) THE WONDERS OF ENGEAVING. BY GEORGES DUPLESSIS. ILLUSTRATED WITFI TIIIKTY-FOUB WOOD-ENGBAVING8. NEW YOKE: CHARLES SCRIBN^ER & CO, 1871. illustrated library of Wonders. PUBLISHED BT , (parks 654 BROADWAY, NEW YOEK. Bach one volume 12mo. Price per volume, 11.50. Titles of Books. THUNDER AND LIOHTNINO, .... WONDERS OP OPTICS, . . WONDERS OF HEAT, ..... INTELLIGENCE OP ANIMALS, . GBEAT HUNTS, ...... EGTPT 3,300 YKARS AGO, . WONDERS OP POMPEII, .... THE SUN, BT A. GUILLEMIN, . SUBLIME IN NATURE, ..... WONDERS OP GLASS-MAKING, . WONDERS OP ITALIAN ART, .... WONDERS OP THE HUMAN BODY, WONDERS OP ARCHITECTURE, LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHTSHIPS, BOTTOM OP THE OCEAN, WONDERS OP BODILY STRENGTH AND HKILL, WONDERFUL BALLOON ASCENTS, ACOUSTICS. ..... WONDERS OP THE HEAVENS, . THE MOON, BY A. GUILLKMIN, WONDERS OP SCULPTURE .... WONDERS OP ENGRAVING, WONDERS OP VEGETATION, .... WONDERS OP THE INVISIBLE WORLD, CELEBRATED ESCAPES, .... WATER, ...... HYDRAULICS, .... ELECTRICITY, ..... SUBTERRANEAN WORLD, .... * In Press for early Publication. No. of Illustrations . 39 70 . 90 54 . 22 40 . 28 63 . SO 63 . 28 46 60 68 70 30 114 48 60 61 32 45 97 26 77 40 71 27 The above works sent to any address, post-paid, upon receipt of the price 6j> the publishers. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L PAGB THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING 9 CHAPTER H. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. Engravers on Wood Nielli Copperplate Engraving at Florence, in the Northern Cities, at Milan, Parma, Bologna, and Rome 13 CHAPTER HI. ENGRAVING IN SPAIN. Giuseppe Ribera and Francesco Goya 83 CHAPTER IV. ENGRAVING IN THE Low COUNTRIES. Engravers on Wood in the loth Century Early Engravers on Metal Holland : Rem- brandt, Ruysdael, and Paul Potter Belgium : Rubens, Bols- wert, Paul Pontius, and Anthony Vandyck 88 CHAPTER V. ENGRAVING IN GKRMANY. Early Engravers on Wood Maximil- ian's Engravers Engraving on Metal The Master of 1466, Martin Schongauer and Albert Diirer 143 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 186 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. PACE 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 210 CHAPTER VIII. PROCESSES. Engraving on Wood, Camai'eu Copperplate Engrav- ing Line-Engraving, Etching, Dry Point, Combination of Etching and Line-Engraving, Mezzotint, Aquatint, Chalk style, Engraving in Color, Physionotracy, Heliography or Photog- raphy Printing 309 INDEX OF EXGRAVKRS' NAMES .331 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE SAINT SEBASTIAN Niello 19 SIBYL AGRIPPINA Botticelli 25 VIRGIN AND CHILD Mantegna 34 A YOUTH Campagnola 41 LUCRETIA Raimondi 63 A POET Ribera 82 THE CONDEMNED Goya 85 THE UYLENSPIEGEL L. van Leydcn 9ti A LANDSCAPE Rembrandt 103 Two Cows Paul Potter. 109 A CORNFIELD Ruysdael 113 COSTUME Goltzius 119 SMNT CATHERINE Rnbenx 129 PORTRA IT OF SNYDERS Vundyck 137 DANCE OF DEATH (after Holbein) H. Lutzelburger 161 SAMSON AND THE LION Master of 1466 153 THE INFANT JESUS M. Schongauer 159 VIRGIN AND INFANT JESUS Albert Diirer 167 GERMAN COSTUME Aldegrever 175 A LADY OF BALE W. Hollar 1 80 PORTRAIT OF R. BAYFIELD W. Faithorne 191 MARRIAGE A LA MODE W. Hogarth 205 HENRI II Geoffroy Tory 217 HEAD OF CHRIST Claude Mellan 241 CLAUDE DERUET Jacques Callot 249 8 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE SUNRISE Claude Lorraine 253 TIME DISCLOSING TRUTH G. Aitdran, after Nico- las Poussiii 261 ARABESQUE ORNAMENT J. Lepautre 281 A COSTUME A. Watteau 285 STUDIO or A COPPERPLATE ENGRAVER. . . .Abraham Souse 313 THE MOUNTEBANK Rembrandt 317 VANITY J. Callot 318 A PORTRAIT Prince Rupert 320 COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING A. JBosse 328 THE WONDERS OF ENGRAYING. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING. BEFORE reviewing the various schools of Engrav- ing, and studying the growth of this art in each sepa- rate country, it seems expedient to us to recapitulate in a few words, the very diverse and often contradic- tory opinions put forth concerning its origin. By doing this, we shall avoid unnecessary repetition, and, without occupying ourselves unduly with the purely archaeological question, we can ascertain the charac- teristics of each school, examine the works worthy of attention executed in each country, and enumerate the artists whom future generations will remember and judge. We must not forget to say that we in- tend to occupy oui-selves solely with that kind of En- graving from which impressions are taken ; and, pur- posely neglecting ancient engraving, we commence our work only at the period when. Printing having 10 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. been discovered, Engraving became a iiew art and produced important results. Let us bear in mind, to begin with, that there are two processes, very different in their execution, al- though 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 problemati- cal) the most ancient engraver ; but, after a careful investigation, this opinion is now abandoned by all, even by those who first adopted it. THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING. 11 It is not the same with our neighbors : for a long time the " St. Christopher " of 1423 was thought the most ancient known example of engraving. But late- ly a discovery by the Baron of Reitfenberg, overthrew 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 de- scribed 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 of the eighteenth century), investigators have not been dis- couraged, and their efforts have been crowned with success. Passavant, in the " Archives de Naumann " * " Gazette des Beaux-arts," March, 1869. 