H A R P E R'S º º* NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE, NO, CCCXXXIX.-AUGUST, 1878–WOL, LVII. OUPID SLEE1’ING- [After an Engraving by Gandolfi from his own Design.] THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGRAVING. HE golden age of engraving is sharply defined by the progress of the mechan- ical arts. The same age, and substantially the same invention, gave birth to the twin arts of printing and engraving—arts to which more than any others, perhaps, we owe the culture and taste which are the ornament of our modern civilization. Papillon, a French engraver who died in 1723, speaks of an engraving dating back to the twelfth century. But inasmuch as he speaks from hearsay, his evidence is not deemed conclusive. It is known, however, that as early as the twelfth century the quaint designs upon playing-cards, and the no less quaint portraits of saints, were mul- tiplied by engraving, and also that the Chi- nese practiced a crude form of the art from a very early date. A wood-engraving of St. Christopher, dis- covered in a Carthusian monastery in Sua- bia, and now in the collection of Earl Spen- cer, was long supposed to be the most ancient example of engraving as a fine art; but prints have lately been discovered bearing dates as early as 1418 and 1406. It is worthy of remark that the earliest known specimen of the printer's art bears the same date as the St. Christopher just mentioned, namely, 1423. Although the engraving of ornamental designs upon metal can be traced back to Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by Harper and Brothers, in the Office of the Libra- º rian of Congress, at Washington. Wol. LVII.-No. 339.-21 322 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. remote antiquity, yet the valuable discov- of gold and silver plates by filling engraved ery that impressions from engraved plates lines with a black enamel, which was allow- could be taken upon paper was, like many |ed to harden, and to obtain the effect of the valuable discoveries, accidental. This was design, it was his custom to rub soot and oil the epoch as important to art as the discov- into the incisions before permanently filling 8T. J. Erto-ME IN 1-tºn LTENCE. [Engraved by Albert Dürer from his own Design.] ery of printing was to knowledge, and both them with the enamel, or niello. One of his for the same reason, for now impressions from plates, like impressions from type, could be multiplied and diffused without limit. This most important invention is claimed for Tommaso Finiguerra, a Florentine gold- smith. Finiguerra practiced the decoration plates thus filled was by chance laid face downward upon a sheet of paper, and when it was taken up—behold the first impres- sion from an engraved plate was seen upon the white surface. The hint thus given was quickly improved THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGRAVING. 323 by the artists of that age; engraving upon metal plates began to take rank as a fine art, and the golden age of engraving dawn- ed upon the world. To-day, four centuries after, the ray of light which prints its image upon the sensitive plate of the camera falls aslant upon the fading glory of the art. Raphael Morghen, one of the last of the great engravers, died in 1833, and in 1839 Daguerre announced to the world the dis- covery of photography. The engraving, according to Charles Sum- ner, is not a copy or imitation of the original represented, but a translation into another language, where light and shade supply the place of color. It does not reproduce the original picture except in drawing and ex- pression; but as Bryant's Homer and Long- fellow’s Dante are presentations of the great originals in another language, so the en- graving is a presentation of the painting in another material, which is another language. And it is here, as the translator and multi- plier of the masterpieces of painting, that engraving finds its true sphere; so that we may define its excellence thus: a great paint- ing reproduced by a great engraver. Every one has heard and used that well- sounding phrase, “the old masters.” A par- venu mother, upon whom her new riches sat awkwardly, desiring to say something fine, told the company that she went to Eu- rope to have her children's portraits paint- ed by “the old masters P’ But she could not turn back “the forward-flowing tide of time,” for Raphael and Titian and Rem- brandt, whose pencils could have made her children's names enduring, were dead for centuries, though the “immortal part of them” is with us still. The latter part of the fifteenth century was prolific in artistic genius. Truly “there were giants in those days.” Albert Dürer, the father of the German school, was born in 1471. That sublime genius Michael An- gelo in 1474. Titian, the great Venetian colorist, in 1477. Raphael, “the prince of painters,” in 1483. Rubens was born just three hundred years ago; and Rembrandt, “the inspired Dutchman,” in 