En-
234 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
gravings alone remain to prove how much talent was
employed during the Renaissance. But for Jacques
Androuet du Cerceau's collection of engravings in his
book on the ' Best Buildings of France/ we should
know nothing of a number of castles now destroyed,
or of the precious monuments which rose up on every
side in every corner of France in the sixteenth cen-
tury. Without the engravers named above, we should
know none of Primaticcio's works. Time and the
hand of man have destroyed or damaged the admi-
rable paintings by the Florentine artist on the walls
of Francis I.'s palace ; and it would be a great honour
for the engravers of this famous school if they had
done nothing but preserve the remembrance of it.
But they have another title to glory no less honour-
able. They gave an impulse to French artists which
no fellow-countrymen would have done ; and we must
remember that we have to thank the gallant engravers
of Fontainebleau, in a great measure, for that school
which was subsequently founded with such unequalled
success by the engravers of France.
While prolific and untiring decorators were vieing
with each other in covering the walls of Fontainebleau
with scenes from mythology in a style which com-
bined that of the Italian, Flemish, and French schools,
an art entirely national was coming into fashion at
Court, and spreading throughout France. We allude
to portrait-painting. We know that the beautiful
series of portraits produced in the sixteenth century
ENGRA VING IN FRA NCR. 2 3 5
are said to be traceable to Flanders, and that John
Van Eyck and Hans Memling have been named as
the sponsors of this art in France. But without any
intention of detracting from the merits of the portraits
by these Flemings, we must assert that the style of
the French artists differs entirely from theirs. Van
Eyck and Memling painted every portion of the
human form, even the smallest details, with great
care ; the French, on the contrary, give the general
outline, care nothing for details, and think only of
rendering the human face with all its spirit, life, cha-
racter, and individuality. Little do they care for the
processes employed, or for the complete sacrifice of
their own personality. The crayons ascribed to Clouet,
Quesnel, and Dumontier are admirable. Their sim-
plicity is marvellous ; it is difficult to say how they
are done ; the paper is scarcely covered, the tones are
blended with incomparable perfection, the detail of
the work escapes us ; they seem to have been pro-
duced by a breath, a breath fixing the life and ex-
pression of the face, which, after the lapse of three
centuries, has lost nothing of its freshness or of its
grace.
Engraving could not entirely master the difficulties
of such works ; the genius of the artists who practised
it was powerless before the striking truth of these life-
like portraits. Obliged to give outline and shading
in strokes, the artist could, indeed, render the style of
the drawing and the appearance of the face, but to
236 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
give the harmonious aspect of the originals was
beyond his powers. Jean Rabel, Thomas de Leu,
Leonard GualtLer, Pierre Daret, Claude Mellan, and
Michel Lasne, the best artists, interpreted the designs
entrusted to them, each in his own way, with great
practical ability and knowledge of drawing. But they
never really transferred to metal the exquisite charm
of these unrivalled crayon drawings. Jean Rabel's
engravings prove that he was himself a painter and
skilful designer ; he excelled in rendering the face and
character of all his models. He has given us natural
portraits of Remi Belleau, Antoine Muret, the presi-
dent DeThou, and the chancellor De 1'Hopital ; they
are like what history leads us to believe, we feel in
looking at them that Rabel has left us true and
favourable likenesses. Although his engraving is
somewhat timid and inexperienced, it faithfully renders
the design, and never shows awkwardness or want of
knowledge of drawing. Thomas de Leu never sur-
passed Jean Rabel, although he was a far more skilful
engraver. His ability only injured his drawing by
making it laboured. We must thank him for putting
the names of those from whom he took his models
under many of his plates. This precaution establishes
the anthenticity of great masters' works, and rescues
many artists from oblivion. Isai'e Fournier, James
Blame, Jacob Bunel, Darlay, G. Guibert, Quesnel,
Daniel and Pierre Dumonstier, are indebted to him
for all or part of their fame.
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 237
The chief merit of Thomas de Leu was the faithful-
ness with which he copied the painter's work. It is
difficult to choose amongst the many portraits en-
graved by Thomas de Leu. The skill is about the
same in all, there are few faults in the work ; his por-
traits all show great knowledge of physiognomy and
correctness of drawing. His likenesses of Pierre de
Brach, Barnabe Brisson, of Gabrielle D'Estrees, or of
Antoine Caron, are of equal merit ; the delicacy of the
expression and the clearness of the engraving is the
same in all. At first Thomas de Leu was influenced
by the pompous compositions and monotonous en-
gravings of Wierix ; he profited, it is true, by his
excellent portraits, but copied his faults as well as his
good points. Fortunately, he soon turned from ascetic
subjects to nature, and when he addressed himself
either directly or through masters, to the human
figure, he brought out works far superior to his cold
engravings after poor compositions without beauty or
grandeur.
Leonard Gualtier, who engraved about an equal
number of vignettes and portraits, was the contempo-
rary of Thomas de Leu, and we may almost say his
rival. Being neighbours, the two artists often took
the same persons' portraits. Their styles were different.
Leonard Gualtier's work was less condensed than that
of Thomas de Leu ; his strokes were deeper and wider
apart ; he caught a likeness equally well, but his por-
traits were harsher and less pleasing than those of Leu.
238 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Briot, Jean Picard, and Jaspar Isac, who imitated
the style of Thomas de Leu and of Leonard Gualtier,
tried, but without success, to reproduce the works of
the skilful crayon designers of the sixteenth century.
Their drawing was poor, and their engraving un-
pardonably dull. The faces of the figures hardly
stand out from the copper, so harsh and inadequate is
the engraving. Jacques de Fornazeris, who may be
the same as Isai'e Fournier, after whom Thomas de
Leu engraved, recalls the style of the master more
than any contemporary. He has reproduced some
French designs of the sixteenth century with delicacy
and sufficient exactness ; and engraved a good many
vignettes. Finally, Jacques Granthomme and Charles
Mallery were too anxious to imitate Flemish works to
be included in the French school. Their works re-
semble the engravings of Wierix, and never have any
attempt at individuality.
To continue this uninterrupted list of portrait-takers
who are such an honour to the French school, we
must pass on to the seventeenth century, and consider
Pierre Daret, Claude Mellan, and Michel Lasne, of
whom we have before spoken, and who were under
Louis XIII. what Thomas de Leu and Leonard
Gualtier had been under Henry IV. Few persons of
any celebrity or importance escaped these experienced
artists. Unfortunately, although they drew well, their
style of engraving was very unpleasing. Pierre Daret,
whose work with the graver was generally cold and
Fig 24. Head of Christ. Engraved by CLAUDE MELLAN.
ENGRA VI NG IN FRANCE. 241
monotonous, yet managed to reproduce very fairly the
Abbe of Saint Ciran, after Daniel Dumonstier. Claude
Mellan, who rather paraded his skill in drawing a full-
faced head of Christ with one unbroken stroke of the
tool, showed a happier taste in the portrait of Peiresc
and in some female faces after his own crayons. Our
attention is unfortunately called from the good draw-
ing to the wide and often monotonous lines of the
execution.
After his earliest engravings it is easy to see that
Michel Lasne for a time turned to foreign models in-
stead of being content with those close at hand. This
was a pity ; Frangois Villamene and the Sadelers
exercised an unfortunate influence over him ; and it
was not until late in life that he with difficulty freed
himself from it, and asserted his own independence.
It was about 1630 his first engraving bears date
1617 that he adopted his subdued style of cross-
hatching and working out the face which gained him
so high a position in the French school. The portraits
which belong to this new period, of Pierre Seguier and
Pierre de Marcassus after D. Dumonstier, of Strozzi
after Simon Vouet, of Brunyer and Evrard Jabach
after Vandyck, are remarkable for a firmness of
handling and knowledge of physiognomy rare amongst
French artists. Honesty of interpretation has not
excluded from the engraving life, likeness, or indi-
viduality. Unfortunately, at the end of his career,
Michel Lasne swerved from the right path. He was
R
242 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
jealous of the success of Claude Mellan, determined
to imitate him, and proceeded to make his strokes as
wide apart as possible, and, to use an authorized ex-
pression, he manoeuvred so much, that he sacrificed
correct drawing to the useless display of his know-
ledge. In this mistaken endeavour, he lost his best
characteristic, the simplicity, not without energy,
with which he had formerly interpreted the character
and physiognomy of his portraits.
The artists whom we have been considering were
most successful with portraits, but they have never-
theless left some works in other styles which deserve
mention. They were not indifferent to passing events,
and took care to depict the most important of them ;
besides the wood-cuts of Perissim and Tortorel, we
know of some historical engravings by which we
understand engravings of battles, victories, or any
actions of a people or a sovereign signed by Thomas
de Leu, Leonard Gualtier, or Pierre Firens. ' The Con-
secration of Louis XIII. in the Cathedral of Rheims,'
' The Consecration of Marie de Medicis,' ' Henri IV.
laying hands on those afflicted with the King's Evil,'
and a good many unsigned engravings of the same
kind are of real skill and rare correctness ; and in
addition to the interest which always attaches to a
contemporary representation of an historical event,
they are of value on account of their artistic composi-
tion and practical ability.
Up to this period we have not found France taking
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 243
the initiative in the art of engraving. Even when in
the hands of the best masters, French art had hitherto
remained under Flemish, Italian, or other foreign influ-
ence. But with the reign of Louis XIII. a new era
commenced for her ; it was then her turn to take the
lead, and to give both lessons and masters to foreign
countries. Artists anxious to complete their education,
or to establish their reputation, hurried to France from
every side. She developed talents and gave lustre to
reputations already acquired. Her influence on art
itself was ever on the increase, and even now fresh
successes are constantly proving that she still retains
the pre-eminence she then attained.
Jacques Callot, born in Lorraine, was influenced by
no one. His genius was thoroughly French, his style
entirely original, and he therefore occupies an ex-
ceptional position in the history of art. His life was
strange and worth relating. He was born at Nancy,
in 1 592 ; at twelve years old he set off secretly for
Rome with a band of gypsies, but being recognised
on the road by a merchant of Nancy, he was brought
back to his family and remained some time in his
native town. He again tried to escape, and was again
brought back by his elder brother, who met him in
a street of Turin. This perseverance convinced his
parents that resistance was useless, and they decided
to yield to his inclinations, and to send their young
son to Rome, a favourable opportunity presenting
itself. This soon occurred. In 1609 an ambassador,
244 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
accredited to the Pope by Henry II., of Lorraine, was
willing to take charge of Jacques Callot, who had
already given proof of exceptional ability in a few
engravings. His stay in Rome decided his fate.
When in the Eternal City he is said to have at first
followed the lessons of Ant. Tempesta, probably with
his fellow countrymen, Israel Henriet and Claude
Deruet, who arrived before him. If he did join this
studio he could not have remained there long, for we
find no trace of the lessons he received in it, and the
best informed biographers say that Philippe Tho-
massin, a French engraver who had been established
in Rome for many years before Callot's arrival, was
his first master. Callot began with the study of line
engraving. In this style he executed several plates,
which show the influence and recall the manner of
Thomassin ; but as soon as he became master of the
process and was left to himself, he threw off this
control and acquired the entirely original style which
he never again lost. Callot remained for some time
at Florence, and was noticed by Cosmo II. de Medici,
who retained him near him and entrusted him with
the engraving of ' The Funeral of the Queen of Spain.'
He acquitted himself creditably of this commission,
and this first important work gave him considerable
reputation, which was increased and established by a
successful invention. He wished to give up line en-
graving, and find some mode of working better suited
to his prolific and ingenious spirit, to his ardent and
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 245
vivid imagination. Etching had, it is true, been
already practised by Albert Diirer, Parmigiano, and a
few other artists, but the process they employed was
inferior and uncertain. Callot set himself to work to
bring it to perfection. He spread a thick coat of
varnish on a moderately heated plate, thereby ob-
taining a uniformly even surface, upon which he could
draw as with a pen on paper. His genius did the
rest. He entirely discarded the graver, never again
to use anything but the needle ; he executed several
engravings of this kind at Florence, and returned to
Lorraine in 1622, preceded by a brilliant reputation.
He then engraved two series of twelve compositions,
called 'The Aristocracy' (La Noblesse), and 'The
People ' (Les Gueux), in which were displayed all his
great genius, all the spirit and unprecedented power
of his needle. He came to Paris in 1629, and there
again met his fellow-countryman Israel Henriet, who
was a trader in engravings, and, like almost all mer-
chants of the kind at that time, an engraver also. In
Paris he began a charming portrait of a celebrated
collector of engravings, Charles Delorme, which he
completed the next year at Nancy.
In 1633, on the entry of Louis XIII. into the chief
city of Lorraine, our engraver attracted notice by his
proud and noble patriotism. The king, having heard
of the artist's talent, proposed to Callot that he should
engrave the siege of Nancy. He refused without
hesitation, and his answer to the king has been trans-
246 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
mitted to us by Felibien in his own words : " Sire, I
am a native of Lorraine, and I think I ought to do
nothing against the honour of my prince and my
country." He testified his horror of war in a still
more decided manner in his series of fine and sar-
castic original engravings known as ' The Miseries of
War.' In eighteen compositions, all most picturesque,
he depicted the unheard-of sufferings, the fearful
tortures his fellow-countrymen had been made to
endure throughout the struggle. Two years later, on
the 24th of March, 1635, after a long illness, during
which he produced several engravings, Jacques Callot
died, leaving no children. His wife's name was
Catherine Puttinger. A tomb worthy of his memory
was raised in his native town, and another etcher,
Abraham Bosse, of less inventive power, perhaps, but
able to go on with the master's work, has left us an
engraving of this mausoleum, which has the following
inscription in the centre : " A la Posterite. Passant
jette les yeux sur cette escriture, quand tu sgauras
de combien mon voyage a este advance, tu ne seras
pas marri que ie retarde un peu le tien : Je suis
Jacques Calot, ce grand et excellent calcographe, qui
repose en ce lieu en attandant la resurrection des corps.
Ma naissance fut mediocre, ma condition noble, ma
vie courte et heureuse ; mais ma renommee a este et
sera sans pareille ; personne ne m'a este esgal en toute
sorte de perfection pour le dessein et.la graveure sur
1'airain. Toute la terre a consent! aux louanges ex-
Fig. 25. Portrait of CLAUDE DERUET. Etching by JACQUES C ALLOT.
ENGRA VI NG IN FRANCE. 249
traordinaires qui men out este donnees sans que pour
cela je sois ja'mais sorti de ma modestie naturelle. Je
nasquis a Nancy, 1'annee 1594, et mourus aussi a
Nancy le 23* Mars 1635, au regret incroyable de la
Lorraine, ma patrie, et de tous les plus rares esprits
de notre siecle, et principalement de damoiselle
Catherine Puttinger, mon espouse qui pour un dernier
temoignage d'amitie m'a faict dresser ce tombeau.