12 WONDEHS OF ENGRAVING. (4-e Annee, 1858, p. 1), 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 any thing 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. CHAPTER II. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. Engravers on Wood Nielli Copperplate Engraving at Florence, 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 suffi- ciently greedy of fame to gather around them en- gravers who multiplied the works they produced under their supervision. Wood-engraving did not in Italy, as in other coun- tries, 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 suit- ed 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 from the first half of the fifteenth century, we find 14 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. many specimens of Italian wood- engraving, recog- nizable 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 cujjtivated 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- engraving are met with in a rare book called the " Hypnerotomachia Poliphilii," printed at Yenice by the brothers Aldus, in 1499, a book in which are un- folded, amongst dreams more or less fantastic, some reflections on ideal beauty, or the theory of art, com- posed 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 attrib- uted 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 tnie that we do not here recognize the style of these two mas- ters ; 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 certain number of woodcuts, which reproduce with accuracy the beautiful Florentine designs of the tif- ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 15 teenth century. From their first appearance, these engravings had a success sufficiently great to war- rant their being simultaneously employed in different publications. The plates which adorn the text of Savonarola's sermons are again found in " L'Art de Bien Mourir," printed at Florence, in 1513 ; and a diligent search would certainly discover these en- gravings 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 art- ists 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 embellished 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 Ital- ian art was already at its zenith. About the same period, many engravers applied themselves to repro- duce compositions which Giulio Campagnola and Titian himself drew for that purpose. They exe- cuted some admirable engravings engravings prop- WONDERS OF ENGKAVING. erly 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 cama'ieu* also dates from the sixteenth century. Andrea Andreani, Ugo da Carpi, and Antonio da Trenta, the principal repre- sentatives of this new art, show T ed 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, 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, engrav- ing on wood was suddenly, and almost entirely, aban- * This term is applied to painting or printing in a single color, varied only in depth of tints (as red, blue, bistre, &c.). ENGKAVING IN ITALY. 17 doned in all countries. In the middle of the eigh- teenth century we only find one engraver in Italy en- deavoring to restore to favor a process formerly em- ployed with such happy results by the artists we have named. Antonio Maria Zanetti published at Venice, in 1749, a series of prints, executed (n camdieu by himself, after designs by Parmigiano ; but he had no imitators, and confined himself to this one publica- tion. 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 invention, 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 Florence, Maso Fiiiiguerra, had just put the last touch to an engraving of a " Pax," * ordered by the broth- ers of the church of St. John, and wishing to see the effect of his work, filled the lines traced by his graver with a liquid composed of oil and lamp-black. By chance, a pile of clamp 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 engrav- * " 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 officiating priest, the acolyte, in presenting it to each of the assisting ecclesiastics, pro- nounced the words " Pax tecuiu." (Littre, " Dictionnaire de" la Langue Fran<;aise," t. ii., p. 906. 2 18 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. ings. 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 Finignerra is the author of the " Coronation of the Virgin," a niello, engraved in 1452. The original plate is in the Uffizi 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 opin- ion was accepted for a long time, but now scholars have brought to light prints which contradict it. If, however, we are to admit that an art is not really in- vented before it produces a choice work, we may, un- til 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 the metal, they first took an impression in very fine clay ; upon this the} 7 sprinkled sulphur, and then, by filling in the engraved parts with lamp-black, they were able to obtain a just notion of their work. Un- til perfectly sure of the final result, they would not F.NGRAVINOr Ltf ITALY. 19 have dreamt of pouring in the indestructible enamel or colored 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 impres- sions necessary to the prog- ress of their work ; and it is to this indifference that we must attribute the extreme Fi e- i<-*f >"<> 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.) 