1606. Those great masters fully understood the value of that art which could multiply their designs. And so we find Raphael employing Marc Antonio Raimondi to engrave for him ; Ti- tian had Cornelius Cort working in his own house ; Rubens formed and educated a not- able school of engravers; while Dürer and Rembrandt engraved their own designs in such a masterly manner that, though so un- like, they are the two greatest names in en- graving. - A fine engraving is, perhaps more than any other work of fine art, a triumph. What the painter achieves by the use of a thou- sand tints, and the sculptor or architect by projecting his thought with the substantial attribute of form, the engraver presents with equal effect upon the plain surface of the paper with printer's ink alone. By the al- chemy of his art, the black line of the grav- er is transmuted to the rosy blush on beau- ty's cheek, the soft beaming of the blue eye, the shimmer of golden tresses, the tints of Sun-kissed flowers, or the cool green of for- est leaves playing hide-and-seek among the lights and shadows of the woods. At the touch of his magic wand the almost inspired plate bursts into vistas, long lines stretch away and melt in the distance. Face or figure, landscape or sea view, city, palace, or cathedral, seems solid as the great globe it- self, nor can the reason persuade the sight that the scene before it is only a white plane lined and dotted with black. At the present day no one thinks of in- quiring who was the engraver of a plate after Landseer, or Turner, or Meissonier; oft- en these modern prints are no better than composite pieces of manufacture, combining machine-work with line, etching, and mezzo- tint; but the old engravers were themselves consummate artists, who ranked as to skill with the great painters whose works they translated, and some of them even improved on their archetypes, emphasizing merits and suppressing defects. Such engravings are designated not so much from the painter as from the engraver, so that we speak of Müller's “Sistine Madonna,” and not Rapha- el’s, and Morghen’s “Last Supper,” and not Leonardo da Vinci's. A recent French Writer has well said that an engraving fills a place midway between a painting and a book: while it lacks color, it compensates for this by its more familiar character; it is more portable, it is more companional,le, it does not require to be hung in a certain light, and, more than all, it is attainable, and may be possessed by al- most any one. Thus the sublime composi- tions of the old masters, once confined to the galleries of the great, or only known to the world by inadequate copies, are, thanks to the old engravers, left as an inheritance to all lovers of beauty; the engraving goes where the painting can not go, and where the painting is silent the engraving speaks with the familiarity of a printed book. These translations of the painters' masterpieces, coming down to us through the loving hands of generation after generation of art-col- lectors, must be to us in America, the chief source of our art knowledge, as they are in some instances the only records of originals which have long since perished. It is the fault of some writers on the sub- ject, as it is the infirmity of some zealous collectors, to attach importance to mere rari- ty rather than to artistic excellence. An in- telligent amateur, in speaking on this sub- ject, has said that it was sometimes this very inferiority that caused their rarity, because 324 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. when they were first produced they did not of the Sistine Madonna, and many important please the purchasers, and so only a few plates have occupied their engravers from were printed; and he emphasized his point three to five years. For this reason, if for with a pun by adding: “They are rare be- no other, fine line engraving may be almost cause they are not well done.” numbered among the lost arts; for when a FLAGELLATION OF CHRIST. [Engraved by Martin Schöngauer from his own Design.] But apart from its higher merit as a pic- painting can be photographed in three min- ture, a good engraving is a marvel of beau- utes, or copied in chromo-lithography or ma- tiful mechanism. It requires an amount of chine-work at a very small expense, no en- painstaking skill and labor that seems al- graver could afford to spend years in study most incredible. Friedrich Miller devoted and preparation, and then years working six years of constant work to his great plate upon a single plate. Owing to these causes, THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGRAVING. 