Prie Dieu pour celuy qui ne te priera jamais de rien
et passe."
Abraham Bosse was born and worked at the same
time as Jacques Callot, but his career was much
longer. He is one of the most interesting of French
artists. His numerous works give most authentic
historical information on the costumes and manners
of the time of Louis XIII. His works on engraving
and architecture show an erudition rare amongst
artists, and give us information on the state of art at
a time when treatises by the trading classes were
certainly not common. His engravings have a charm
all their own, independent of the subject represented.
We must, however, make one reservation in our
favourable notice. Although in his ' Treatise on
Engraving ' Abraham Bosse testifies the truest respect
for Callot's invention, he unfortunately did not follow
the example of that master. Instead of merely using
the needle on copper, like a pen on paper, he too often
tried to imitate the strokes of the graver ; in spite of
this, however, his drawing was always spirited, and
250 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
his compositions were generally well arranged. In
his charming series of costumes engraved after the
designs of the witty artist of Normandy, Jean de
Saint-Igny, who himself engraved a few plates, Bosse
has proved that it was from choice, not from incom-
petency, that he had recourse to the graver ; and the
freely-executed plates of these two series should be
reckoned among his best works.
Like most really original artists, Jacques Callot had
no immediate pupils, properly so called. His manner
was attractive to a great many artists, but not one
took direct lessons from the Lorraine master. Claude
Deruet alone may have received advice from him ; but
he was a painter, and only engraved three plates,
which show the influence, but scarcely the actual
intervention, of Callot. Nicolas Cochin, the elder,
engraved the backgrounds of their compositions for
different engravers, and evidently wished to imitate in
them the manner of Callot, but he did not attain to
anything like the same delicacy of handling. Stefano
della Bella, although born at Florence and educated
in Italy, was far more influenced by the engravings of
the Lorraine master executed in Florence, than by
the more majestic works of his Yellow-countrymen.
His works, prettily conceived and delicately executed,
are all of small subjects ; and when we say that they
remind us of Jacques Callot, we are giving them the
highest praise.
Sebastian Leclerc flourished later ; he was born at
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 253
Metz on the 26th of September, 1637, and died in Paris
on the 25th of October, 1714. He nevertheless pre-
served the remembrance of Callot, and in his small
original engravings of costumes he often reminds us of
the master whom France so justly counts among her
most illustrious children.
Lorraine gave birth to another of the most celebrated
engravers of the seventeenth century. He was a
painter, and only used the needle occasionally ; but
when he did employ it he produced masterpieces.
Claude Gellee, better known as Claude Lorraine, pro-
duced some etchings which have all the qualities of
his paintings. He distributed the light and diffused
the air in his landscapes with unrivalled success. His
two chief engravings, the ' Sunrise/ and the ' Cow-
herd,' are excellent" models for modern etchers of
landscapes. With the same easy grace his needle has
rendered the lucid water, the solid buildings, the leaves
quivering in the wind ; the air seems to pervade every-
thing ; the artist engraved as he would have painted
without caring about correct strokes and neat outlines.
He softens the tones before him whilst faithfully ren-
dering them, he takes his inspiration direct from
nature, and his poetic spirit does the rest. At no
time has landscape been treated with such majesty,
grace, and bold simplicity ; and whether he be con-
sidered as a painter or as an engraver Claude Lorraine
is undoubtedly the greatest interpreter of nature the
world has ever produced.
254 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Claude Gellee stands alone in the French school.
The few imitators he had remained far behind their
master. Attention was called in another direction,
and engravers preferred to reproduce the works of
Simon Vouet, a figure painter, who was then much
sought after. When young, this artist had travelled a
great deal in England, Turkey, and Italy, and on his
return to France he soon became so famous, that his
reputation spread to the court, and Louis XIII. wished
to receive lessons in drawing from a master of such
renown. We can imagine how much this honour
added to the painter's popularity. Orders flowed
into Vouet's studio from all sides. All the great
nobles were anxious to possess paintings by him, or
wished him to decorate their palaces and reception-
rooms. Engravers, always attracted by a painter's
success, hastened to multiply his works. Simon
Vouet himself did not scorn the needle, he etched two
plates, 'David and Goliath' and 'The Virgin and the
Infant Jesus, to whom St. Joseph is presenting a bird,'
which we must own cannot have contributed much
to his renown. However, if he himself produced few
engravings, the husbands of his two daughters, Michel
Dorigny and Francois Tortebat, seemed to have de-
voted their existence to'spreading the renown of their
father-in-law. Of these two painter-engravers, Michel
Dorigny was by far the more skilful ; his easy and
sometimes bold needle rendered the limpid colouring
and the occasionally incorrect drawing of Simon Vouet
ENGRA VI NG IN FRANCE. 255
with remarkable fidelity. He represented almost all
the important compositions of the painter with scru-
pulous exactness ; indeed, so great was Simon Vouet's
influence over his son-in-law, that Dorigny's original
paintings were mere fac-similes of his. Tortebat's
style was more decided less docile and less plastic.
His needle was heavy, his engravings almost without
charm. His first signed prints bear date 1664, his
last 1668. He evidently soon gave up engraving to
devote himself entirely to painting.
Frangois Perrier, Pierre Daret, Michel Lasne, and
Claude Mellan also belonged to the school of Vouet
and were influenced by him. Each one, however, had
his own peculiar style of engraving. Francois Perrier,
whose best piece is the portrait of Simon Vouet, was a
painter also. His other numerous engravings are
often poor, and fail to render the softness of the
paintings of the French school at the beginning of the
sixteenth century. We have already spoken of Daret,
Lasne, and Mellan, amongst the engravers of crayons.
We shall not review them again ; the blame or praise
already awarded applies equally to their line-engrav-
ings after Vouet or his imitators. We merely state that
we consider the esteem in which the works of these en-
gravers are held is somewhat exaggerated. Laurent
de la Hyre and Frangois Chauveau did not resist the
influence of the all-powerful master, but they freed
themselves in a measure from the yoke which op-
pressed the French school, and showed their inde-
256 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
pendence in some engravings of exaggerated elegance,
which remind us of the school of Fontainebleau. They
both employed etching ; Laurent de la Hyre used
almost too fine and thin a needle, and Chauveau cut
into the copper rather too vigorously. He wasted his
powers also in working for publishers who were anxious
to profit by his proficiency, which was really great,
and who cared more that he should produce many
works, than good ones requiring care and reflection.
Whilst engraving in Paris was assuming a new and
independent style, a similar movement was going on
in the provinces. On all sides French engravers
arose who were decidedly original, although their
drawing was not very pure or their ideas on art very
refined. At Tours, Claude Vignon engraved a con-
siderable number of plates, the etching of which is
beautiful in spite of the inferior taste and style. At
Nancy, Jacques Bellange carried exaggeration of style
to its utmost limits, but his manner of engraving was
very easy and agreeable. At Mantes, Pierre Brebiette
produced some light and spirited engravings ; at Tou-
louse, the painter and poet Hilaire Pader drew some
original designs on copper, and published a translation
of the ' Treatise on the Proportions of the Human
Body/ by Giovanni Pablo Lomazzo, and a strange
book called ' The enigmatical Dream of the Speaking
Picture ' (Le Songe enigmatique de la PeintureParlante.)
At Chateaudun, Nicolas Chapron transferred to metal
some designs he had executed in Rome after the
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 257
paintings of Raphael in the loggie of the Vatican, he
appears to have understood these great works better
than any artist who has, as yet, arisen ; at Aries,
Nicolas Delafage engraved in a style somewhat like
that of Italy in the seventeenth century ; his figures
of the Virgin are skilfully executed, but they are not
very remarkable. Indeed we might find one or two
artists in almost every province who successfully em-
ployed engraving which had now become acclimatised
in France.
But all this provincial enthusiasm was not enough.
Art requires a higher education than all France could
give to achieve any great success ; and, therefore,
artists who had their reputation at heart flocked to
Italy, the great and inexhaustible centre of the arts,
to study at Rome those masterpieces of antiquity and
of the Renaissance, which remained to testify to her
former grandeur.
The greater number of these artists remained some
years in Rome, others established themselves there per-
manently ; among the latter was the immortal Nicolas
Poussin, the greatest artist France has ever produced.
As a painter he does not come within the range of our
criticism but his distinguishing qualities have been
rendered with such fidelity by some engravers that we
may form a really just idea of his talent by examining
plates after his celebrated compositions ; and this we
think is not the case with any other master. It is
because the beauty of his works consists in the
S
258 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
arrangement and style of his figures, in the grandeur
of the lines, and the expression of the faces and
gestures rather than in the composition or the colouring.
We are aware that the master used a red preparation
for his canvases, which from the first injured his
colours, and gave them the sober, gloomy, sad ap-
pearance which they still retain ; the engraver had
not to contend with the different tints, as he could
but express general harmony by means of black and
white, and he. has, therefore, transmitted the master's
compositions to us with all their spirit and feeling,
without the unfortunate obscurity which often prevents
our grasping the meaning of the originals all at once.
Jean Pesne devoted himself to the reproduction of
Poussin's works, rendering to the French master the
same good service that Marc-Antonio did to Raphael,
with the difference that he worked from paintings, and
the engraver of Bologna from drawing, only. Jean
Pesne worked with docility under the eyes of the
master, and was well instructed in all the resources of
engraving. Ha obtained excellent results by means
of etching alone. His style is bold and sure, never
pedantic or laboured ; he was as much at his ease on
copper as on paper, proving afresh that it is necessary
to excel in drawing before excelling in engraving. To
Pesne we are indebted for rendering Poussin's works
in all their majestic beauty. He was equally suc-
cessful with subjects of every variety. He is never
inferior to his model, whether he is engraving the
UII7BBSITT
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 261
' Seven Sacraments/ the ' Trance of St. Paul,' or the
' Triumph of Galatea.' He pays untiring attention to
the correctness of the figures or objects, and gives us
a faithful copy of the painting before him, thinking
far more of exactly rendering the master's work than
of parading his own manual skill.
How rare are these conscientious copies ! how few
instances of them are furnished by history ! Nicolas
Poussin was one of those painters who best inspired
engravers.
Gerard Audran, the most skilful draughtsman of
the French school, and evidently a master of drawing,
engraved the best work of Nicolas Poussin, which may
perhaps also be considered a wonder of engraving.
' Time disclosing Truth ' is a magnificent composition
in which the painter put forth all his powers to prove
the injustice of his contemporaries towards him, and
it found an admirable interpreter in Gerard Audran.
" Using by turns the needle and the graving-tool, he
seems," says M. Denon, " to have employed these two
instruments to supplement each other like the different
tints under a painter's brush." The work is in fact so
beautifully blended together, that in looking at it we
see the composition only, and forget until we examine
it closely that the engraver's skill must almost have
equalled that of the painter, for him to have rendered
so faithfully the work he had undertaken. Although
Gerard Audran only occasionally placed his talent at
the service of Nicolas Poussin, and produced very few
262 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
engravings after that master, he must still be classed
with Jean Pesne, and a female artist, of whom we shall
presently speak, amongst the chief of the engravers
who took their inspiration from Poussin's works.
Claudine Stella, niece of the painter, Jacques Stella,
was born at Lyons in 1634, and died at Paris in 1697.
It is rare to find a woman, even among the most
highly gifted, with sufficient strength of mind to iden-
tify herself entirely with work of an exalted kind, more
especially when that work requires an extended educa-
tion and a knowledge of the human mind such as in
our present state of civilisation is usually monopolised
by man. The genius of Poussin was of a masculine
type, and therefore Claudine Stella's engravings after
his works may be considered the more extraordinary.
Indeed, they show great knowledge of drawing, and
positively manly energy, and the execution is so easy
that .Wattelet has not hesitated to say, " No man
understood Poussin's true character as did Claudine
Stella." This statement appears to us exaggerated,
because we know the engravings of J. Pesne and
Gerard Audran ; it is, however, partly justified by the
' Striking of the Rock,' after a picture which once
formed part ' ex Musaeo Anth. Stella, Parisiis.' This
plate, reproducing one of Poussin's most important
compositions, interprets the painting as faithfully as
possible. Tne sad expression of the weary longing to
quench their thirst, the joyful looks of those who feel
their spirit returning to them, are rendered with sur-
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 263
prising exactness ; and, but that the work in the first
proof was rather too metallic, we should unreservedly
agree with Wattelet that " Claudine Stella excelled all
engravers in rendering Poussin's colouring."
We have now named the chief engravers after
Poussin, but we should not be doing justice to his in-
fluence on the French school if we confined our notice
to works inspired directly by his compositions. His
pictures have never ceased to guide artists in search
of beauty and grandeur of style, and even now many
an excellent engraving takes its inspiration from
Poussin's works. Giovanni Dughet, Poussin's brother-
in-law, engraved his compositions, of which works the
best is the ' Assumption of the Virgin.' The Chevalier
Avice, of noble birth and an artist by choice, showed
talent in his engraving of the ' Adoration of the
Magi ' after the painting in the Museum of the
Louvre, and in a ' Group of Cupids playing on
the borders of a forest,' ' The Martyrdom of St.
Bartholomew,' engraved by Jean Couvay, shows more
skill in handling the graver than in interpreting
Poussin ; ' The Baptism of Christ ' by Louis de Cha-
tillon happily renders the appearance of the picture.
Gerard Edelinck, whose works are generally worthy of
all praise, and who was usually most skilful, failed to
obtain his ordinary success in his engraving of the
'Annunciation;' finally, Etienne Gantrel, Jean Len-
fant, Etienne Baudet, Antoine Gamier, Michel Natalis,
Jean Nolin, Pierre Van Somer, and many others often
264 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
took their inspiration from Nicolas Poussin, and were
only worthy of notice when they had the good taste
to follow that master. Many an engraver who cannot
produce a good original plate, will execute a remark-
able work with an excellent model before him.
Nicolas Poussin certainly exercised a most useful
and lasting influence on the French school. Imper-
fect as they were, we must notice the efforts of those
artists who tried to restore the art which must always
conform to the eternal laws of beauty. They called
Poussin's works to their aid in their endeavour to
check the universal spread of bad taste and evil
tendencies. Peyron thought he could not better
illustrate his notions of reform than by recommending
the admirable design ' The Daughters of Jethro ' as a
model for beginners, and an example for masters.
This was but just homage to the artist who so suc-
cessfully studied antiquity. It would be unjust not to
refer the origin of the Renaissance, of which w r e are
speaking, to the greatest master of the French school.
Engraving also, though led astray for a time by frivo-
lous, though often witty compositions, began to aspire
to higher works ; and M. Boucher-Desnoyers, to quote
one amongst many contemporary engravers, has skil-
fully executed a plate, ' Eliezer and Rebecca/ a splen-
didly treated subject which will always be admired by
those who understand art.