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 20 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 neighboring countries, thereby vol- untarily depriving their works of the stamp of na- tionality, 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 honor and profit ; they thus still covered with engravings the plates which were to ornament furniture, armor, or caskets. It was only towards the beginning of the sixteenth century, when public taste took another di- rection, 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 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 at- tributed to them with almost absolute certainty, or great probability, but it would be difficult to give the ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 21 smallest biographical details about many of them ; say for instance of Matteo di Giovanni Dei, to whom tradition ascribes two plates, preserved in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, the " Crucifixion," and the " Con- version of St. Paul ; " but as we cannot compare these anonymous works with any signed drawings of Mat- teo 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 knowledge and exquisite taste, may be attributed to the same hand. Peregrini da Cesena engraved a considerable num- ber 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- ness of the drawing of the muscles and bones of the human body. As for Francesco Francia and Marc-Antonio Rai- mondi, 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, 22 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 &how 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 " ResuiTec- tion." The arrangement and style of the figures re- call 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 attrib- uted to him which we have seen in Paris, or in Count Durazzo's collection at Bologna, add no new lustre to 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 sub- lime works of Raphael. The number of anonymous artists who worked in niello is very considerable. It would perhaps be in- teresting to try and discover the authors of composi- ENGRAVING IX ITALY. 23 tions which are often excellent and worthy of an illus trious name, but this is not the place for such an un- dertaking, 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, pt^operly so called. When Italian goldsmiths, unconsciously to themselves, discovered engraving, 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 demand attention, for reasons often very differ- ent, as each one produced engravers who were clever in preserving the national originality, which charac terizes these schools. There were as many schools as cities. We will endeavor to point out their distinctive characteristics, and at the same time make them serve as divisions of our work. Florence. In engravings properly so called, as 24 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 des- tined 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 Avas San- dro Botticelli, and for a fellow-laborer seems to have had Baccio Baldini, an artist whose life is little known, but to whom Bartsch attributes a number of engrav- ings. 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 accurate drawing ; they betoken a great ap- preciation of beauty, and though the artists to whom they are attributed, expressed their thoughts imper- "fectly, owing to their ignorance of all the resources of the new process, 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 begin- ning of the sixteenth century, and this shows that they were of sufficient merit to be attributed with To ?.omo DJL&TTO I12VAIE N TLMDO CHWARA MCHARMATo VERioDlVfNGV^To iANTBWrrro INPRIfAA^VENTRE mTERNo CRlATO D12P1RJT.Q aAMTO?AW9ADirrrTO ELPVALTEPO DAhOLTl. OIZPRCCATO RI PREH DERA CONDOLCIRf A DAA\OR6 EREI EbVOMI riEU>RPRECIO EOMORE Fig. ?. Sibyl A^rippina. SAN-DUO BJTTIC^'U. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 27 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 Yenus," 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 differ- ence 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 toinb. He studied successfully under Bartoluccio and Lorenzo 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. 28 WOXDERS OF ENGRAVING. Endowed with marvellous energy and of an invincible will, his renown as a painter was soon equal to that Avhich 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 anat- omy, 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 recognizable 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 aii art which he had fathomed. If we believe certain recent documents, Fra Filip- po 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 Yirgin." 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 Goli- KNGKAVLN'G IN ITALY. 29 ath," " Solomon appearing before tlie Queen of She- ba," and " The Last Judgment," for example, we recognize that the hand which somewhat inaccurately engraved these wonderful and skilful designs is that of the ar.thor of the prints in question. Again, if Filippo Lippi were really the author of these engrav- ings he would have marked them with his own mono- gram, 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 pre- senting much skill in workmanship, these plates would show a firmness in design and a decision in expression of which there is not even a foreshadow- ing. 