325 two of our well-known painters, Durand and Casilear, abandoned line engraving, though they were both engravers of marked ability. Thus the masterpieces of the engraver's art will be the masterpieces always. In line engraving, which is the highest style of the art, the effect is produced by incisions on a copper or steel plate, cut by the graver or burin, and the various effects of light and shade, distance and perspec- tive, the textures of drapery and accesso- ries, flesh-tints, and the expression of feat- ures, are all produced by a corresponding desired, the plate is cleaned from the acid and wax, and is then ready to be printed from in the same manner as a line engraving. From the difference of the two processes it will be seen that the characteristics of line engraving are beautiful precision and symmetry of form, while the etching excels in freedom and sketchiness; and while long years of practice are essential to the former, the latter can be produced, after a little technical study, by any one who can draw. Hence when a painter undertakes to en- grave one of his own designs, he naturally º \\ §§§ \\ ºłW \\ 1 \ /* º % ºf . º sº Sº Y º º *... xx 2% 36& sº-ºº: 5%. § tº Wºº-ºººººº...º. §§ à Wºº #2;& S. §§ iftºff S$º ºft §§§ ~ §§§ §§§ RNVR § Š S §§§ § §§§ NNNN\\ ŞS SRNyWºSANSN S §S$ §§§ Š Ş Š sº *NNNNNNNNN\; º §§§ § §§§SS §§§ §§ - SSS § *Nº sº. **. PORTRAIT OF REMBRANDT, ETOLIED BY IIIMSELF. variety of lines engraved into the plate. To take an impression from this plate its surface is covered with a thick oily ink so that all the lines are effectually filled. As this smears the entire plate, the printer next rubs off the superfluous ink, first with a cloth, and then with the palms of his hands. The surface is now clean, but the ink still remains in all the lines or incisions. The sheet of paper which is to receive the impression is then damped, and laid upon the plate, and both are passed under a roller, the result being that the ink is transferred from the incisions in the plate to the sheet of paper. Next in importance to line engraving comes etching, and some authorities give this process the first place. In etching the plate is first covered with a coat of wax or resin, which is dissolved by heat, and allow- ed to harden. The tool used is the point, or etching-needle. With this the lines and dots of the design are traced through the Wax on to the surface of the copper plate. Aquafortis is then poured on, and this pow- erful acid eats into the copper wherever a line has been made, the wax meanwhile protecting the other parts. After repeated bitings by aquafortis, according to the effect resorts to etching; on the other hand, when a professional engraver undertakes to make an elaborate reproduction of an important painting, line engraving is employed. The late M. Thiers, who was a high authority on matters of art, esteemed etching even before painting itself, as the freshest and directest exponent of a painter's art inspi- rations. The mezzotint process was carried to great perfection about a century ago in England. The plate is first roughened uniformly all over, so that if it were then inked and print- ed from, it would print a solid black; the rough surface is then scraped away accord- ing to the effect required, those parts most smoothed taking up the least ink, and so producing the highest lights, while the parts least scraped away produce the deep- est shadows. In stipple engraving the effect is pro- duced entirely by dots or holes punched into the plate; it has been much used for the flesh parts in portraits, but very few of the prints in stipple-work have a reputa- tion in art, except, perhaps, the graceful vi- gnettes engraved by Bartolozzi toward the end of the last century. - Bank-note engraving has reached its high- 326 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. est perfection in America. The plates and dies are engraved on steel in the line man- ner; in addition to this, beautiful mechan- ical effects are produced by the complicated geometrical lathe. Except with regard to bank-note work, the phrase “a steel engrav- ing” is only a figure of speech; what are so called are really engraved on copper, which is a much mellower material to work in than steel. All the great prints of former ages were done on copper plates, and not on steel, as is commonly supposed. In briefly reviewing the most famous en- gravers we may divide them for conven- ience into two general classes—those who flourished before the middle of the seven- teenth century, and those who appeared in the succeeding two hundred years. The works of the former class, representing as they do the birth, infancy, and youth of the art, are peculiarly interesting to the studi- ous connoisseur; they include nearly all the famous “painter-engravers”—those who en- graved their own designs. Among the crit- ical books of reference on this class of artists one work is pre-eminent ; it is Le Peintre- Graveur, in twenty-one volumes, by Adam Bartsch, who was the curator of the great collection at Vienna. Bartsch's work, which is written in French, is indispensable to ev- ery collector of the older engravings; it is a marvel of critical research, giving a mi- nute description of all the works of each engraver, and describing the earlier and