A number of second-rate artists in the beginning of
the seventeenth century, whose works still deserve
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 265
mention, arose at the same time as these gifted
masters, with their lofty ideal ; these men devoted
their talent to preserving the memory of important
historical events, they copied the splendid castles of
their day in order to bequeath authentic records of
the dominant taste of their own age to their descend-
ants. They are, of course, more interesting to the
historian than to the artist, but are of some artistic
value also on account of the information they give
about their authors. If the work be badly engraved
the intelligence conveyed in it is probably incorrect.
If it be signed by an artist of talent it is most likely a
trustworthy representation of the monument or fact
depicted. We value highly the historical compositions
of Crispin de Passe, Heli Dubois, Jacques Callot, and
Abraham Bosse, on account of the celebrity of their
authors. The last-named, of whom we have before
spoken, was the most zealous of all in working at the
history and manners of his time. An historian of the
reign of Louis XIII. would lose much valuable in-
formation if he neglected to look carefully through
the numerous works of this engraver.
It would be the same with any one who should
attempt to give a history of French architecture, and
ignore the engravings of Claude Chatillon, Israel
Silvestre, or of Gabriel Perelle, three artists who
devoted their lives to copying the royal mansions and
principal castles of France. Their order of talent was
different, but their works are all executed with a con-
266 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
scientiousness for which they are justly valued. Claude
Chatillon's engravings of views of the ' Hdtel de Ville
of Paris/ of the ' Hospital of St. Louis/ of the ' Hotel
de Nevers/ ' The Place Dauphine/ and ' The Sainte
Chapelle/ show us exactly the early state of these
monuments now destroyed or altered. By means of
the delicate and spirited engravings of Israel Silvestre
we are well acquainted with ' Rambouillet, near the
Gate of St. Antoine/ the property of the father-in-law
of Tallemant des Reaux, with the ' Old Chamber of
the Peers/ and the ' Church and Cemetery of the
Innocents at Paris ;' and Gabriel Perelle, whose
etching is less picturesque, but equally faithful, has
preserved the memory of many lost monuments, and
enabled us to fancy the original state of many grand
residences, which are now either mutilated or fallen
from their first estate.
Whilst engraving was falling into the hands of in-
ferior artists, and losing its high position everywhere
except in Flanders and Holland, French artists were
proving themselves more original than ever, and forcing
their way up to that high position from which they have
never since receded. That great master, Gerard Audran,
of whom we have previously spoken, was at the head of
the school. He belonged to a family of artists, and learnt
the first elements of his art in the paternal house. His
father, Claude Audran, was but an inferior engraver, but
fortunately he knew enough to guide a beginner. It
was under his direction that Gerard produced his first
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 267
engravings which showed no decided taste, and gave
no hint of the future works which were to come from
the master's hand. A visit to Italy in early life
settled his taste and expanded his mind. When he
went to Rome he already knew enough of drawing to
appreciate the works he saw there, and he had ac-
quired sufficient skill in using the graver to be able at
once to set to work profitably. Although he had
gained admission to the studio of Carlo Maratti, he
chiefly copied antique statues and the works of great
masters, and we can imagine that this style of working
improved him more than the lessons of his teacher.
During his stay in Rome, and whilst following the
lessons of Carlo Maratti, and drawing in the galleries,
Gerard Audran found time to engrave a charming
portrait of Jordanus Hilling, a ceiling painted by
Pietro da Cortona in the Sacchetti Palace, another
ceiling by the same artist in the Pamphili Gallery,
and four plates after Domenichino, ' David dancing
before the Ark,' ' Judith shov/ing the head of Holo-
fernes to the People,' ' Esther before Ahasuerus,' and
' Solomon making Bathsheba sit upon his Throne.' As
they were executed with talent these engravings drew
attention in France to their author, and oh his return
he was at once chosen by Lebrun to engrave the
series of the ' Battles of Alexander/ which the first
painter of the king had just finished. Perhaps no
artist had ever been more worthy of a painter's confi-
dence. Full of earnestness and enthusiasm, Gerard
268 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Audran set to work without delay, and at the end of
six years he had accomplished this really gigantic
task (1672 1678). He employed line-engraving and
etching alternately, and has rendered the original
paintings with such fidelity that we can still estimate
them at their true value, although time has almost
entirely destroyed their power and harmony. At the
same time that he was transferring these celebrated
compositions to metal he finished the ' Pyrrhus saved/
after Nicolas Poussin, an admirable engraving which
procured for him the title of Member of the French
Academy, 1674. A few years later he attained the
highest rank in this illustrious society which is possible
to an engraver, he was named Counsellor. But instead
of abating, his activity was ever on the increase, and
his talent being now fully developed all his works
were masterpieces.
In addition to the engravings we have named after
Poussin and Charles Lebrun, we must mention as
exceptionally superior works by Gerard Audran, 'The
Burning Bush,' after Raphael ; ' The Martyrdom of
St. Gervais and St. Protais ;' ' The Aurora ;' and ' The
Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,' after Eustache Lesueur ;
1 The Plague of Egina ;' ' The Cupola of the Val de
Grace;' and 'The Ceiling of the King's Chamber at
Versailles,' after Pierre Mignard. A few engravings
after the statues of Michel Anguier, Gaspard de
Marsy, and Girardon, close our list of this indefati-
gable artist's excellent works. Until his death at
ENGRA VI NG IN FRANCE.
Paris on the 26th' of July, 1/03, Gerard Audran
devoted his great talent to the fine arts. We have
also a treatise embellished with engravings by this
master on ' The Proportions of the Human Body,
after the finest Figures of Antiquity.' This work is
still worthy of the honour in which it has been held
since its publication (1683).
Gerard Edelinck, Robert Nanteuil, and Jean Morin,
superior artists of surprising ability, worked at the
same time as Gerard Audran. They addressed them-
selves more directly to the works of Charles Lebrun,
Pierre Mignard, and Philippe de Champagne ; but
they did not confine themselves entirely to their
paintings or designs.
Gerard Edelinck was born at Antwerp in 1640, but
he became naturalised in France by spending his
entire life in Paris, and by his acceptance of the title
of member of the Royal Academy there, which was
bestowed on him on the 6th of March, 1677. His
works are of such equal merit that it is difficult to
distinguish the earlier from the later engravings.
However, the portrait of Madame de la Valliere,
which was published by Balthasar Montcornet, a
publisher of the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV.,
appears to us to have been one of Gerard Edelinck's
first works ; we are led to this conclusion both by
the publisher's imprint on the engraving and also by
a certain harshness of execution which the artist
would not have left unaltered had his powers been
2;o WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
fully developed. The drawing and colouring are,
nevertheless, very well rendered. We can only speak
in the highest terms of the greater number of Ede-
linck's other engravings ; it would take us too long
to enumerate all his masterpieces ; we will be content
with naming * The Holy Family/ after Raphael ; ' The
Tent of Darius,' after Lebrun ; the portraits of Charles
Lebrun, Frangois Tortebat, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Paul
Tallemant, John Dryden, Fagon, Martin Desjardins,
and Philippe de Champagne. No artist succeeded
better in truthfully rendering life or in identifying
himself with the genius of others ; Raphael had no
more skilful interpreter, and the painters of the reign
of Louis XIV. gained greater renown through Ede-
linck's engravings of their works than they would
probably have done by their own unseconded efforts.
Robert Nanteuil, who lived near Gerard Edelinck,
usually drew the designs for his own engravings.
Many of his portraits have come down to us. Being
a very skilful designer, he, of course, easily transferred
his happy likenesses to copper. He could not give
the same vivid and powerful colouring as Edelinck,
but his manual dexterity was quite as great. He did
not at once acquire this skill ; before he produced the
masterpieces which earned him a glorious name, he
vacillated a long time, and tried to discover in the
works of his predecessors how he could best give
expression to all that he felt within him ; now he
employed stippling, as in the engravings of Jean
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 271
Boulanger ; now, like Claude Mellan, he used single
strokes with cross-hatching ; at intervals again, he
tried careful cross-hatching, following the outlines,
like his master and fellow-countryman, Nicolas Reg-
nesson ; and at last he began to assume his own
individual style, which consisted in modelling with
the greatest precision every shade in the face, and
employing different kinds of work for the other parts
of the engraving. In this manner he engraved the
portraits of Pomponne- de Bellievre, Gilles Menage,
Jean Loret, Lamothe le Vayer, of the Duchess of
Nemours, of J. B. Van Steenberghen, and some twenty
others, all equally perfect and admirable, which must
always continue to excite the admiration of artists
and men of taste.
In addition to the esteem in which Robert Nanteuil
is held on account of his works, the art of engraving
is truly indebted to him for the celebrated Edict of
1660, dated from St. Jean de Luz, which he obtained
from Louis XIV. By this edict, engraving was de-
clared free and distinct from the mechanical arts,
amongst which it had hitherto been unjustly con-
founded, and engravers, delivered from thraldom,
became independent. From this epoch they shared
the privileges of other artists.
The engravers of whom we have just been speaking
employed line-engraving exclusively, and obtained
marvellous results from this inadequate process ;
another equally celebrated engraver, however, con-
272 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
fined himself almost entirely to etching. Jean Morin
took lessons of Philippe de Champagne, and inter-
preted his paintings better than any of his contem-
poraries. He rendered the master's taste and style
without sacrificing his own, and his works share the
calm colouring and clearness for which the originals
are distinguished. He engraved many compositions
and landscapes, but he succeeded best with portraits,
although he did not, like Robert Nanteuil, give most
of his attention to them.
He was a devoted admirer of Anthony Vandyck,
and delighted to reproduce his portraits ; he partly
borrowed this artist's mode of engraving, improving
upon it, and modifying it to suit French taste. Having
given the outline and chief characteristics of the face,
he shaded the flesh with a quantity of stippling, which,
being mellowed and softened by the acid, produced
an excellent result ; but the process employed was so
difficult that Anthony Vandyck and Jean Morin are
the only two artists who succeeded with it. The
portraits of Cardinal Bentivoglio, the master's, best
work, of Antoine Vitre, of the Abbe de Richelieu,
Marguerite Lemon, J. F. P. de Gondi, N. Christyn,
and all the plates now so sought after of this artist,
are engraved by this peculiar process. Some engravers
tried to imitate Morin's style, but not one, not even
Jean Alix or Nicolas de Plattemontagne, who were
nearest to it, ever really succeeded in giving the
combined ease and firmness which make the master's
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 273
portraits real masterpieces. They obtained counter-
feits, nothing more, they missed the life-likeness which
is so striking in Jean Morin's engravings.
At no other time did France possess a greater
number of good engravers. Besides the chief masters,
who formed the public taste, there were many of less
talent, but of sufficient ability to attract the attention
of amateurs and men of taste. Francois de Poilly,
engraved the ( Vierge au Linge/ after Raphael, in a
very praiseworthy manner, and a great number of
portraits after French artists, which prove his know-
ledge* of physiognomy and his refined taste. Antoine
Masson carried line-engraving to the greatest per-
fection possible ; and if technical skill were everything,
he might tak'e one of the highest positions in the
history of art, but the French appreciate rather
correct drawing than manual dexterity in engraving,
and therefore we must class Antoine Masson amongst
secondary artists, and the only work of his to be
recommended is the portrait of Brisacier, which is
certainly his best engraving ; it is less laboured than
his others, and the face and expression are much better
rendered.
Peter Van Schuppen, though born at Antwerp in
1623, lived in France. He had very great ability, but
produced no exceptionally good works ; all his en-
gravings are well executed, his drawing is correct, but
the. style is not very exalted, nor is there real origi-
nality in his works. Nicolas Pitau showed more
T
274 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
spirit in his portrait of Benjamin Prioli than in any
other of his engravings. In this plate we detect the
influence of his fellow-countryman, Gerard Edelinck,
and a faint remembrance of the great school inaugu-
rated at Antwerp under the control of Rubens ;
Pierre Lombard, born at Paris, also yielded to the
influence of Edelinck, and learnt from him a style of
colouring which suited well the portraits of the news-
man of Holland, Lafond, after Henry Gascard, and
those after Vandyck's beautiful works. Antoine
Trouvain, born at Montdidier about 1666, followed
the same direction, which he turned to good account
in his admirable portrait of ' Rene Antoine Houasse,'
which obtained him the title of Academician, and is
still considered his best work. Frangofs Spierre and
Jean Louis Roullet did not care sufficiently about
good drawing, and often copied worthless works, so
that they did not become as famous as their talent
for engraving would perhaps otherwise have made
them. Spierre's only justly valued work is ' The
Virgin and the Infant Jesus,' after Correggio. Boullet
is rescued from oblivion by his portraits of ' Sully/
and of ' The Marquis de Beringhen,' after Mignard,
and that of ' Cam. Letellier,' after Largilliere.
Some of the best painters of the time of Louis XIV.
did not scorn to employ the needle, but they produced
few works worthy of attention. We will, therefore,
review them rapidly. Lebrun produced some etchings,
which add nothing to his glory, and remind us of
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 275
Vouet. Sebastien Bourdon was in turn attracted by
the artists of the Roman school of Parma and of
Venice, and transferred numerous compositions to
copper, betraying the influence which was dominant
at the time ; but though his style varied, his engraving
remained obstinately poor and cold.
The taste in Jacques Stella's engravings is inferior
to that in his paintings. The latter seemed to be
inspired by the lofty ideal and the refinement of form
of which such perfect examples are seen in the works
of Nicolas Poussin, whilst his etchings are hastily and
boldly conceived in a style not unlike that of Jacques
Callot. If an authentic signature did not exclude all
doubt, we could scarcely believe that 'The Ceremony of
Paying Tribute to the Grand Duke of Tuscany ' is from
the hand which painted the beautiful series of ' The
Passion,' the designs of which have been unhesitatingly
attributed to Nicolas Poussin by a modern editor.
Louis de Boullongne and Michel-Ange Corneille
followed the same track in engraving as in paint-
ing, and gave no proofs of originality in either.
Their engravings, like their paintings, prove their
great admiration for Poussin, whilst they give but a
poor opinion of their own imagination or knowledge.
Simon Guillain, who was one of the twelve elders of
the Academy of Painting, has left but one engraving
* The Cries of Bologna,' after Annibal Caracci ; and
something more would be required to give him the same
rank as an engraver which he holds as a painter.
276 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
A landscape painter, Francis Millet, engraved three
etchings, which are now very rare, and are quite worthy
of his paintings. The composition is superior, and
they give a very good idea of the scenery round
Rome. The artist's needle, like his brush, has admi-
rably rendered the noble beauties of that glorious
neighbourhood, which have inspired and affected so
many artists. To conclude, Claude Lefevre, a most
talented portait painter, has engraved two or three
compositions, which would have made him famous,
even if his paintings did not exist. His own portrait,
executed with a masterly ease which reminds us of
Vandyck, is one of the most valuable of the en-
gravings of the French school ; indeed, we may say,
one of the finest portraits ever engraved in any
country.