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 forgetful ness 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 beau- 30 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. ty and elegance, and engraved with a boldness and ease rare amongst the early Italians, they may some- times 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 attempt- ed 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 de- velopment, except as in " Hercules and Antseus," when the subject demands it, they are agile and sup- ple rather than vigorous, masses of curling hair shade heir brows, and instead of the austerity usual in con- temporary 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- 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 tlie Florentine school. Florentine taste, consider- ably modified no doubt, is certainly easily recognized 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 bv a number of engravers, who, ENGRAVING IX ITALY. 31 laboring 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 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 power- ful auxiliary of the Church, she now suddenly became pagan, and chose to represent the adventures of gods arid 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 thev 32 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 bibli- cal personages. Rosso was the first to be entrusted with the decoration of Fontainebleau. He thorough- ly 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 ful- filling 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 con- tent ourselves with noticing the part Florence took in this movement, and the ascendancy which a master of her school obtained over his contemporaries. But Florentine art, so homogeneous and full of life at the beginning, declined rapidly at the close of the six- teenth century. Historians notice some marks of talent without naming any prominent individual. Henceforth the first place belongs to neighboring countries. 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 ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 33 to painting. His genius procured him the protection 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 im- mense, and his works have been extremely admired ever since his time. His wish to see the compositions he proposed to execute and did execute later in the palace of the Duke of Mantua widely spread, was evidently one of his chief motives for adopting and patronizing engraving. Unfortunately 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 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 content with a sketch, and reserves its full power for the painting. But does this apparent negligence or rather freedom and ease inter- fere with the correctness of the outline or the force of the expression ? Not in the least. We may even assert that the studied ruggedness and the systematic intention to avoid picturesque effects, have stamped this master's engravings " The Entombment," and the " Descent to Hades," for instance with a gloomy grandeur of their own, admiiaMv suited to the sub- O ' 34 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. jects. 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 youtli reclining on a wine cask, supported by a faun. The Virgin, as he 3. Virgin and Child. MANTEGNA. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 3f 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. Sebas- tian," he has given a perfect notion of elegance and youth. Agile and supple this figure might pass for a personification of adolescence. Andrea Mantegna's prints ought, strictly speak- ing, to be considered the first engravings executed in Italy. Until then many goldsmiths, sometimes of exceptional 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 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 di- rected by the master himself for some years, definite- ly naturalized engraving in Northern Italy, but the artists who belonged to it are almost unknown. Care- less of fame, they generally neglected to sign their works with a monogram or any mark of identifica- tion, 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- 36 WONDKES OF ENGKAVING. tcgna'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, Mau- 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 pal- aces of Northern Italy, accurate and varied traceries surrounding the porticos, decorating the tombs, or covering the friezes of the monuments. In these works, where imagination is free, and the human form, if employed, accommodates itself to the exigen- cies or caprices of the artists, without prejudice to art, Mantegna'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 ENGBAVING IN ITALY. 37 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 examine plates by Mocetto, Giulio and Domenico Campagriola, Benedetto Montagna, or Giacomo di Barbari, 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 favorable 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 38 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. the grandeur of certain of Bellini's works. His prints were executed from very soft copper, which ac- counts for their rarity. The richest collections con- tain very few examples, but the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris possesses more than all other collections add ed together. Two plates. " Judith and Holofernes," and " Bacchus beneath a Yine," are sufficient to give a very high opinion of their artist's talent. These en- gravings, which are the finest of Mantegna's works, interest us especially, because they prove that, like the greater number of his contemporaries, he knew nothing of Albert Diirer's engravings, introduced into Italy at this period, or if he did know them, he en- tirely 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 ENGKAVING IN ITALY. 