later “states” of each plate, as well as des- ignating the numerous counterfeits that have been made upon the most admired old prints; but as the work only treats of the artists who engraved their own designs, it has no information upon the great line en- gravers who have reproduced the master- pieces of painting. As a general book of reference upon the line engravers as well as upon the great painters, Bryan's Diction- ary of Painters and Engravers is considered the best. To commence with the earliest engravers of whom we have any record, Finiguerra, who has been already mentioned as the dis- coverer of the art, took impressions on pa- per about the year 1440. One very beauti- ful print of his is preserved in the great public collection in Paris; it is a small com- position representing the Nativity, etc., and is crowded with figures. His immediate followers in Italy were Andrea Mantegna, who was born at Padua in 1431, and Baccio Baldini, who was his contemporary. Fifty years later appeared the greatest of the old Italian engravers in Marc Antonio Raimondi, who was born at Bologna in 1487, and died in 1536. Among collectors of the oldest en- gravings, Marc Antonio is a great name, ranking with Albert Dürer and Rembrandt. Early in his career he attracted the atten- tion of Raphael, and that master, recogniz- ing the value of engraving as a vehicle for multiplying his designs, gave Marc Antonio employment under his own supervision. So exquisitely correct is the drawing of his figures that connoisseurs profess to see the magic hand of Raphael himself in those faultless outlines. A fine impression of this engraver's portrait of the poet Aretino, the friend of Titian, has been recently sold at auction in London for £780 sterling. Marc Antonio was the founder of a renowned school. Of contemporary German engravers Mar- tin Schöngauer comes earliest. His prints, which are very scarce and high-priced, show force and originality, as well as great tech- nical skill in the use of the graver; but the work of all these early German masters is stiff and Gothic in style, though indicating an admirable sincerity and directness of purpose. But the greatest name in this connection is that of Albert Dürer, who was born in the quaint old city of Nuremberg in 1471. Dii- rer found the art of engraving in its infancy, and carried the technical fineness of it to a perfection that has never been surpassed. His journals and the records of his life show him to have been a devout, sincere, and true- hearted man. It has been recorded by his friend Pirkheimer that Dürer's life was im- bittered and shortened by that dreadful ill, a “nagging” wife; and much ink has been shed to prove, on the one hand, that Agnes did, and, on the other, that she did not, lead our artist a terrible life. In some of Dürer's best prints, such as the “Knight of Death” and the “Melancholia,” there is a mystical obscurity that has piqued and baffled the curiosity of his most earnest students. Lucas van Leyden was the friend of Dii- rer. His prints, while retaining their indi- viduality, are of the same general character. The works of all these early masters are very costly, and are better adapted for the portfolios of the professed collector than for decorative purposes, their small size and minuteness of subject rendering them unfit for framing. A perfect impression of one of the best prints by Dürer or Marc Antonio will readily bring from three to five hun- dred dollars. It was not till the early part of the sev- enteenth century that stars of the first mag- nitude again appeared. And in that bright galaxy the brightest name is that of Rem- brandt. This wonderful genius was born in Holland in 1606. Discarding the slow and laborious practice of the burin, he had re- course to etching, which process he carried to a height which places him alone as the great representative etcher for all time. Rembrandt’s etchings exhibit the same qualities and defects as his paintings. He despised grace and beauty of form as we now understand them. His figures are un- THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGRAVING. 327 couth and clumsy. An ugly old woman was to him a far more attractive model than a fair young girl; but he saw and expressed the dignity of old age and wrinkles as no artist of ear, eye, paw, and whisker proper to our own particular Tabby in her philosophic moods. At this period the genius of Rubens began OLIRIST AND THE TRIBUTE-MONEY. [Etched by Rembrandt.] before or since has done; and the magic ef- fect of his light and shade, the sincerity and truthfulness of his composition, and the felic- itous effect of his apparently random lines, all bear the stamp of a great master. As an example of his genius, the etching of Christ presented by Pilate to the people, known as the “Great Ecce Homo,” may be cited. It is a grand composition: the sur- ging mass of the populace in the foreground; the cruel priests and Pharisees importuning