It was during the reign of Louis XIV. that Mezzo-
tint Engraving, invented by Louis of Siegen, was most
successfully practised in France. The novelty of the
discovery and the valuable results attainable by its
means, attracted several French artists, who became
familiar with it as readily as with every other form of
art. A French artist of Flemish taste, Wallerant
Vaillant, borne at Lille in 1623, produced the first
really skilful mezzotint engravings under the guidance
of Prince Rupert, the friend and confidant of Louis
Siegen. Very few proofs were printed from them in
Holland, and, judging by the time which elapsed
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 277
between their publication and the adoption of the
new style by French artists, they were not known in
France until much later. Isaac Sarrabat was one of
the first who ventured to employ the unfamiliar pro-
cess in that country, and his boldness was successful.
His drawing was agreeable rather than grand, but his
tints were harmonious, and he has shown more know-
ledge and experience than could have been expected
from an artist employing a new process, in the portraits
of the engraver ' Etienne Gantrel/ after Largilliere ;
of the ' Marquis of Praslin ; and of ' G. J. B. de
Choiseul,' after H. Rigaud ; of the printer ' Alexander
Boudan ;' and in 'The Adoration of the Shepherds/
after L. Herluyson. About the same time the cele-
brated amateur, Boyer d'Aguilles, had the greater
number of the pictures in his gallery at Aix repro-
duced in mezzotint by a skilful engraver, Sebastien
Barras, whom he retained near him. He himself
aided in the work, and executed a few engravings by
the same process, which show good will and a taste
superior to that of most amateurs, although, which is
not surprising, he had no great practical ability.
We must name a few French artists who occasionally
used mezzotint, although they did not confine them-
selves to it. The painter Andre Bouys engraved his
own portrait ; the colouring is skilful, indeed he
proved himself master of the process from the first ;
Jean Cossin, the author of a justly prized ' St. Agnes ;'
L. Bernard, who, in choosing the 'Virgin' of Cor-
2;3 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
reggio, showed that he understood that coloured
works are better suited than others for reproduction
in mezzotint, and that chiaroscuro effects are better
rendered in it than delicate drawing or careful out-
lines ; finally, Bernard Picard, a cold and monotonous
engraver, who seems for once to have been carried
away by the charm of colour in his portrait of Demo-
critus, executed in 1698.
At the end of the seventeenth century we again meet
with the artists we have named above, now devoting
themselves to recording the events of the reign of
Louis XIV. Few remarkable works were published
at this time, although * engraving was more widely
practised than ever before, the fashion of carefully
engraving immense almanacks, giving the important
events of the past year in numerous medallions, was
introduced into France. These immense plates in which
the calendars occupied but a small space, were hastily
engraved by Edelinck, Poilly, Sebastien Leclerc, and
Albert Flamen, to meet the demand of the moment,
and added little to the reputation of their authors.
The same observation applies to the weighty theolo-
gical or philosophical theses dedicated to the king or
the nobles of the court by students. The argument is
surmounted by a portrait or a pompous allegorical
subject ; and though Robert Nanteuil, Francois de
Poilly, Pitau, or Gerard Edelinck may be the authors,
these plates are beneath the reputation of the above-
named artists.
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 281
In the reign of Louis XIV. numerous monuments
were raised testifying to the fertile imagination and
the science of the artists employed by that ostenta-
tious monarch. Jean Marot, an engraver, has left for
the benefit of posterity a representation of the greater
number of the buildings he saw erected. Thanks
to his intelligent care, we can easily give an account
of monuments now destroyed, and write the history of
French architecture in the i/th century. What Jean
Marot did for architecture Jean Lepautre, Jean Berain,
and Daniel Marot did for the decoration of interiors.
These three artists, who were equally skilful in dif-
ferent styles, have left a number of engravings which
are complete and authentic records of the ornamenta-
tion of apartments in their day. The abundant and
graceful arabesques which have escaped destruction in
the Palace of Versailles or the splendid mansions of
France are met with again in innumerable spirited
engravings by Lepautre, and bold and careful designs
by Berain and Daniel Marot.
During all the first half of the eighteenth century,
engravers were almost entirely occupied in render-
ing the works of one artist, Antoine Watteau, the
painter of festive gatherings and rural picnics. He
was a colourist after Rubens. No doubt his style was
very different to that of his favourite master, but he
never lost sight of, he never ceased to admire, the
splendid and attractive colouring of the master of the
Medicean Gallery. Rubens treated grand and stately
282 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
subjects, Watteau only painted familiar scenes ; but
he had exceptional talent for decoration, he inaugu-
rated a new style, and in a great measure realised
the ideal he had conceived ; and all this entitles this
industrious and pleasing painter to the title of master.
He was not content with transferring the delightful
inventions of his fertile genius to canvas, he has left
some rare etchings, which are as spirited and delicate
as his paintings. He was very much sought after ;
all his contemporaries, and even his rival Frangois
Boucher, vied with each other in their eagerness to
reproduce his compositions on metal with all their
elegance and exceptional delicacy. The influence of
the school which was raised to honour by Gerard
Audran's excellent works was then at its greatest
height. Antoine Watteau was therefore just in time
to profit by the fortunate impulse given to engraving ;
he saw his best works faithfully reproduced, indeed
few masters of the French school were more fortunate
in their engravers. At no other time could France
boast of so many talented engravers, the names of
Benoit Audran, Laurent Cars, Nicolas Cochin, Michel
Aubert, Nicolas de Larmessin, Ph. Lebas, Jean Moy-
reau, Louis Desplaces, and of Bernard Lepicie, are
guarantees for correctness of reproduction.
We will now say a few words on the processes
employed by these engravers in their scrupulous
copies of painters' compositions. Like their master,
Gerard Audran, they began with etching, and only
Fig. 29. A Costume. Etching by A. WATTEAU.
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 285
used the graver after the outline was correctly drawn
by the aquafortis, they then retouched the parts
which were to stand out, shaded the figures, finished
off the accessories, never sending their plates to the
printer until they were sure that their work corre-
sponded exactly with the painting before them. We
are indebted to this mode of proceeding for some
remarkable works, and although the greater number
of Watteau's paintings have now disappeared, we are
fortunately still able to appreciate this most spirited
master, to whom posterity was for so long indifferent.
Amongst these many highly gifted and faithful
engravers of the eighteenth century there are some few
who deserve special mention. Laurent Cars, for
instance, who was born at Lyons in 1702, and died at
Paris in 1771, gave proof of his adaptive talent and
great facility in his ' Venetian Fetes ' and ' Fortune-
teller' after Watteau, and in ' Hercules and Omphale '
after Francois Lemoine. Nicolas de Larmessin ren-
dered the ' Pilgrims of the Isle of Cythera ' by Watteau
with admirable fidelity, and obtained admission to the
Academy by his portrait of ' Guillaume Coustou ' after
Jacques de Lien ; Jean Moyreau, who reproduced
almost all the works of the Dutch painter, Philip
Wouverman, softened his style a little in copying
the paintings of his contemporaries ; Louis Surugue
had the good sense to take all his models from living
masters, who could guide him, and this precaution
saved him from ever producing inferior works ; he was
286 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
quite equal to rendering the . paintings of Antoine
Coypel, Frangois Boucher, G. B. Pater, or Watteau,
and he often gave a harmony to his engravings which
the originals did not possess ; finally, Girard Scotin,
who spent the greater part of his life in England, in
his engravings after Watteau of the ' Pleasures of the
Ball,' the ' Hardships of War,' ' Le Lorgneur' and 'La
Lorgneuse/ and the ' Cascade,' proves that his correct
drawing and plastic graver were uninjured by his
having worked for'publishers who were not particular as
to what works they ordered from him. But he owes
his fame to copies of superior models, for his works
produced in England would not have made him cele-
brated. Watteau's imitators were equally attracted
by the works of Boucher, Lancret, and Pater, and as
ready to reproduce them. They had some qualities
in common with' those of Watteau, and they sold well.
If these engravings after relatively inferior artists are
less admired by connoisseurs than those after Watteau,
it is the fault of the paintings rather than of the
copies, for the artists were in all cases scrupulously
faithful to their models. Boucher's designs, which
were much run after, led his fellow-countrymen to
introduce a style of engraving which had not hitherto
been practised in France. We allude to the fac-simile
reproductions of drawings which copy even the faults
and mistakes of the artist. Giles Demarteau, Jean
Charles Francois Bonnet, Christophe Leblond, and
Gautier Dagoti, struggled, each by a special process,
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 287
to obtain in engraving an exact reproduction of a
sketch or of a picture, and they sometimes succeeded.
Although these fac-similes cannot deceive experienced
men accustomed to study works of art, they give so
just an idea of the originals that it is possible by their
means to study the master's style and follow his mode
of working.
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, who stood almost
alone in the eighteenth century, but has had many
imitators since, attracted engravers, who rendered the
firmness of his painting and the easy grace of his
figures with praiseworthy fidelity. Bernard Lepicie
must be counted amongst those who best caught the
expression of the face in Chardin's works. His
engravings after the ' Teetotum/ the ' Raker/ and the
' Governess ' are very correctly designed, and have as
harmonious an appearance as the originals. Laurent
Cars, Charles Nicolas Cochin, Fillceul, Lebas, and
Surugue also took their inspiration from Chardin's
works. Whether these engravers worked under the
master's supervision, or were so imbued with admira-
tion of his bold and fascinating paintings that they
required no assistance, we may assert without fear of
contradiction that few artists were so fortunate as
Chardin in their interpreters.
Several French painters of the eighteenth century
took the needle into their own hands and produced
some etchings quite equal in point of merit to their
paintings. The Coypels, Noel (1628-1707), Antoine
288 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
(1661-1722), Noel Nicolas (1688-1734), and Charles
Antoine (1694-1752), used etching. None of them
left engravings worthy of notice. Their works of this
kind are little more than sketches, and it would be
unfair to judge of these painters by their hasty
etchings. Honore Fragonard, whose numerous paint-
ings, long neglected, are now overrated, was a clever
engraver, and deserves to rank high amongst the
many witty artists of the eighteenth century. His
four ' Bacchanals/ and his ' Armoire,' not to speak of
other compositions, have earned him this distinction.
He did not think much of the exact form of objects
or figures, but he expressed life happily. He gene-
rally treated frivolous subjects only, and we must
admit that he invented them with great facility.
Gabriel de St. Aubin drew all that took his fancy.
He made clever and spirited sketches of all that most
interested him in every collection of works of art
which he visited. He appears to have been an intel-
ligent observer who foresaw with what avidity the
smallest historical facts relating to the eighteenth
century would one day be sought after. lie used the
needle with as much ease as the pencil. His ( View
of a Saloon in the Louvre in 1753,' (Vue du Salon du
Louvre en 1753), the 'Fair of Bezon' (La Foire de
Bezon),' ' The Burning of the Fair of St. Germain
(LTncendie de la Foire St. Germain)' and the ' Thea-
tre of the Tuileries (Le Spectacle des Tuileries),'
are all executed in a delicate and sprightly manner
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 289
Small as they are they please and amuse us, because
they truthfully and unpretendingly reproduce the
spots which St. Aubin knew so well. Jean Baptiste
Pierre engraved several of his own designs, and pre-
served the memory of a Chinese masquerade got up
at Rome in 1735 by the pensioners of the Academic
de France. His best etchings are four compositions
suggested to him at Subleyras by La Fontaine's tales,
' Brother Luke ' the ' Courtisane Amoureuse' (the
Amorous Courtesan), the * Falcon,' and ' Brother
Philip's Geese.' Loutherbourg passed a great part of
his life in England, and in this long absence from
France he compromised his national originality, and
some of his engravings seem to have been inspired by
Hogarth rather than by any French artist. Antoine
Rivalz was born at Toulouse in 1677, and died in
1735. He embellished the ' Treatise on Painting/ by
Bernard Dupuy du Grez, with four etchings which
remind us more of Lebrun's manner than of that of the
pleasing masters of the eighteenth century. Hubert
Robert executed in a very picturesque and spirited
manner a series of twelve engravings, the ' Soirees of
Rome,' dedicated to a female artist, Marguerite Le-
comte. He took lessons of Claude Henri Wattelet,
and with him engraved a number of etchings of no
great merit, which might be signed by either the pupil
or the master. Wattelet, the author of the ' Dictionary
of Painting,' justly valued on account of the compre-
hensive information it contains on art and artists of
U
2QO WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
all times and countries, and its just and clear criticisms,
was but an inferior painter, better able to recognise the
talent of others than to exercise personal influence
over artists. Thomas Desfriches was born at Orleans,
and was scarcely more than an amateur, although he
took some spirited views on the banks of the Loire.
L. C. de Carmontelle, a writer of merit, engraved
some portraits with great intelligence, showing rare
knowledge of physiognomy. The Count of Caylus, an
archaeologist and celebrated man of letters, drew with
ease, and devoted his talent to reproducing a number
of designs of antique objects, and engraving a few
original compositions. He had not, it is true, any
great appreciation of antiquity, or a very profound
comprehension of masterpieces, but his works are
illustrations of many different styles, and he evidently
had a true love of beauty. One quasi-royal hand
deigned to practise engraving we allude to the Mar-
quise de Pompadour. Besides a number of engravings
after lithographs by Jacques Quay she has signed
three or four plates which would not be unworthy of
famous engravers. In them we see children blowing
soap bubbles, drinking milk, or resting in the country,
and they are engraved with so much ease that we
should not be much surprised if it should turn out
that Boucher, Cochin,- or some other master, had aided
the powerful marchioness, and for politic reasons
allowed her name to appear at the foot of the work
instead of his own.
ENGRA VING IN ERANCE. 291
We have already said that the French were parti-
cularly successful with portraits. In the eighteenth
as in preceding centuries artists carefully preserved the
likeness of every person of rank or talent in their day.
Engravers sprung up around every distinguished
painter, eager to reproduce his works. The Drevets,
father and son, generally took their models from
Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largilliere, and
their engravings may be said to be in all respects
worthy of the original works.
Pierre Drevet, the father, studied in the school
which immediately succeeded that inaugurated in
France by Nanteuil and Edelinck ; he conceived the
idea of rendering in their full size the masses of
drapery which surround and almost overwhelm the
figures in the original painting. Of his many works
we will notice the portraits of 'Jean Forest,' after
Largilliere, of * Andre Felibien,' after Rigaud, and
of ' Hyacinthe Rigaud,' after a painting by the master
himself. The engraver copied the best works only,
and was fully equal to his great task, rendering these
pictures so instinct with life, with manly energy.
The portrait of Bossuet by Pierre Drevet, the son,
after Rigaud, immortalises the name of the engraver,
and gives a most exact likeness of the great orator.