39 the men of genius attracted to the court of Ferrara by Hercules d'Este. We are ignorant in what capac- ity he mixed in this august assembly ; if in that of a painter, we are unable to pronounce on his merits, for his pictures are now unknown, having been lost, de- stroyed, 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. 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 Gior- gione, Giovanni, Bellini or Mantegna ; they honestly preserve the style of these masters without giving the figures very exactly, the engraver having been con- tent to sacrifice strict truth to the charm of color. Giulio's landscapes taken from the countries he lived in, show greater study of nature than his figures. Giulio Campagnola was one of the first who con- ceived the idea of representing in engraving the color of pictures. This he did by small dots nearer or fur- ther apart, which contrivance to a certain degree anticipated the invention of aquatint engraving. Dominico's relation to Giulio Campagnola is not well established ; but the two namesakes \vorked to- gether as shown in a plate called " The Concert," and 40 WON DEES OF EN GRAVING. also in a design of u St. John the Baptist." Doinin- ico's talent differs in many respects from Giulio's. In too great a hurry to work out Lis ideas on canvas or metal, he is not sufficiently careful about correctness of form, and he is indifferent to beauty ; his enthu- siasm 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 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 landscape certainly occupied a large space, but it is generally 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 execu- tion of his distances justifies this comparison, so glo- rious 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 Mocetto, 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- Fig. 4. A youth. GITJLIO CAMPAGNOLA. ENGBAVING IN ITALY. 43 named. His first engravings, after his own paintings, are wanting in grace. But the " Sacrifice of Abra- ham " is cleverly composed and skilfully executed ; the drawing, too, is better than usual. Fine proofs of Montagna's engravings are rare ; executed on soft o o CJ t metal they could only bear a limited amount of print- ing, 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 " Master of the Caduceus." Some call him a Germ an, others the contemporary and fellow-country- man of Lucas of Leyden. Some consider France his birthplace, others Ferrara. Recent authors confounc. 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 recognize 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 44 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. exercised great influence on art. Giaeomo do' Bar- bari 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, lie 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, in spite of gross incorrectness of drawiiig, show a delicacy of touch and power of coloring, 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 fol- lowed 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 pro- ENGRAVING- IN ITALY. 45 duccd works in which the feeling for color and form is expressed with peculiar talent, they appear to have suddenly sunk into inactivity. The distance which separates the masters of the fifteenth nnd 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 part of his life at Venice, and engraved with con- siderable minuteness the best works of Titian and Paul Veronese. But being mere sketches, his engrav- ings only give the compositions of these masters, miss- ing the powerful effect and splendid coloring 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 transferred 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 walk- ing 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 transpa- rency of the atmosphere, the purity of the air, &c., are rendered with surprising felicity. Canaletto's pic- tures on the walls of our museums seem to light up the works around and to transport us to this happy land of brightness and sunshine, of glowing horizons 46 WONDERS OF EN GRAVING. and marble palaces. The same qualities in a leus degree the graver being less suited than the brush to give the magic of chiaroscuro are also ibund 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. 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 inhar- monious, the predominating color 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 seductive 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 ENGBAVING IN ITALY. 47 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 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 Longlii : " A Nobleman setting out for the Chase ; his Retainers making their preparations, cleaning their Arms ; " and again, " The Nobleman at the Table jovially finishing the Day with his Com- pairions." 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 en- graver'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 flour- ished at this period. Amongst them we should have to notice Giacomo Leonardis and Pietro Monaco ; but 48 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. the part these artists took iu the general progress of art was so small that they merit no more than men- tion. 