Pilate; Pilate himself, false, vacillating, and temporizing; and, above all, the Man of Sor- rows, crowned with thorns, and looking up- ward with a wearied and hunted expression that goes straight to the heart, Contemporary with Rembrandt was an- other Dutch artist, Cornelius Visscher, who combined in his prints the graver and etch- ing-point in an original and very effective manner. His best engravings are those from his own designs. Of these the “Pan- cake Woman” and the “Rat-Catcher” are the most admired. But we turn with a pe— culiar liking to his less pretentious print of an old cat taking her noonday map, while a gray old veteran of the rat-hole steals out behind her. This quaint little print has the effect of a familiar family portrait. Vis- scher's cat is our cat, with the very tricks to assert itself, and no artist has had his paintings so well rendered by contemporary engravers as he. The best engraver of the Rubens school was Schelte a Bolswert; but Paul Pontius, Vorstermans, and Suyderhoef have also done excellent work. Leaving the Dutch and German schools, and turning to the France of two hundred years ago, we find Louis XIV. on the throne, and Corneille, Racine, La Fontaine, and Molière adorning literature with their splen- did works, and we also find a school of en- gravers who may well claim fellowship in genius with those immortal names. These eminent artists chiefly excelled in the delineation of the human face; never before nor since have such portraits been produced. They are embellished with all the resources of the art. Many of those prints represent personages who then filled a large place in the eyes of the world, but whose names are now only remembered in connection with their portraits; but we have also preserved to us the lineaments of men such as La Fontaine, Colbert, and Bossuet, whose places in the Temple of Fame are as- sured. Art at this period was elaborate and florid, as were literature, manners, and dress, and those engravers, to whom no technical difficulty was an obstacle, revelled in the re- 328 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. production of costume and accessories. The personage represented is usually resplen- dent with all the bravery of fur, lace, bro- cade, and velvet, while all the surroundings are rich and gorgeous. º º º %) º | |º *" | | º % . º - º y MºW º º ſº º d . º º º ſº service, had a pension settled on him, and later he received a patent of mobility. Of his numerous portraits, that of Philippe de Champagne is allowed to be the finest; but there are others of great merit, such as that zºº, ºf #" 1/1. º, ſº 41ſ fl: - - ºr ſºlatiºn, i. º ||||||||| ||| ||| º ſº , | Mºsſ-S. [Painted by Philippe de Champagne, and Engraved by Edelinck in 1699.] Of these engravers Gerard Edelinck de- of his patron Colbert, Vanden Baugart the serves the first place. 1627, he was, while yet a young man, invited Montarsis, and Dilgerus. to Paris by Colbert, the great minister, who confine himself, however, to portraits. Born at Antwerp in sculptor, the architect Mansard, Pierre de Edelinck did not His did so much to encourage art, and during print of the “Fight for the Standard,” after the remainder of a life prolonged to eighty the celebrated cartoon of Leonardo da Vinci, years he was identified with the French may be taken as a model of bold and vigor- school. Edelinck was taken into the king's lous work, while his “Moses,” after Philippe THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGRAVING. 329 de Champagne, is full of a serene beauty. This latter was engraved in conjunction with Nanteuil, an engraver who well deserves to rank with the best. During the forty-eight years of Nanteuil's life he executed as many as two hundred and eighty plates, nearly all portraits, and most of them from his own drawings from life. | º | | | | The slee [Engraved by Cornelius Visscher from his own Design.] Nanteuil's abilities were refined by a clas- sical education, and his correct taste re- strained him from running into the prevail- ing fashion of meretricious ornamentation. He usually represented his personages with- in a neat oval of about seven by nine inch- es. His works illustrate the reign of Louis XIV., and are all, without exception, fine. His print of Pompone de Bellièvre is con- sidered by some authorities to be the most beautiful engraved portrait that exists. In this it contests the palm with Edelinck's Philippe de Champagne, Masson’s “Gray- haired Man,” and Drevet’s Bossuet. This portrait of Pompone de Bellièvre, on account of its rarity, is dear and difficult to procure; but there are others by Nanteuil more easily found that may well serve as specimens of his beautiful and artistic work. Among these may be mentioned the Duc de Ne- mours, Le Tellier, René de Longueil, the Marquis de Maisons, Pierre Lallemant, and Louis XIV. Antoine Masson was born in 1636, six years later than Nanteuil. For brilliant hardihood of line, Masson is