We like to fancy the illustrious prelate standing,
leaning on his Oraisons funebres, his episcopal robes
wrapped majestically around him, captivating the
crowd or the royal assembly he is addressing by his
292 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
noble presence ; and the engraver, doubtless inspired
not only by Rigaud's superb portrait, but also by the
grandeur of the man himself, has produced a master-
piece worthy to rank with the finest engravings of the
French school. Pierre Drevet, the son, employed
processes much resembling those used by his father.
He too used the graver alone, but it was so completely
under his control that it adapted itself readily to the
exigencies of different forms and styles. His stuffs
always fall in rich and heavy folds, they are most
artistically arranged and engraved in wide strokes,
whilst the head and hands, which require greater pre-
cision of outline, are expressed by finer and closer
lines, which allow of more perfect and condensed
shading, bringing the important parts of a portrait
into relief. Claude Drevet, who flourished later, em-
ployed the same process which his relations had raised
to honour, with the important difference that his line en-
graving was often cold and disagreeably monotonous.
The engravers of whom we have spoken produced
many portraits after Rigaud or Largilliere, but other
painters also supplied them with excellent models, we
will name : Jean-Marc Nattier, Louis Tocque, Maurice
Quentin de la Tour, Jean Siffred Duplessis, Jacques
Aved, and Tournieres ; Jean Daulle, whose work with
the graver was certainly brilliant, took the Academy
by storm in 1742, by his engraving of ' Hyacinthe
Rigaud painting his Wife's Portrait.' Jacques Beau-
varlet made the mistake of overloading his plates with
' ,.. .
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 293
monotonous lines. His portrait of the sculptor Bou-
chardon obtained him the title of Academician. It is
neither his best engraving nor an exceptional work.
Jacques Balechou, whose style much resembles that
of Beauvarlet, executed with some talent the portrait
of M. de Julienne holding a paper on which Watteau's
face is seen, after a painting by J. B. de Troy. This
engraving is really superior to his more celebrated one
after Vanlop's ' St. Genevieve tending her Flock.'
John George Wille and George Frederick Schmidt
were both natives of Germany, but established them-
selves in France at an early age, and produced their
celebrated works in that country. Our notice of them
must be brief, as we have already spoken of them
amongst German artists. Wille engraved numerous
portraits after Tocque and De la Tour, and several
compositions after Terburg, Dietrich, and his son
Peter Alexander Wille. His work is excessively neat,
almost too much so, and his engravings have a weari-
some metallic appearance, which does not do justice
to the original paintings. French artists have never
been guilty of either of these faults. Wille's figures,
draperies, and furniture are all equally harsh ; in
looking at his prints we seem to have the glittering
lines and shining hollows of the plate itself, before us.
We must, however, admit that his execution shows
rare talent. G. F. Schmidt shared the faults and
talent of Wille ; he too was an excellent line engraver,
and many of his works justify his renown.
294 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Two brothers, Pierre Charles and Frar^ois Robert
Ingouf, engraved together a numerous series of por-
traits which show little originality or practical skill.
Charles Nicholas Cochin (Paris 1715 1788) engraved
profile portraits, in round medallions, of all the great
men of his day. The painter took great pains to give
individuality to each face, but the real value of the
work is obscured by the tiring monotony of so many
heads engraved in the same circle. The engravings of
Etienne Ficquet, Pierre Savart, and Jean Baptiste
Grateloup stand with regard to portraits in the same
relation that miniatures do towards historical painting.
These artists engraved, with the aid of a very strong
magnifying glass, some very pleasing portraits, which
are now highly prized. Ficquet, the most skilful of
the three, has left very good likenesses of Moliere, La
Fontaine, Corneille, and Boileau. P. Savart, like
Ficquet's other pupils, could not attain to the delicacy
of his master's works, and his name is now almost for-
gotten. J. B. Grateloup was so enamoured of fine
strokes that he tried to imitate with the graver the
work produced by the rocking tool balanced on the
metal ; he spent his whole life over nine engravings,
and we do not wonder that he became blind when we
examine his portrait of Bossuet after Rigaud's paint-
ing, which, should it possess no other merit, has that
of being a feat of great dexterity.
In the eighteenth century appeared a new style of
illustration until then unknown, we allude to vignettes.
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 295
They were small, it is true, but well suited to the
literature of that period. By a vignette we under-
stand an engraving of small dimensions illustrating a
text, a poem, or a romance. Artists produced such
spirited and clever vignettes that a taste for them was
created, and scarcely a book appeared which did not
contain several plates intended to fix on the mind of
the reader the principal scenes in the book. Hubert
Gravelot, who was undeniably the best designer of
vignettes, illustrated, as we should say now, the
' Moral Tales of Marmontel,' the ' Decameron ' of
Boccaccio, and the ' Works of Corneille.' The grace
which distinguished his compositions was faithfully
rendered by his engravers, Laurent Cars, J. Ph. Lebas,
Cl. Duflos, Choffart, and Aug. de St. Aubyn. It is
true that the designer has represented the heroes of
Corneille and Boccaccio in rooms decorated in the
fashion of his own day, with gilded ceilings and deco-
rated with flowers ; but we can forgive these anachro-
nisms on account of the spirited composition of the
whole, and the faithful record the artist has left us oi
the interior decorations of his time. In these finely
conceived and well drawn engravings we have compre-
hensive information of the manners and customs of
the French in the eighteenth century, that age of rapid
decline and general recklessness. Eisen drew less
correctly than Gravelot, but holds a good position
nevertheless. His designs in the ' Metamorphoses of
Ovid/ engraved by Nic. Ponce, Delaunay, Baquoy,
296 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING,
Ghendt, and Noel Lemire show both inventive power
and ability in interpreting the ideas of others. P. P.
Choffard was pre-eminently successful in composing
and engraving designs for tail-pieces and head-lines ;
invitation cards, addresses, or frames for maps, and
his skill in these inferior works did not prevent him,
when occasion required, from drawing in an agreeable
manner several compositions the subjects of which he
took from contemporaneous writers. A few years
before his death he published a ' Notice of the Art of
Engraving in France.' In it he not only proves his
practical ability, but also his love of his profession and
his respect for the masters who preceded him. This
work, small as it is, contains some very wise observa-
tions, which are valuable from such an artist as Chof-
fard. Marillier, Augustin de St. Aubin, Noel Lemire,
Delvaux, Tilliard, Simonet, and Longueil, engraved
their own and others' designs. Their works show that
they were all influenced by Gravelot and Eisen, but
many have also considerable individual merit. Moreau
the younger at first followed the example of his pre-
decessors, and produced some excellent and spirited
vignettes at the end of the eighteenth century ; but
unfortunately he was afterwards led astray by an evil
influence which altered his style and seemed to para-
lyze his powers. His engravings in the 'Songs' of
Laborde, the ' Judgment of Paris,' a poem by Imbert,
and the ' Good Soldier,' by Boussanelle, sparkle with
wit and are arranged with ease, whilst his engravings
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 297
for the ' Holy Bible ' and the ' Metamorphoses of
Ovid ' are pretentious and laboured. When Moreau
composed the vignettes for the latter works, David
was the reigning master, and his reforms were largely
influencing the taste and style of the French school.
Moreau the younger, vainly endeavoured to go with
the stream, he could not conform to rules so different
from those which had guided his early efforts, and in
the attempt he entirely, or nearly, lost the dexterity,
the spirit, and the elegance for which he had been
famed.
These designers of vignettes, who have left us such
trustworthy records of interior decoration in the
eighteenth century, were not equally successful with
architecture. Decorators by profession, such as
Gilles Marie Oppenort, Juste Aurele Meissonnier,
Babel, and Balechou have, however, left some en-
gravings of their designs, which are good guides to
the student of the style of that period. We must not
now detain the reader by discussing the singular ten-
dency of the eighteenth century, their contortions of
even the smallest mouldings, and their dislike of a
straight line, which was one of the peculiarities of the
art of this period ; we will merely notice, that in
default of superior taste and love of simplicity, the
architects of that day were certainly most skilful
decorators, and the artists we have named above were
good interpreters of their productions, and have trans-
mitted exact and complete records of their works.
298 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
We have purposely refrained from speaking of Jean
Baptiste Greuze at the same time as Watteau, Lancret,
Pater, and Chardin. He belonged to the school of
the eighteenth century indirectly only ; his works,
with the exception of his portraits, are pompous and
theatrical. His best subjects are taken from domestic
life, but he did not altogether succeed with them.
The ' Paternal Malediction,' the 'Village Bride,' the
' Reading of the Bible,' the ' Paralytic waited on by
his Children,' are pure melodrama with him, and he
seems to have missed the simplicity and the home-
liness which, in the eighteenth century as now, must
have characterised family life. In painting, he con-
trasted colours without entirely blending them. Some
engravers endeavoured to imitate him. Jean Jacques
Flipart (1723-1782) employed etching almost entirely,
and tried to counterfeit the bold dashes of a thick
brush with a needle, using the graver merely to deepen
the coloured parts and to finish off the engraving.
His best engravings, the 'Village Bride,' the 'Para-
lytic,' and the ' Twelfth Cake,' are in this style. P. C.
Ingouf worked in the same manner, and succeeded
equally well. The ' Peace of the Household ' and the
' Good Teaching ' show practical ability, and an evi-
dent desire to be faithful to the painting. Jean Mas-
sard profited by the lessons of his master, George
Wille, and gave proof of talent in the ' Broken Pitcher/
the ' Benevolent Lady/ and the ' Well-loved Mother/
Jean Charles Levasseur produced good engravings of
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 299
the 'Stepmother/ the 'Destroyed Will/ the 'Little
Scapegrace/ and ' Youthful Study/ which give a very
just idea of Greuze's paintings. Numbers of engravers
contributed greatly to the fame of this artist's works,
and he was most fortunate in finding so many skilful
interpreters in his own time. Great and exaggerated
as was Greuze's success, his conventional and preten-
tious manner of treating domestic joys and woes was
imitated by few. Not more than three or four artists,
J. E. Schenau, Et. Aubry, and P. A. Wille, took their
line from him ; but after this brief delusion, a new era,
inaugurated by Louis David, began for art, and models
were sought for in the works of antiquity. Engraving
followed the example of painting ; it left for ever the
quick and easy style, and once and for all aspired to
compositions of a high order, such as suited the
earnest, reflective, and docile genius of the French.
Nevertheless, the return to the study of the antique
was not accomplished in a day. So radical a change
required a transition state. Liberated society, long
oppressed, was unsettled for a time, and it was the
same with art. The Count of Caylus was the first to
endeavour, by his writings and engravings, to make
the beauties of antiquity and of the Renaissance
known and appreciated. Jean Francois Peyron was
equally zealous in the good cause. He engraved some
of Poussin's works, and brought out original composi-
tions in the same style. Joseph Marie Vien followed
up Peyron's efforts, and assumed the subdued manner.
300 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
He attracted many young artists by his talent, but he
could not carry out the noble work. He has but the
honour of having guided the first efforts of the artist who
was to exercise such long and despotic influence over
French art, and to lead it on to its glorious destiny.
We allude to Jacques Louis David, who had very
many pupils, but, strange to say, is perhaps the only
one of the great masters who did not attract engravers
anxious to reproduce his works and to share his
renown.
The Revolution so entirely absorbed public atten-
tion, that, during the Republic, art was exclusively
occupied with the events of the day. The chief aim
of engravers was to supply the public with news, and
they generally rapidly etched the outlines of their
subjects, leaving the rest to professional colourists,
who added flat tints to each proof. These coarse
representations are of no artistic value, but they may
be consulted with profit by an historian interested in
the smallest actions of a great nation in a state of
transition. Some few artists excelled in this style of
engraving, and produced creditable works. Duplessis
Bertaux, compared by his contemporaries to Callot,
engraved an immense number of the events of the
Revolution. His etching was delicate, often spirited ;
he was most skilful in arranging complicated compo-
sitions, but when he had to deal with larger figures
than usual his power deserted him, and his drawing
became heavy and very incorrect. In this he resem-
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 301
bled his predecessors, the engravers of vignettes, who
thought more of general harmony than of correct
detail.
Louis Philibert Debucourt (1755 1832) was the
cleverest of the engravers of the Revolution. In the
years before and after the death of Louis XVI. he
engraved in colour the ' Garden of the Palais Royal/
the ' Gallery of the Palais Royal,' the ' Shrubberies,'
the ' Compliment,' ' Annette and Lubin,' and several
other familiar subjects. He was of an observing and
inquiring mind, and had decided talent for engraving.
At first, he obtained excellent colouring by means of
successive plates ; his spirited drawing was well suited
to this process, which, in his hands, fulfilled all the
requirements of art. When the storms of the Revolu-
tion were over, Debucourt attempted a totally different
style, that of aquatint, with which, however, he was
not equally successful. He now turned to the works
of others in preference, and only occasionally pro-
duced anything original. He aged rapidly, and the
engravings of his early life alone are worthy of study.
At this transition period, Sergent Marceau also dis-
tinguished himself by some spirited engravings, but
he was not very fertile, and his works are now of little
value. The other artists of the Revolution are scarcely
worth mentioning ; their works are interesting as
referring to one of the most important eras of French
history, but not from an artistic point of view. Suffice
it to say that they are very numerous, and may be
302 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
consulted in public institutions, where they have been
collected and carefully preserved.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century the art
of portrait-taking, which had been carried to such
perfection, was almost abandoned in France. An
engraver named Quenedey invented an instrument
which mechanically reproduced the human profile on
copper ; the artist had merely to touch up the work
of the machine, so that he could quickly and cheaply
supply the public demand. The invention became so
fashionable that few families were without likenesses
in physionotracy. Pupils and imitators took advan-
tage of Quenedey's success. Chretien in France, and
Saint Mesmin in America, engraved numberless por-
traits with a similar instrument, but as art was only
an auxiliary in the process, these likenesses were all
equally dull-looking, and very soon lost the brief
favour they had enjoyed.
Before closing our review of engraving in France,
we must speak of one artist who used etching himself,
and employed two very clever engravers. Pierre Paul
Prud'hon belongs as much to the nineteenth as to the
eighteenth century. He himself transferred his charm-
ing design of ' Phrosyne and Melidora ' to copper.
There are evident signs of inexperience in this
engraving. It is rather the work of a good painter
than of an engraver. Louis Copia and Barthelemy
Roger engraved Prud'hon's chief works under his
supervision, and seem to have entirely caught the
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 303
spirit of the painter. Their line-engravings, which
were finished off with well-distributed stippling, enable
every one to admire the ' French Constitution,' * Inno-
cence beguiled by Love/ ' Innocence preferring Love
to Wealth/ the 'Thirst of Gold/ and many other
equally superior works, which might otherwise have
been entirely lost, or known only to a few privileged
persons.
The reform effected in art by David extended to
engraving, which recovered its former splendour.