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 ac- count of their own merits as for the tendencies of their schools. 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 mod- elled the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, de- stroyed by the French in 1499, when Louis XII. entered Milan ; as an architect 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 preserved at Paris, Milan and in England, bear witness to the versatility of his genius, and justify this supposition. In the dedication of his book, " De Proportions ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 49 Divina," Luea Paccioli positively asserts that Leo- nardo da Yinci is the author of the woodcuts which adorn this work : " Nee vero multo post, spe animos alente, libellum cui de Divina Proportions titulus est, Ludovico Sphorcice, dud Mediolanensi, nuncupa/vi. 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 volume we find it difficult to believe that L. da Yinci did more than supply the designs. How can we suppose 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 en- graver 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 expres- sion of the face, betray the hand of a Milanese, and the name of Leonardo da Yinci might be written under this figure, and never, as we think, be con- tested. 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, notwithstanding the in- scription in the centre " Academia Leonardi Yinci," both as regards composition and engraving to some other artist ; indeed, we are aware that some wood- cuts signed with Albert Diirer's monogram, repro- duce them exactly. It is not the same with " Three 50 WONBKES OF ENGRAVING. 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 Flor- ence, 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 his- torians, and we found that our idea was at least near the truth, as Passavant attributes this engraving to Verrocchio, L. da Yinci's master, and Ottley is dis- posed to consider it the work of this great artist him- self. Since we noticed this print we have studied the three manuscript volumes by Leonardo da Vinci, pre- served 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 Leo- nardo 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 acknowledging that we are reminded of the style of the illustrious 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 ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 51 inspired by the great master they may hare been executed in metal by one of his intelligent pupils. If we have lingered long over the engravings attributed 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 anonymous, it is sometimes difficult to know how to treat them. Three early plates, en- graved after Leonardo's " Last Supper," reproduce this great composition in a modified form, they are so interior to the original that we cannot say much for them. " The slightly bent Head of a young Girl," " A Lover caressing his Mistress," and " A Young Girl courted by a Man dressed as a Fool," remind us slightly of the school of Leonardo da Yinci, but they are unsigned, and cannot be attributed to any one 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 recognize 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 re- minds us of a hasty sketch, incontestably by L. da 52 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. Vinci, contained in a volume of his designs lately added to the collection in the Louvre. The two other engravings attributed to Cesare da Sesto are of quite a different kind, they represent " A Hind re- clining 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 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 en- gravings it contains, three of them, remarkable for the softness of the drawing and the tenderness of the expression, 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. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 53 Mazzuoli, called Parmigiano, followed Raphael it is true, but only in drawing ; the charm, the beautiful coloring 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, which with good reason they consider inimitable, they are absolutely paralyzed. 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 re- sources of the etching-needle. Albert Diirer, 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 de- sign, which, conceived and promptly executed by the painter, does not require the dangerous interposition of an interpreter. Etching is, above all other, the engraving best suited to a painter, and any one with a knowledge of drawing will easily learu it. Frances- 54 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. co Mazznoli found hitherto unknown resources in this process. Although the engravings signed by him betray indifference 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 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 etch- ings by Parmigiano were as successful as his paint- ings. They were greedily sought after, and several of his pupils, anxious to share their master's popular- ity, endeavored to appropriate the process he had raised to such honor. One of them, A. Meldolla, succeeded so well, that his works were sometimes mistaken for Mazzuoli's. Modern learning has recti- fied this confusion. Working side by side with Par- migiano, under his daily influence, and generally copying his works, Meldolla at last became so identi- fied with his master in his manner of looking nt and rendering nature, that the mistakes to which his en- ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 55 gravings have given rise are quite excusable. This obedience to his master's principles was so complete, that when Meldolla engraved Raphael's works, he made them so suggestive of Mazzuoli's style, that had not the author of the originals been well known, they might have been attributed to Paraiigiano. Yet these two artists (Meldolla and Mazzuoli) engraved by dif- ferent processes. 