conspicuous, but, in his larger portraits especially, his very ability defeated its object, for he made the accessories so brilliant as sometimes to call the eye away from the features them- selves. One of his smaller portraits, howev- er—that of Brisacier, known as the “Gray- º | | | | | | º | | | | | | º º: º: | | | º | ping oat. haired Man”—ranks as a masterpiece; while it is a marvel of technical skill, it is at the same time free from the bizarre effect of some of his life-size heads. Soon after the death of Edelinck the fam- ily of Drevet appeared. The elder Drevet produced some fine works, notably the large full-length portrait of Le Grand Monarque, Louis XIV. That much-flattered potentate is represented standing in all the glory of ermine, lace, and wig, his face indicating the unbounded conceit and selfishness which were so characteristic of him. It is with this portrait that Thackeray made such a felicitous hit in his Paris Sketch-Book, where he represents, side by side, first Louis le Grand in all his glory; then a miserable lit- tle decrepit old man; and thirdly, the same gorgeous habiliments, wig, and high-heeled shoes, but with the man left out of them. The younger Drevet even improved on the splendid technics of his predecessors—gild- ing their refined gold. In the representa- tion of such materials as fur and lace he is 330 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. unequalled, though he duly subordinated all to the features of his subjects. All this en- graver's works are so fine that it is not easy to designate the best; but his full-length portrait of the eloquent Bishop Bossuet is a masterpiece; while still more interesting is that of the beautiful and ill-fated tra- gédienne Adrienne Lecouvreur, whose love for Maréchal Saxe, and untimely death, are themselves a tragedy more affecting than self in Paris, he devoted his long life of ninety-one years to the art in which he so greatly excelled. His neat and careful style was adapted to pictures of the school of Gerard Dow, as well as to elaborate por- traits, and there is no engraver whose works are more eagerly sought and more univers- ally admired. A complete mention of the favorite prints by this artist would exhaust the entire catalogue of his works. His The WINDER. [Painted by Gerard Dow, and Engraved by John George Wille.] any she simulated on the stage. The youn- ger Drevet died at Paris in 1739, at the early age of forty-two, and with him closed the golden age of French portrait engraving. But Paris soon again became the centre of the art, which was quickened into new life by an engraver of original genius, who attracted to him pupils from all parts of Europe, so that he became the father of the great school of engravers that flourished in France, Germany, and Italy about the end of the last century. This eminent master was John George Wille, who was born at Königsberg in 1717, but establishing him- “Satin Gown” and the “Travelling Musi- cians” are his acknowledged masterpieces, but not less worthy of praise are the “Death of Marc Antony,” “La Liseuse” and “La Dévideuse” (two studies of the mother of Gerard Dow), “The Family Concert,” and the small pair entitled “The Good Woman of Normandy” and her “Sister”—two “mag- nificently ugly old women”—from the de- signs of P. A. Wille, the engraver's son. The subsequent history of line engraving on the continent of Europe may be almost traced in the history of the pupils of Wille. Clément Charles Berwic added boldness to ER+ continiſts: SErºttº Quº nºt pomſ de º füEiuţūtable== Lil Cornehe º 5- ºdºmºrabrº Aºlºriº | - ADRDENNE LE00 UWREUR. [Painted by Ch. Coypel, and Engraved by P. Drevet.] the painstaking style of his master. His pair of “The Education of Achilles,” after Regnault, and “The Rape of Dejanira,” after Guido Reni, are superb, as is also the large full-length portrait of Louis XVI. This por- trait was finished shortly before the execu- tion of that unlappy monarch. After he had suffered on the guillotine, poor Bervic was seized by the mob and charged with the crime of having engraved the tyrant's portrait, and to save his life he was obliged to take the precious plate, into which he had put years of work, hammer it double, and fling it into the river Seine. Here it lay till order was restored, when it was taken out and put into shape again; but all the subsequent impressions taken from it beat a faint streak across the middle—a significant record of the terrible French Revolution. Auguste Boucher Desnoyers strayed fur- ther than Bervic from the traditions of 332 Wille, and yet he is an engraver of the first order; no other has rendered the works of Raphael so well as he. His full-length por- trait of Napoleon in his coronation robes is a worthy pendant to Bervic's Louis XVI., while his print of blind Belisarius, after Gérard, may be taken as a typical example of line engraving at its best. Another of Wille's pupils was John Gott- hard Müller, whose