Charles Clement Bervic (May, 1756 March, 1822)
gave early proof of great talent for drawing. He was
one of John George Wille's best pupils. Like his
master, he employed the graver only, but his strokes
are easier and more symmetrical, and his engravings
have not the metallic appearance which we condemned
in those by Wille. We know how justly successful
were his ' Education of Achilles ' after Regnault, the
' Rape of Deianeira ' after Guido, the ' Portrait of
Louis XVI' after Callot, and the ' Laocoon.' In
these engravings the artist has succeeded, by good
management, in concentrating the attention on the
chief parts of the composition, and they retain the
value which every well-studied work must have in the 5
eyes of good judges, and have been most useful exam-
ples to the modern French school of engraving.
Pierre Alexander Tardieu, who took lessons of
Wille with Bervic, was almost equally talented,
although he was less famous, and had few pupils.
304 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
His masterpiece, the portrait of the Earl of Arundel
after A. Vandyck, may be considered one of the most
remarkable works of the French school. This engrav-
ing admirably renders the bright and harmonious
colouring of the great Flemish painter's work ; it is
executed entirely with the graver, and the same pro-
cess was employed as in Gerard Edelinck's justly
admired portraits. P. A. Tardieu brought out an
engraving after the dead figure of 'Lepelletier de
St. Fargeau/ painted by David for the Convention
Hall, which is now lost or carefully withheld from the
public. The plate fared no better than the painting,
it was destroyed, but the rare impressions from it
which have been saved give us a very high opinion
both of the original painting and of the engraver's
appreciation of it ; the general style is subdued, and
great knowledge of drawing is shown in the figure
stretched on the bed. Antoine Alexander Morel took
one of his best engravings from another of David's
designs for the Convention Hall, ' Marat in his Bath.'
We are indebted to the same artist for talented inter-
pretations of the celebrated compositions of the 'Oath
of the Horatii,' and 'Belisarius' by David.
Boucher Desnoyers' first works were of little value ;
he employed a disagreeable and feeble kind of stip-
pling, but later he conceived great admiration for
Raphael. He at once saw that profound study of
drawing and constant application could alone enable
him to cope with the difficulties of the great master's
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 305
paintings, and with rare courage he set to work and re-
commenced his education. He began by superintend-
ing the publication of a collection of copies from old
pictures, but as soon as he felt himself master of the
difficulties of drawing he ventured to engrave ' La
belle Jardiniere ' after the painting in the Louvre.
He was completely successful, and his fame was at
once established in a brilliant manner. Orders flowed
in on every side, and in a few years he successfully
engraved the ( Portrait of the Emperor Napoleon/
that of 'M. de Talleyrand/ and 'Belisarius' after
Gerard, the ' Madonna della Sedia/ the ' Madonna di
Foligno/ the ' Vierge au Linge/ the * Vierge de la
Maison d'Albe ' after Raphael, and the ' Vierge aux
Rochers ' after Leonardo da Vinci. This fertility is
the more surprising when we note the care and deli-
cacy of the execution of the smallest details in Boucher
Desnoyers' engravings. He interpreted Raphael's
paintings better than any of his predecessors. The
* Transfiguration ' was his last work. When his powers
were already failing him, he determined once more to
testify his admiration for the great painter who had,
so to speak, filled his life. He therefore composed an
' Appendix to the History of Raphael/ published by
Quatremere de Quincy, in which he showed his undy
ing love and unfading appreciation of the master of
his choice.
Boucher Desnoyers is not the only distinguished
engraver of the nineteenth century. Messrs. Forster,
306 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
Martinet, Calamatta, and Mercuri rank high in the
school ; and M. Henriquel-Dupont, author of ' The
Lady/ after Vandyck, ' Lord Stafford/ ' The Portrait
of M. Bertin,' and the ' Hemicycle du Palais des
Beaux-Arts/ has recently shown in his ' Disciples of
Emmaus ' that his powers are still at their zenith, or,
if we may so speak of a master, that they are even
on the increase. This new work, executed with ease
and consummate skill, should, we think, be considered
a masterpiece, and as such it is a good study for
artists who still care to work at engraving, which is
now superseded, not because there is less talent than
formerly, but by the discovery of many mechanical
processes, useful in their way, but fatal to the art of
the engraver. At no other time were there more
skilful artists of every kind in France. Messrs.
Francois, Salmon, Rousseaux, Levasseur, and Huot
appear likely to reproduce the line-engraving of better
days. M. Gaillard devotes himself entirely to superior
works, and renders their character and their peculiar
beauty well on metal ; M. Leopold Flameng has
worked his way to the rank of a master ; in a diffe-
rent style of art Messrs. Gaucherd and Jules Jacque-
mart have been pre-eminently successful. On every
side engravers are working at etching, their only
fault being their over haste to multiply their works ;
had they a little more painstaking industry, a little
more study of drawing, they might become famous,
and even found a true school of etching in France.
ENGRA VING IN FRANCE. 307
Our work must now close. We have seen how
French engraving drew its inspiration now from
Flanders, now from Italy, but speedily became a
national art with characteristic peculiarities. After
being devoted for some time to the works of others,
or to the reproduction of their own intelligent compo-
sitions, engravers turned to the engraving of history.
They submitted themselves to the influence of Poussin
and Lebrun. We have seen how they succeeded.
This grand style suited them admirably, and they
remained true to it in their interpretation of the works
of the painters then at the head of the school. For
a short while they turned aside, attracted by vignette
engraving, in which, however, they were most suc-
cessful. From the beginning of this century they
have again been devoted to historical engraving, and
to it they are indebted for their great renown. The
glory which surrounds French engravers is well
merited ; in their skilful, bold, and powerful works
have they not spread abroad the love of the beautiful ?
Did they not lead the way in the progress now being
carried out ?
308 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
CHAPTER VIII.
PROCESSES.
Engraving on Wood, Camaieu Copper-plate Engraving Line
Engraving, Etching, Dry Point, Combination of Etching and
Line Engraving, Mezzotint, Aquatint, Chalk style, Engraving
in Colour, Physionotracy, Heliography or Photography
Printing.
T)EFORE closing our history of engraving and
-D engravers it will be as well to say a few words
on the many different processes employed. Engraving
requires, above all, a thorough knowledge of drawing.
Without it, an engraver may become a skilful work-
man, but never an artist. All the great masters in
engraving have paid special attention to this branch
of their art, and the most skilful were also talented
painters. There are many different modes of en-
graving ; the most popular are wood-engraving,
line-engraving, and etching. The other processes are
derived from these. We will consider them sepa-
rately.
PROCESSES. 309
Engraving on Wood. Wood-engraving is earlier
than any other kind, it even preceded printing, pro-
perly so called ; characters were engraved on wood
before moveable types were invented. The first works
embellished with woodcuts, the ' Speculum Humanae
Salvationis/ the ' Biblia Pauperum/ and others less
celebrated, appeared at a time when manuscripts
were becoming inadequate to supply the wants of the
increasing number 'of readers. So great was the
impatient and commendable curiosity awakened on
all sides, that copyists could not work fast enough
to supply the increasing demand ; and this led to
the printing from engraved characters on a block,
but it was not then that engraving itself was in-
vented. For the real origin of this art we must
go back to the -most remote times ; the Greeks, the
Egyptians, and the Romans cut inscriptions on wood
or metal for the instruction of the people ; but the
secret of printing was still unknown, and it was the
yearning for knowledge in the fifteenth century which
led to its discovery. At the end of a few years
moveable types were invented, and, of course, the
entire mystery of printing was solved. Pictures were
used from the first as being easily understood by the
people and likely to impress facts on their minds. A
wooden block was employed for taking off the first
engravings, such as had been used for printing " letters
of indulgence." Wood being easily cut, was at first
employed by the " picture carvers," so called because
310 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
they cut strokes in the wood roughly, but which out-
lined their designs. The earliest woodcut with a
positive inscription bears date 1418. The only known
impression is in the Royal Library of Brussels. For
a long time the ' St. Christopher/ with an inscription
and the date 1423, was thought to be the first wood-
cut ; the invention is now, however, moved back five
years, and some new discovery may even yet fix it a
few years earlier. This question is but of secondary
interest to the history of engraving ; artists look
upon the first production of a really beautiful work
as the true beginning of an art. The religious pictures
brought out by poor engravers, who thought less of
artistic beauty than of exciting devotion, could scarcely
be called works of art. The work of the wood-
engraver is as follows : with a very sharp tool he cuts
away all those parts of the block of box or pear-tree
wood which the designer has not covered ; he must
follow every line of the artist's drawing, cutting away
the whites and leaving the blacks. He must never
work independently, unless the strokes are not indi-
cated, or a mere wash gives the shading in any object.
The tools employed by a wood engraver are called
burins, or gravers, scopers, needles, chisels, gouges,
scrapers, and mallets.
Engraving en Camaien. Engraving en camaieu
involves the same processes as wood-engraving, or,
rather, it is a superior kind of wood-engraving. It
may be as well to note how this superiority was
PROCESSES. 311
obtained. When printing was first introduced the
only object was to multiply or counterfeit manuscripts,
and printers generally left a small space at the head
of each chapter for an ornamental initial letter or
title. This they supposed would contribute to the
illusion. Different tones were necessary to imitate
painting ; they therefore used blocks of wood inked
separately with different tones, and clamped together
so as to be printed from all in one. This combination
of blocks led to the invention of engraving en camaieu,
which rapidly improved in the hands of skilful artists.
A first block gave an exact outline of the form to be
produced, a second provided the shadows, and the
white of the paper was reserved for the lights. We
must observe that, by the aid of an exact register, the
second printing was taken upon the first impres-
sion. The first block gave the print the appearance
of a pen-sketch, and the second that of a washed
drawing.
We have now considered the process in which two
blocks were used and three tones obtained the out-
line, the shadow, and the light. This was the mode of
working at first ; later, by means of a greater number
of blocks, the tints were multiplied and numerous
gradations obtained. Two blocks were, however,
sufficient to produce what is called an engraving en
camaieu. The word camaieu thus applied is derived
from cameo, a stone in layers of different colours,
so much and so successfully employed in antique
gem engraving.
3 i2 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING.
Copper-plate Engraving. This process is diametri-
cally opposite to that employed in engraving on
wood. In the latter all that is to be dark in the
impression is left in relief, in the former the dark
lines are cut into the metal plate, and the damp paper
is subjected to so much pressure that it sucks up the
ink from the hollows. Copper-plate engraving neces-
sitates long and careful work, and somewhat intricate
preliminary studies. Having made a correct drawing
of the composition or figure to be produced on copper
or steel, the engraver transfers his design to metal by
means of an exact copy on tracing paper, which gives
the outlines, the strong shadows, and the half-tints.
This done, the artist begins to trace with the graver
lines more or less deep, according to the amount of
light required. These first strokes form the foundation
of the subsequent work, and they require most correct
and careful drawing. Sometimes the lines are crossed
again, and yet again, to mark and shade the design
more effectually. A stroke may be introduced be-
tween parallel lines when the shadows require deepen-
ing, or in engraving flesh, to avoid the unpleasing
effect of too much lozenge or square-shaped shading.
Sometimes the engraver avoids too abrupt a transition
from light to shade by the use of dots, which soften
the tone. Such, briefly stated, are the labours of a
line-engraver, whose work is peculiarly well suited to
compositions of a high order. Some artists have used
the graver to improve the appearance and heighten
PROCESSES. 315
the colouring of their etchings. We will speak
of them when we have considered the process of
etching.
Etching. We have said that line-engraving, which
requires slow and careful execution and complete
finish, is chiefly suitable for compositions of a high
order ; the easy and rapid process of etching, on the
contrary, is best adapted to homely and familiar
scenes or sketches, although artists of genius may
occasionally employ it for grand conceptions. The
process is as follows : The plate of copper or steel is
first moderately heated, and whilst it is held over the
fire it is covered with a very thin .coating of varnish
coloured with lamp-black and adhering to every part
equally. The engraver then marks out his sketch
with needles of varying size, according- to the depth
of the stroke required, working on the varnish as he
would on paper, with a pen or pencil. An incision is
thus made in the varnish wherever marks are to appear
in the print ; and the plate is protected in those parts
which are to be untouched and to be white in the im-
pression. A border of wax is now raised round the
plate, and nitric acid is poured over it, diluted with
water, lest it should affect the plate too much, which
would prevent the proper management of the biting
in. When the acid is on the plate, it is as well to
spread it about with a very soft brush, that it may act
equally in every part. When the acid has thoroughly
316 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
done its work it is removed, the plate is cleaned, and
the varnish taken off with a rag soaked in spirits of
turpentine. The drawing, which before appeared on
the varnish, is now seen in sunken lines on the metal.
The plate goes to the printer, who takes a proof of it,
by which the artist can judge of his work. If any
Fig. 31. The Mountebank, etched by REMBRANDT.
parts are too much or too little accented, it is no great
matter, the faults of a first biting-in can easily be
remedied. A roller, saturated with varnish, is lightly
passed over the plate, which is thus entirely re-
covered ; the work is then gone over with the needle
wherever it requires strengthening, and bitten in
PROCESSES. 317
again. Any lines too strongly bitten in the first
time are rubbed up with a burnisher, a round tool
used for that purpose.
So many facilities were attractive to painters, and
numbers employed etching ; it is the only mode oT
engraving which does not require preliminary study,
Fig. 32. Vanity, etched by J. CALLOT.
experience is all that is needed to give firmness of
hand and knowledge of effect, and this an artist who
can draw will rapidly acquire. Although this mode
of engraving is so very simple that any one may learn
it, those who have excelled in it are few. The drawing
being the chief thing, it is absolutely necessary to be
a skilful designer before becoming a good etcher
3 1 8 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
It is essential, also, to have sufficient knowledge of
chiaro-oscuro to be able to obtain all the gradations of
light and shade by means of the black ink and the
white paper. It follows that distinguished etchers are
rare, and that in this, as in every branch of art, to
excel in it is the exception and not the rule.
Engraving ^vith the Dry Point. By this we under-
stand a process which generally accompanies, and
often gives finish to, etching. The artist draws on
the bare metal with a very sharp needle, thereby
raising a burr, which leaves a very soft and delicate
stroke. These burrs, which are so effective in Rem-
brandt's works, will not stand much printing from, and
soon disappear. This is why the first proofs of en-
gravings with a dry point are so much valued and
fetch so high a price at sales.
The Combination of Etching and Line Engraving.