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 camdieu" ob- tained so well the appearance of a washed drawing; and this attempt at Parma is curious, as it was in that town that engravers " en camdieu " 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," ad- mitted him to the rank of an engraver ; but until the end of the eighteenth century his prints were never- theless attributed to Andrea Schiavone, a Yenetian 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 56 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING . 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 tes- tify 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 impos sible 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 engrav- ing 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 EXGRAVIXG IX ITALY. 57 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, wlien through copying Albert Diirer's prints, he had acquired perfect knowledge of drawing and great skill in handling the graver, that he thought of devot- ing 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 as- sume 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. Bartolomeo Passarotti, Camillo Procaccini and Do- menico Tibaldi, belonged to a community where art- ists and artisans mixed freely together, but they soon left it, and established a rival society headed by Pas- sarotti. But these artists, whose style was rough and their drawing somewhat coarse, failed to attract art- ists 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 58 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 Annibale, who were more talented than himself, seconded his efforts, and whilst he devoted himself chiefly to the study of drawing, they endeav- ored to bring artists back to true study of nature and a real knowledge of the works of the great masters. Raphael, Correggio, and Titian were their favorite models, and after travelling about to obtain a thor- ough acquaintance 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 recognized 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), * The original plate is still in the Academy of Fine Arts at Bologna. ENGRAVING EST ITALY. 59 known under the name of the " Christ of Caprarola," because it was executed in that town, is engraved en- tirely with the graving-tool with a fineness of touch and justice of expression rarely attained by this art- ist ; and ' A Drunken Silenus drinking from a Leath- ern 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, 1590), he has concerned himself chiefly with color. 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 speak- ing only gave a small portion of their time to en- graving. It was different with Agostino Carracci. We know of a good many paintings by him, but his works in engraving are still more numerous ; they consist of head and tail-pieces for books, sacred im- ages, historical pictures and portraits. His style too often reminds us of that of Italianized artists, such as Cornelius Cort and Philip Thomasin. Agostino Car- racci, who drew better than any of them, and under- stood more thoroughly the art of eno-ravins;, made the O v O O' mistake of producing too much. When he repro- duced works by Paul Veronese or Tintoretto, he did not succeed in rendering their grandeur and beauty, 60 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. and without the charm of color, their designs are made to appear inadequate and sometimes coarse. It is the same with an engraving of " Ecee 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 favor it enjoys, the superb portrait of Titian, Agostino Carracci has sur- passed 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 por- trait 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 tal- ent or so thorough a comprehension of the human countenance. The influence of the school directed by the Car- racci was great, and the artists belonging to it re- mained 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 art- ists have escaped oblivion, Francesco Brizzio, author of the " Repose in Egypt," after Correggio, engraved with a very heavy graver, and Giovanni Yalesio, a painter, poet, master of the lute, of dancing, and of fencing, who, living at a distance from his master, Agostino Carracci, nevertheless almost always repro- duced 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 EKG RAVING IN ITALY. 61 gives him a distinguished place beside the Carracci whose pupil he was. We are indebted to him for some engravings after the " Loggie " of Raphael, dedicated to Annibale Carracci. They are remark- able fur 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 splendor. Guido Reni, who left many admired paintings, also etched a number of plates. The ordinary type of his painted 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 etch- ings 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 expression of her face insipid and affected. Still the execution is grace- ful and contains effects which none of this master's imitators have been able to render. Simone Canta- rini, called the Pesarese, whose style most resembled that of Guido Reni, was not so successful with dra- pery, 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 accurately in their etchings, but as these 62 WONDKR8 OF ENGRAVING. are mere copies they do not deserve a place in the history of art. It is different with Domenico Zarapieri, an artist of high rank, wbo though born at Bologna, was thor- oughly imbued with the exalted principles of the Ro- man 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 knowl- edge inspired so few of his contemporaries, for we cannot consider the two we are about to mention his engravers. 