abilities were overshad- owed by those of his own son and pupil, Friedrich Müller. This wonderful engraver was born at Stuttgart in 1783. His short life is identified with his great work of en- graving Raphael's Sistine Madonna, which places him at the head of all modern en- gravers. Six years before his death he was commissioned by Rittner, of Dresden, to en- grave that inspired picture, which is the pride of the Dresden Gallery. His very ex- istence seemed wrapped up in the execution of this plate; he worked upon it day and night with the same self-consuming zeal that Mozart expended on the “Requiem,” which proved to be his own. When the plate was finished he took it to Rittner; but the man of business refused it, on the ground that the lines were so delicately cut that it would not print a sufficient number of impressions. Every line had to be deep- ened; and this thankless toil broke the heart of poor Müller. He bore up till his task was finished, and then he sank into the gloom of hopeless insanity, and died the very day that the first proof of his plate was printed in Paris. It was hung over his bier as he lay dead. But it was in Italy, toward the end of the last century, that engravers arose who, from our point of view, have given the world the most beautiful examples of great paintings reproduced by great engravers. Without losing sight of the precious work of old Dürer and his contemporaries, or of the unsurpassed technique of Edelinck, Dre- vet, and Wille, yet it must be said that the best examples of beautiful pictures beauti- fully engraved are to be found among the works of the Italian engravers from Raphael Morghen to Toschi. They may not be such curiosities as the earlier prints, but to all who love a work of art for its beauty rather than for its rarity they are the best, being better adapted for framing and decorative purposes than any others. Probably no engraver has so large a fol- lowing of admirers as Raphael Morghen, who was born at Florence in 1758. This is partly due to his soft and captivating style, and partly to his excellent judgment in the choice of subjects. Morghen has preserved to the world the almost extinct glories of Leonardo da Vinci's “Last Supper” in a plate which alone would have made the reputa- tion of any engraver. Other fine examples of his work are the “Aurora” of Guido, and HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. the pair, after Poussin, of the “Repose in Egypt” and the “Dance of the Hours.” Of his numerous portraits that of Leonardo da Vinci is the most admired. In contempla- ting this serene and noble countenance we can well believe that this grand old man was great as painter, philosopher, and poet. A monument in the Church of Santa Croce —the Westminster Abbey of Florence— places Raphael Morghen among the mighty dead of Italy. He had numerous imitators and scholars, of whom Folo and Bettelini are perhaps the best. But a contemporary Milanese engraver was much more successful as the founder of a school. This was Giuseppe Longhi- “the unsurpassed Longhi,” as a recent writ- er calls him. He and his followers, Gara- vaglia, the brothers Anderloni, Rosaspina, and Gandolfi, have given to the world some of the very best reproductions of the beau- tiful Italian paintings. From their grace and loveliness, they are specially adapted for making the home beautiful. As exam- ples of this Milanese school may be men- tioned Longhi's “Sposalizio,” after Raphael, and the “Reclining Magdalen,” after Cor- reggio; Pietro Anderloni’s “Adoring An- gels,” after Titian, and his “Judgment of Solomon,” after Raphael ; Garavaglia's “Meeting of Jacob and Rachel,” after Al- bani; Rosaspina's “Dance of the Cupids,” also after Albani, and Gandolfi’s “Sleeping Cupid,” from his own design. The last of the great Italian engravers was Paolo Toschi, pupil of Bervic, who was himself a pupil of Wille. It remained for Toschi to discover in the lovely frescoes of Correggio, at Parma, a mine of the richest ore, which his predecessors for more than three centuries had scarcely touched. The “Madonna della Scala,” the “Incoronata,” and the pair of groups of cherubs may be cited as examples of what Toschi has done for Correggio--and for Art. Before leaving Italy we must go back a hundred and fifty years to consider an art- ist who was “a law unto himself,” in that his prints are totally different in manner and effect from all others. His country- men, from Morghen to Toschi, loved to pre- sent the soft and sensuous beauty of the human face and form, but Piranesi devoted his life to etching the magnificent ruins and edifices of his native country. His plates are of large size, and are etched with so much picturesque boldness and rugged- ness that he well deserves his sobriquet of the Remibrandt of architecture. : Nothing has yet been said of the British school. It has, however, produced at least two line engravers of the first rank—Sir Robert Strange and William Sharp–and