This kind of engraving must be noticed in a history
of the art, because in it etching plays a secondary
and preparatory part only. The engraver transfers an
exact tracing of his design to the metal covered with
a coat of varnish, which is obtained thus : the copy is
pricked with a needle on a sheet of tracing paper, the
holes are filled with coloured powder, generally red ;
it is spread on the plate, and rubbing it with the nail
is all that is needed to make an impression of it on
the varnish. This first operation performed, the en-
PROCESSES. 319
graver goes over the lines in the varnish with a steel
needle, passing over the clear parts and marking out
the shadows, in fact, leaving nothing to be done after
the biting in but the heightening, doubling or trebling
of the hatching, as occasion requires. The sculptor,
as we know, entrusts the rough hewing of the marble
for his statue to a workman, who gives the general
outline of the model supplied to him ; in the same
way the engraver often takes up and completes the
work in his own individual style when the mechanical
part is done, allowing some clever pupil to prepare
the plate and do the etching.
Mezzotint Engraving. Horace Walpole, anxious
to give the honour of the invention of this style to a
fellow-countryman, tells us, in his 'Anecdotes of
Painting/ vol. v. p. 161 (Ed. 1828), how Prince Rupert,
the nephew of Charles I., was led to its discovery when
living in retirement at Brussels, after the year 1649.
"Going out early one morning, he observed the
sentinel at some distance from his post, very busy
doing something to his piece. The prince asked what
he was about. He replied, the dew had fallen in the
night, had made his fusil rusty, and that he was
scraping and cleaning it. The prince looking at it,
was struck with something like a figure eaten into the
barrel, with innumerable little holes close together,
like friezed work on gold or silver, part of which the
fellow had scraped away.
32O
WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
" One knows what a mere good officer would have
said on such an accident ; if a fashionable officer, he
might have damned the poor fellow, and given him a
shilling, but the 'genie fecond en experiences ' from
33
-A profile Portrait, Mezzotint Engraving by Prince RUPERT
Palatine of the Rhine.
so trifling an accident conceived mezzotinto. The
prince concluded that some contrivance might be
found to cover a brass plate with such a grained
ground of fine-pressed holes, which would undoubtedly
give an impression all black, and that by scraping
away proper parts the smooth superficies would leave
the rest of the paper white. Communicating his idea
PROCESSES. 321
to Wallerant Vaillant, a painter whom he maintained,
they made several experiments."
Unfortunately for the English historian, mezzotint
engraving had already been invented for several years,
and Louis of Siegen, a German officer, had employed
it in 1643, f r m " s portrait of Amelia Elizabeth, the
Landgravine of Hesse-Cassel ; and a certain Frangois
Aspruck had engraved a series of thirteen plates of
Christ and the Apostles, and one of 'Venus and
Cupid,' which all bear the date 1601, by means of
some process giving a result very similar to that
obtained from mezzotint. " Novo hoc in aere typi
genere"
In mezzotint engraving the copper or steel plate is
scraped with an instrument called a rocking tool,
which requires careful balancing. It is a semi-circular
steel tool much roughened at one end, which pene-
trates the metal and produces numberless little dents
very near each other. When the surface is equally
furrowed with this rocking tool, a scraper is used to
soften the ridges more or less as the lights are to be
stronger or fainter, and to remove them entirely when
high lights are required. This is quite a different
operation to that employed in other kinds of en-
graving. Instead of merely drawing all that is to
be shaded in the impression, those parts alone are
worked at which are to be removed or softened.
There is a danger of imperfect results from mezzotint
engraving. If not very carefully managed, the work
Y
322 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
with the rocking tool may make the proof look
spiritless and confused, the transitions from light to
shade may so easily be slurred over that the greatest
precaution is needed to obtain good and pleasing
gradations of tone. Another thing which discourages
the use of mezzotint is that the plate will not bear
much printing from. After furnishing a few hundred
prints the roughness obtained by the rocking tool,
and which gives tone to the impression, becomes
crushed in the press, and in some parts even disap-
pears altogether.
Aquatint Engraving. This process resembles
mezzotint in its results, and is often confounded with
it, but it is in reality quite different. Instead of first
furrowing the plate with the rocking tool, the engraver
begins by tracing the outlines of his design on the
bare plate,. which he then sprinkles equally with very
fine sand or resin from a sieve. Resin is preferable to
sand or anything else, as it adheres readily to the
plate when slightly warmed. The acid slowly but
plentifully poured on to the surface thus prepared
corrodes all the imperceptible spaces between the
grains of resin, and this mass of similar and equi-
distant dots makes the print look soft and harmonious.
The tone produced resembles that of a washed
drawing to such an extent that the first aquatint
engravings by J. B. Leprince, the inventor (about 1787),
were often taken for washed drawings. The art has
PROCESSES. 323
been perfected since the time of Leprince, and some
able artists have obtained admirable results from it.
The Chalk Style supplies a modern demand, and
was really invented by Francois and Dumarteau, al-
though the origin may be traced back to John Lutma.
The imitation in engraving of the effect of chalk on
the grain of the paper allows of the multiplication of
fac-simile copies of the handiwork of the greatest
masters, which are most accurate and excellent, and
therefore very useful to collectors and young artists,
serving them as models and guides, without which
they would err inevitably. To obtain these fac-similes
the engraver uses a revolving wheel or roulette, which
is a small cylinder of steel turning on an axle fixed
to a handle and proportioned to the size of the stroke
about to be produced. The outer part of this little
wheel is covered with sharp teeth, which bite the
varnished copper in several places at once. When
the aquafortis has acted on this first work, the artist,
with the same instrument, retouches on the bare copper
those parts he wishes to mark more strongly. A tool
with the end unequally roughened, which produces
similar effects to the roulette, is sometimes used. To
give the appearance of drawings in red or bistre, the
greater number of Francois and Demarteau's en-
gravings have been printed in red or brown, thereby
aiding the illusion.
Engraving in Colour naturally followed the chalk
324 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
style, and the process is rather like that of engraving
en camateu. It was invented by James Christopher
Leblon, an artist of Frankfort, who conceived the idea
of printing on the same sheet of paper from plates
impregnated with differently coloured inks. By means
of an exact register he was able to print the colours in
the correct places. He obtained surprising results,
and executed a portrait of Louis XV. which at a dis-
tance might really deceive the most experienced eye.
To imitate drawings he employed the same process
as Frangois and Demarteau. The only difference be-
tween the two styles consists in the variation of tone
obtained by means of superposed printings. En-
graving in colour has been practised by many skilful
French artists. It has not succeeded entirely with
figures, but it is worthy of attention, as many subjects
from anatomy and natural history, and monuments of
many-coloured architecture, could not have been well
rendered without great expense by any other process
before the invention of chromo-lithography.
Physionotracy. At the end of the eighteenth century
a French artist named Quenedey invented a machine
by means of which he copied the human profile mathe-
matically. The outline alone was fixed on the copper
in one unbroken line, and the artist shaded and worked
out the shape with sufficient skill to give a certain
appearance of truth to the physiognomy. His inven-
tion had great success at first, but for a short time only.
PROCESSES. 325
Photography. Photographic engraving is a modern
invention. To M. Niepce de St. Victor belongs the
honour of having discovered how to print a photo-
graphic proof like a copper-plate engraving. He was
the first to obtain satisfactory results, but he had the
advantage of the experience of many wise men and of
his uncle Nicephore Niepce, whose researches were
cut short by death. Photography has made great
efforts in this direction. Messrs. Riffaut, Ch. Negre,
Baldus, Durand, and Gamier have brought out excel-
lent proofs, obtained by some secret but evidently
very effective process, and we think we may now look
upon all difficulties as conquered. Still better results
will doubtless be obtained, and engravers, to whom
photography was a fatal blow, may console themselves
with the thought that there are some difficulties which
art alone can master, and with which the most perfect
mechanical process is unable to cope.
Printing. The printing of engravings, of whatever
kind, always requires great care. Wood-engravings,
generally combined with the text, are printed like
letter-press. In his ' Grammar of the Arts of Design/
p. 695, Charles Blanc speaks with his usual clearness
of the care required in printing wood-engravings with
the text : " One thing is wanted," he says, " in early
woodcuts, the finish now given to them in printing by
a contrivance called decoupage. By attaching portions
of paper or pasteboard, of suitable thickness, to certain
parts of the tympan (a thick sheet of leather through
326 WONDERS OF ENGRA VING.
which the pressure is applied to the wood block)
more or less pressure is obtained on the different parts
as required. If it be necessary to bring forward the
foreground of an engraving, a pad is applied to the
part corresponding therewith, and to throw back the
distance a thin slice of the pad is removed, which
softens the pressure, lessens the quantity of ink, and
thereby lightens the tone."
The process of printing is quite different in copper-
plate engraving. We have already stated that all
that is to appear in the proof is engraved in sunken
lines. The paper, which is first damped or soaked, is
pressed hard enough to suck up the ink from the
hollows. Having placed the plate over a fire which
slightly heats it, the workman fills the engraving with
ink in every part, he then carefully wipes the plate
with a pad of thick muslin, so as to remove the ink
where it is not wanted, and proceeds to rub whiting over
the metal with the palm of his hand until it is quite
bright. Thus prepared the plate is laid upon blankets,
the damp paper, which is to receive the impression, is
spread upon it, and with all its accessories it is passed
between the rollers, the flannels preventing undue
pressure, and a proof is obtained which must be care-
fully removed, as the ink makes it adhere a little to
the metal, and the paper is still damp. To remove
any ink that may have remained in the lines, the
printer cleans the engraving with spirits of turpentine,
and proceeds as before.
I
"S
5
PH
PROCESSES. 329
To omit nothing we ought perhaps to explain the
numerous processes by which peculiar effects are pro-
duced in printing engravings. But this would detain
us too long. Suffice it to state that the printer, work-
ing under the supervision* of the artist, may often be
of great service to him. This co-operation, however,
is only possible with etchings. In line-engravings
there is little room for skill or management, every-
thing is so completely finished that the printer has
nothing to do but to spread the ink equally upon the
plate so that the proof may exactly tally with the
engraver's work upon the copper.
Some painters who employed etching took the
trouble of printing their own engravings. By inking
some parts more or less strongly they obtained dif-
ferent degrees of strength. Rembrandt, the master of
etching, entrusted the printing of his engravings to no
one, he reserved that task for himself. His skill in
effects was so great that proofs taken from the same
copper differ entirely from each other. Some, filled
with ink and not much worked up, make the design
look dark and gloomy ; whilst others, lightly inked,
throw it out and almost flood it with light.
INDEX OF ENGRAVERS' NAMES.
Aldegrever (Henry), 91, 145, 170
Alix (Jean), 272
Altdorfer (Albrecht), 145, 166
Amman (Jost), 145, 174
Andrea (Zoan), 28
Andreani (Andrea), 8
Androuet du Cerceau (Jacques), 234
Assen (John Walter van), 86
Aubert (Michel), 282
Audran (Benoit), 282
Andran (Gerard), 261, 262, 266,
267, 268, 269, 282
Agostino (Veneziano), 6r
A vice (Chevalier), 263
Babel, 297
Backuysen (Louis), HO
Baldini (Baccio), 16
Baldus, 325
Balechou (Jacques), 293
Baquoy, 295
Barbari (Giacomo de), 29, 35, 36
Barbe (Jean-Baptiste), 228
Barbieri (Giovanni Francesco) called
Guercino, 55
Barlow (Francis), 195
Baron (Bernard), 189
Ban-as (Sebastien), 277
Bartoli (Pietro Santo), 72
Bartolozzi (Francesco), 193
Baudet (Etienne), 263
Beatrizet (Nicolas), 69, 224
Beauvarlet (Jacques), 292, 293
Bega (Cornelius), 101
Beham (Bartholomew), 69, 91, 167
Beham (Hans Sebald), 145, 167,
168, 221
Bella (Stefano della), 250
Bellange (Jacques), 256
Berghem (Nicolas), 101
Bernard (L.), 277
Bernard (Salomon), 212
Bervic (Charles Clement), 180, 303
Binck (Jacob), 69, 168, 169
Bloemaert (Cornelius), 112, 130
Bloteling (Abraham), 118
Bocholt (Franz van), 157
Boillot (Joseph), 226
Bol (Ferdinand), 99
Boldrini (Niccolo), 8
Bolswert (Boethius of), 124
Bolswert (Schelte of), 124, 127,
128, 132, 135
Bonasone (Giulio), 63
Bonn (Jan of), 143
Bonnemer (Marin), 218
Bosse (Abraham), 249, 265
Both (Andrew), 105
Both (John), 105, 106
Botticelli (Sandro), 16, 19
Boucher (Fra^ois), 282, 286
Boucher-Desnoyers (Auguste), 264,
305
Bouchier (Jean), 227
2 A
332
ENGRA VERS' NAMES.
Boulanger (Jean), 271
Boullongne (Louis de), 275
Bourdon (Sebastian), 275
Bout (Peter), no
Bouys (Andre), 277
Boyer d' Aiguilles, 277
Boyvin (Rene), 230, 232
Brauwer (Adrien), 100
Brebiette (Pierre), 256
Brescia (Antonio da), 28
Briot, 238
Brizzio (Francesco), 53, 70
Bry (Theodore de), 174, 175
Burgmair (Hans), 142
Calamatta (Luigi), 306
Callot (Jacques), 243, 244, 245,
246, 249, 250, 253, 265, 275
Campagnola (Domenico), 29, 32,
35
Campagnola (Giulio), 29, 31, 32,
35, 61
Canaletto (Antonio), 38, 39
Cantarini (Simone), called the Pesa-
rese, 54
Capellani (Antonio), 72
Caraglio (Jacopo), 62
Carmona (Salvador), 77
Carmontelle (L. C. de), 290
Carpi (Ugo da), 8
Carracci (Agostino), 50, 51, 52,
56,69
Carracci (Annibale), 50, 51, 52, 56
Carracci (Luigi), 50, 51
Cars (Laurent), 282, 285, 287, 295
Casa (Niccolo della), 224
Caxton (William), 183, 184
Caylus (Count of), 290
Chapron (Nicolas), 256
Chartier (Jean), 226
Chatillon (Claude), 265
Chauveau (Fra^ois), 256
Choffart (P. P.), 295
Chretien, 302
Claas (Albert), 91
Clint (G.), 196
Cochin (Charles Nicolas), 287, 290,
294
Cochin (Nicolas), 282, 287
Codore (Ollivier), 217
Collaert (Adrien), 92, 120
Copia (Louis), 302
Corbutt (C), 196
Coriolano (Giovanni Baptista), 70
Corneille (Claude), 222
Corneille (Michel Ange), 275
Cornelisz (Jacob), 86
Cort (Cornelius), 52, 70, 229
Cossin (Jean), 223
Cousins (Samuel), 198
Couvay (Jean), 189, 263
Coypels (The), 287
Cranach (Lucas), 141
Cruickshank (George), 205
Cruickshank (Isaac), 206
Cruickshank (Robert), 206
Cunego (Domenico), 72
Curenbert (Dirck Volkart), 92
Custos (Dominic), 175
Dalen (Cornelius van), 117
Daret (Pierre), 236, 238, 255
Daulle (Jean), 292
Daven (Leon, or Tiry), 231
Debucourt (Louis Philibert), 301
Dei (Matteo di Giovanni), 13
Delafage (Nicolas), 257
Delaunay (Robert), 295
Delaune (Etienne), 225
Delvaux (Joseph), 296
Demarteau (Giles), 286, 324
Dente (Marco) or Marco of Ravenna,
61
Deruet (Claude), 244, 250
ENGRAVERS' NAMES.