in the two departments of mezzotint and land- scape it far excels the Continental. Strange had a style of his own—rich, soft, †† º º: º º ſº º | º Tºº º º º - º º SAIRE ºil. º ==º ſº. - nº a - º | BELISARIUS. [Painted by F. Gérard, and Engraved by Auguste Desnoyers.] and peculiarly adapted to the rendering of flesh-tints. He has engraved more than fif- ty important plates, chiefly after the great Italian masters. All of his works are high- ly esteemed by connoisseurs. William Sharp, who was born in London in 1746, may be called the greatest English engraver. In his excellent essay on “The Best Portraits in Engraving,” the late Charles Sumner says of Sharp: “He ascended to the heights of art, showing a power rarely equalled; his works are constant in charac- ter and expression, with every possible ex- cellence of execution: face, form, and drapery —all are as in nature.” And then he goes on to eulogize Sharp's famous portrait of John Hunter, the eminent surgeon, calling it “unquestionably the foremost portrait in British art, and the co-equal companion of the great portraits of the past.” Among other masterpieces by Sharp may be mentioned “The Doctors of the Church,” after Guido, and the very striking print, after Salvator Rosa, of Diogenes looking for an honest man. In this we see the grim old cynic, lantern in hand, making his way through the market-place of Athens, apparently re- gardless of the sneers of the by-standers. In London, about a century ago, under the judicious management of John Boydell, the 334 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. publisher, both mezzotint and landscape en- graving reached their zenith. Of landscape engravers William Woollett is facile prin- ceps; his works have always been held in something very inferior. This general opin- ion is probably occasioned by the wretched mezzotints that have been produced in this country, but in England the finest prints in Education of Adhilles by thr of NTAult, [Engraved by Bervic.] the highest estimation. His print of “Ro- man Edifices in Ruins,” after Claude, is per- haps the finest landscape in engraving. Con- temporary with Woollett were John Browne, Mason, Peake, and Vivares, who have all left us excellent landscapes. Americans of to-day make a great mistake in disparaging all mezzotint engraving as this style are and have always been highly esteemed, and a fine engraving by Earlom, Green, or Pether would convince any one that a good mezzotint is in no respect a sec- ond-rate production. While in our day high-class line engrav- ing has become almost a lost art, a school of artist-etchers has arisen in France which is THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGRAVING. 335 doing great things. These etchings come directly from the hand that designs them while the art idea is yet warm and fresh, and such eminent painters as Meissonier, |||||||||||| of engravings. It is not essential that they must be “proofs,” though proofs, being the very earliest impressions taken from the plate, are naturally the finest. But a bad Tologiºn ES IN Sr. Attoli or AN HoN rst M.A.N. [Painted by Salvator Rosa, and Engraved by William Sharp.] Gustave Doré, and D'Aubigny do not dis- (laim to resort to the etching-needle. In no other way can so much really good art be owned at so small an outlay as in a portfolio of modern etchings. Hamerton's admirable book on Etching and Etchers has done much to advance the taste for those beautiful works. A word of suggestion as to the selection or worn impression should not be tolerated, no matter how cheap it is. Such a print is known by its general effect of weakness and paleness; the figures have lost their ro- tundity, and the perspective is almost gone. Especially among old engravings are bad impressions to be avoided. Modern impressions taken from such old plates as still exist are also worthless, A | º | | | º t THE TRAVELLING MUSIOIANS. [Engraved by John George Wille.] print, to be as it should be, must have been printed at the time it was engraved. Mod- erm impressions are readily known by the paper on which they are printed. Another necessary warning is against “retouched” impressions; many plates have been thus ruined, when, after they have begun to wear out from use, they have been recut in the worn parts by incompetent hands. The effect of a retouched impression is dull, heavy, and disagreeable; all the har- mony and beauty of the plate are gone. It is only fine original impressions in good condition that worthily represent the great engravers. What is to-day the situation of engrav- ing, considered as a fine art There is per- haps only one man surviving who deserves to rank with those who have passed away, and he-the German Mandel – has said, “When I die there will be no more.” Sey- enty years ago, Morghen, Longhi, Bartolozzi, and Sharp were still living. But the glory has departed from the graver, and who is he who will take it up where the Masters laid it down º'