333
Desfriches (Thomas), 290
Desplaces (Louis), 282
Dickinson (W.), 196
Dieterlin (Wendel), 177
Dietrich (Charles), 177
Dixon (John), 196, 198
Dorigny (Michel), 254, 255
Drevet (Claude), 292
Drevet (Pierre), the father, 291
Drevet (Pierre), the son, 291, 292
Dubois (Heli), 265
Duflos (Claude), 295
Dughet (Giovanni), 263
Dujardin (Karel), 102, 105
Dumoustier (Geoffrey), 232
Dunkarton (B.), 196
Duperac (Etienne), 225
Duplessis (Bertaux), 300
Dupre (Jean), 208
Durand, 325
Diirer (Albert), 30, 35, 42, 46, 56,
61, 84, 88, 91, 112, 140, 141, I43>
144, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162,
165, 166, 168, 170, 221, 245
Dusart (Cornelius), 89, 100, 101
Duvet (Jean), 222, 224
Dyck (Anthony van), 127, 129, 131,
132, 135
Earlom (Richard), 195
Edelinck (Gerard), 263, 269, 270,
274, 278, 291, 304
Esquivel (Manuel), 77
Eustache (William), 211
Faber (J.), 196
Faithorne (William), 186, 189
Falck (Jeremiah), 116
Fantuzzi (Antonio), 230
Felsing (James), 181
Ficquet (Etienne), 294
Fillceul (Pierre), 287
Finiguerra (Maso), 3, 9, 10, 13, 19,
148
Firens (Pierre), 228, 242
Fisher (E.), 196
Flamen (Albert), 278
Flameng (Leopold), 306
Flipart (Jean- Jacques), 298
Forster (Francois), 305
Fragonard (Honore), 288
Francia (Francesco Raibolini,
called), 13, 14, 49
Franck (Hans), 143
Franco (Battista), 70
Franois (Alphonse), 306
Fran?ois (Jean Charles), 286, 323
Gaillard (Ferdinand), 306
Galle (Cornelius), 120, 130
Galle (Philip), 120
Galle (Theodore), 120
Gantrel (Etienne), 263
Gamier, 325
Gamier (Antoine), 263
Gamier (Noel), 221
Gatti (Oliviere), 70
Gaucherel (Leon), 306
Gaultier (Leonard), 236, 237, 238,
242
Gautier-Dagoti, 286
Gellee (Claude), called Claude Lor
raine, 105, 106, 253, 254
Ghent (de), 296
Ghisi (Giorgio), 68, 69, 225
Gillray (James), 203, 204
Glockenton (Albert), 156
Godart (William), 211
Goltzius (Henry), in, 112
Gourmond (Fra^ois de), 218
Goya (Francesco), 88, 91, 92
Graf (Urs), 145
Granthomme (Jacques), 238
Grateloup (Jean Baptiste), 294
334
ENGRA VERS* NAMES.
Gravelot (Hubert), 295
Green (V.), 196
Greuter (John Fred.), 70
Greuter (Martin), 175
Greuze (Jean Baptiste), 298, 299
Grozer (J.), 190
Grim (Hans Baldung), 144
Guidi (Raffaello), 70
Guillain (Simon), 275
Haids (the), 175
Hardouin (Gilles), 21 1
Hemrskerke (Martin), 92
Henriet (Israel), 244, 245
Henriquel-Dupont, 306
Heusch (William of), 106
Hirschvogel (Augustine), 173
Hodges (C. H.), 196
Hogarth (William), 199, 200, 203
Hogenberg (Francis), 231
Hollar (Wenceslas), 176, 177, 189,
195
Hondius (Henry), 115
Hooghe (Romyn de), 119
Hopffers (David, James, and Lam-
bert), 173
Hopffer (Daniel), 145
Houbraken (James), 119
Hoy an (Germain), 218
Huot (Adolphe), 306
Ingouf (Frangois Robert), 294
Ingouf (Pierre Charles), 294, 298
Isac (Jaspar), 238
Jacquemart (Jules), 306
Jegher (Christopher), 131
Jode (Pierre, the elder), 129
Jode (Pierre, the younger), 129,
130, 135
Jones (John), 196, 198
Keating (George), 198
Keller (Joseph), 181
Kerver (Thielman), 21 1
Kilians (The), 175
Koburger, 140
La Hyre (Laurent de), 256
Lanfranco (Giovanni), 53
Larmessin (Nicolas), 179, 282, 285
Lasne (Michel), 236, 238, 255
Lautensack (Hans Sebald), 173
Lebas (Jacques Philippe), 193, 282,
287, 295
Leblond (Jacques Christophe), 286,
324
Lebrun (Charles), 274
Leclerc (Jean), 218
Leclerc (Sebastien), 250, 278
Lecomte (Marguerite), 289
Lefevre (Claude), 276
Lefevre (Valentin), 37
Lemire (Noel), 296
Lenfant (Jean), 263
Leonardis (Giacomo), 40
Lepautre (Jean), 281
Lepicie (Bernard), 282, 287
Leu (Thomas de), 236, 237, 238,
242
Levasseur (Jean Charles), 298
Liefrinck (Wilhelm and Cornelius),
H3
Limosin (Leonard), 232
Lindt (Alexis), 143
Lippi (Fra Filippo), 21
Livens (John), 99
Lolli (Lorenzo), 54
Lombard (Lambert), 92
Lombard (Pierre), 274
Longhi (Giuseppe), 73
Longueil (Joseph of), 296
Loutherbourg (Philippe), 289
ENGRA VERS NAMES.
335
Lucas of Leyden, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92,
156
Lutma (John), 323
Lutzelburger (Hans), 146, 147, 148
Luyken (John), 119
Mac Ardell, 196
Mair, 158
Mallery (Charles), 228, 238
Mantegna (Andrea), 25, 26, 27, 28,
29, 3, 3i, 3 2 > 3 6 43> 222
Marco of Ravenna (Dente), 61, 62
Margottini (Giacomo), 55
Mariller, 296
Marot (Daniel), 281
Marot (Jean), 281
Martinet (Achille), 306
Massard (Jean), 298
Masson (Antoine), 273
Master of 1406 . . 3
Master of 1446 . . 4
Master of 1451.. 4
Master of 1466 .. 148, 152, 154, 157
Master of 1480.. 86
Master of the Caducevs (Giacomo
de Barbari), 36
Master of the Crab, 91
Master of the Crossed Staves (Hans
Ulrick Vaechtlein), 144
Master of the Die, 64
Master of the Shuttle (Zwoll), 87
Master of the Star (or Dirck van
Staren), 90, 91
Master of the Streamers, 148
Matham (James), 112
Mathoniere (Denis of), 218
Matzys (Cornelius), 92
Mazzuoli (Francesco), called Parmi-
giano, 45, 46, 47, 48, 63, 245
Mecken (Israel van), 156, 157, 158
Meissonnier ( Juste- Aurele), 297
Meldolla (Andrea), 47, 48
Mellan (Claude), 189, 238, 255, 271
Merian (Matthew), 175, 176
Millet, 276
Milnet (Bernard), 2, 220
Mocetto (Girolamo), 29, 30, 35
Monaco (Pietro), 40
Montagna (Benedetto), 29, 35
Montcornet (Balthazar), 269
Moreau (the younger), 297
Morel (Antoine Alexander), 304
Morghen (Raphael), 73
Morin (Jean), 269, 272
Moyreau (Jean), 282, 285
Miiller (Christian Frederick), 181
Miiller (John), 112
Muntaner (Francisco), 77
Murphy (John), 196
Musi (Ag.) Agostino Veniziano, 61
Nanteuil (Robert), 186, 269, 270,
271, 278, 291
Natalis (Michael), 130, 263
Negker (Josse), 143
Negre (Charles), 325
Niepce de Saint Victor, 325
Nolin (Jean), 263
Nooms (Rene), orZeeman, no, in
Oppenort (Gilles Marie), 297
Ostade (Adrien van), 89, 100, 101
Fader (Hilaire), 256
Panneels (William), 137
Papillon, 219
Passarotti (Bartolomeo), 50
Pass (Crispin Van de), in, 265
Patin (Jacques), 228
Paul (S.), 196
Payne (John), 185
Pencz (George), 69, 169, 221
Peregrini da Cesana, 13
Perelle (Gabriel), 265
336
ENGRA VERS NAMES.
Perissim, 217, 242
Perrier (Franois), 255
Pesne (Jean), 238, 258, 262
Peyron (J. F. P.), 264
Pfarkecker (Vincent), 143
Picard (Jean), 238
Pierre (Jean Baptiste), 289
Pigouchet (Philip), 211
Pilgrim (Vaechtlein), 144
Pitau (Nicolas), 273, 278
Pitteri (Marco), 39
Plattemontagne (Nicolas de), 272
Pleydenwurff (Wilhelm), 140
P6 (Piero del), 55
Poilly (Fran9ois de), 273, 278
Pompadour (Marchioness of), 290
Ponce (Nicolas), 295
Pontius (Paul), 124, 127, 128, 129,
131, 132, 135
Potter (Paul), 101, 102
Prevost (Jaques), 232
Prevost (Nicolas), 218
Primaticcio, 23, 229, 230, 232
Procaccini (Camillo), 50
Prud'hon (P. P.), 302
Quenedey, 302, 324
Rabel (Jean), 236
Raibolini (called Fran cia), 13, 14, 49
Raibolini (Giacomo), 49
Raibolini (Giullo), 49
Raimbach (Abraham), 194
Raimondi (Marc Antonio), 13, 14,
5> S 6 , 59 60, 6 1, 62, 63, 64, 65,
66, 68, 69, 70, 166, 229, 258
Ravenet (Simon), 192
Regnart (Valerian), 70, 229
Regnesson (Nicolas), 271
Rembrandt, 81, 82, 93, 94, 95, 96,
99, 1 10, in, 118, 119, 329
Reni (Guido), 54, 55
Resch (Jeremiah), 141, 143
Reverdino (Cesare), 63
Ribera (Giacomo), 74, 77
Ridinger (John Elias), 177
Riffaut (A.) 325
Rivalz (Antoine), 289
Robert (Hubert) 289
Robetta, 22
Rode (Christian Bernard), 178
Roger (Barthelemy), 302
Rosso, 23, 24, 229, 230, 232
Roullet (Jean Louis), 274
Rousseaux (Emile), 306
Rowlandson (Thomas), 204, 205
Rubens (Peter Paul), 82, 92, 115,
116, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124,
127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135,
136, 137
Ruggieri (Guido), 230, 232
Rupert (Prince), 189, 276, 319, 320
Rupp (James), 143
Ruysdael (Jacob), 106
Ryland (William Wynne), 192, 204
Sablon (Pierre), 227
Sadelers (The), 120, 241
Saenredam (John), 112
Saint Aubin (Augustine de), 295,
296
Saint Aubin (Gabriel de), 288, 289
Saint German, 143
Saint Igny (Jean de), 250
Saint Mesmin, 302
Salmon, (Adolphe), 306
Sarrabat (Isaac), 277
Savart (Pierre), 294
Schauflein (Hans), 142
Schmidt (George Frederick), 178,
179, 1 80, 293
Schongauer (Martin), 3, 84, 88,
145, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157,
158, 168
ENGRAVERS' NAMES.
337
Schuppen (Peter van), 273
Schut (Cornelius), 135
Scotin (Girard), 286
Scultori (Adamo), 66, 67, 68
Scultori (Diana), 66, 67, 68
Scultori (Giovanni Baptiste), 66, 68
Sergent Marceau, 301
Sesto (Cesare da), 44
Siegen (Louis of), 321
Silvestre (Israel), 265
Simonet ( Jean-Bap tiste), 296
Sirani (Andrea), 54
Smith (John Raphael), 196, I 97
Solis (Virgilius), 145, 173, 174
Somer (Peter van), 263
Sompel (Peter van), 130
Soutman (Peter), 115, 116, 117, 130
Spierre (Fra^ois), 274
Spilsbury (Y.), 196
Staren (Dirck van), 90, 91
Stella (Claudine), 262, 263
Stella (Jacques), 262
Stock (Andrew), 130
Stoop (Theodore), 102
Strange (Robert), 190
Surugue (Louis), 285, 287
Suyderoef (Jonas), 115, 116
Swanevelt (Herman), 106
Taberith (Jan), 143
Tardieu (Pierre Alexander), 303
Tempesta (Antonio), 244
Thomas (John), 136
Thomassin (Philip), 52, 70, 229, 244
Thulden (Theodore van), 136
Tibaldi (Domenico), 50
Tiepolo (Domenico), 39
Tilliard (Jean Baptiste), 296
Tiry (Leonard), 230, 231
Tortebat (Franyois), 254
Tortorel, 217, 242
Tory (Geoffroy), 214, 217
Toschi (Paolo), 73
Trenta (Antonio da), 8
Trouvain (Antoine), 274
Turner (Ch.), 196, 199.
Uliet (Van), 99
Vaechtlein (Hans Ulrich), called Pil-
grim, 144
Vaillant (Wallerant), 276, 321
Valesio (Giovanni), 53
Vallet (Pierre), 226
Velde (Adrien van de), 102
Velde (Isaiah van de), no
Verard (Antoine), 208, 209
Verrochio (Andrea), 43
Vertue (George), 194
Vico (^Eneas), 64, 65
Vignon (Claude), 256
Villamene (Franz), 70
Vinci (Leonardo da), 41, 42, 43, 44,
45
Visscher (Cornelius), 116, 117, 118,
119
Vivares (Francis), 191, 192
Voet (Alexander), 131
Vorsterman (Lucas), 128, 129, 132,
135
Vostre (Simon), 209, 211
Ward (James), 196
Waterloo, 109
Watson (J. and Thomas), 196
Watteau (Antoine), 282, 285
Wattelet (Claude Henri), 289
Watts (F.), 196
Weirotter (Francis Edmund), 177
Wierix (The), 120
Wille (John George), 178, 179, 180,
181, 293, 299, 303
Withdoeck (Hans), 130
338
ENGRA VERS NAMES.
Woieriot (Pierre), 224
Wolgemuth, 140, 158, 159
Woollett (William), 190, 191
Wouverman (Philip), 102
Wyngaerde (Francis Van den), 136
Zagel (Martin), 158
Zanetti (Antonio Maria), 9
Zeeman (surname of Rene Nooms),
no, in
Zwoll, 87
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