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 contemporary artists cared little to reproduce Do- menichino's works, those of the next generation res- cued them from undeserved oblivion, and largely multiplied and distributed them. Their plates have often served as models to artists ; and although Do- menichino's influence 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- vision of the Carracci, it is true, but he departed so Fig. 5. Lucretia stabbing Herself. MJEC-AXTOXIO RAIMOKDI. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 65 widely from their style, that, fairly speaking, he can- not be considered their pupil. He holds a high place in their school, we think too high. We do not ap- prove of his sudden changes from shadow to light. He had little true love ( f art, though his facility of production was immense, and his etchings, exact rep- resentations 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 BO many skilfu. 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 Diirer, whose engravings had just pene- trated 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 stab- bing 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 ex- clusive right to reproduce his works. Raimondi's engravings now succeeded each other in quick succession. The " Massacre of the Inno- 66 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. cents," " 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 paint- ings 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 suit- ed 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 at- tention 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 iin- ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 67 bned with the exalted principles of the master of his choice, that he cannot altogether ignore them. In " The Climbers," for example, engraved after the celebrated cartoon of Pisa by Michael Angelo, or in the " Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," by Baccio Ban- dinelli, we rind an amount of precision, a reserved power probably rather exceeding that of the original drawings. Kor is it impossible that Marc-Antonio engraved some compositions in which the figures, at least, were original. But the plates attributed to his pencil, as well as to his graver, are inferior in pre- cision 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 contem- porary 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. Hav- ing obediently submitted himself to Raphael, Marc- Antonio became a master in his turn. Pupils hur ried from all countries eager to take lessons from him and profit by his counsels ; and, thanks to his influ ence, Rome at length acquired a school of engraving. Those who approached most nearly to the master's style were Agostino Yeneziano and Marco of Ravenna. 68 WON DEES OF ENGRAVING. 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 engrav ings 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 Bandinelli 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 lie engraved from this date are un- doubtedly 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 second plate, known as the " Massacre of the Innocents," is the work of Marco of Ravenna, we must add that the pupil has in this one case ap- proached his master very nearly. This engraving leaves us very doubtful as to its author. The firm- ENGRAVING IN ITALY. 69 ness of touch, or, we should rather say, the general beauty, is very striking, and places its author, who- ever 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 Ca- raglio, an artist of Verona, mentioned by Aretino in the u Cortigiana ; " according to him, Caraglio is the cleverest engraver after Marc-Antonio. It is only just to add that he owes this very favorable mention to the " Loves of the Gods " engraved after Fierino del Taga 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. JSTow he engraves with a free hand, as in the " Loves of the Gods ; " now, as in an extensive series of " Heathen Deities in Kiches," 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 offensive. Caraglio seldom expresses grace, he excels more in force, as seen in his engraving of the " Vir- gin and St. Anne between St. Sebastian and St. Roch," which he composed himself, and which is really valuable for its rarity rather than for the ex- alted style of the Virgin's beauty. & 70 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. Giulio Bonasone departs still further from Marc- Antonio's school than even Caraglio. His pleasing graver often conceals gross negligence. His numer- ous works comprise engravings of every sort. Exe- cuted from 1531 to 1574, they vary in value accord- ing to the rank of the artists after whom they were composed. 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 subjects to engrave, and he has re- produced on copper several compositions of his own. On the whole, remembering the originals of Bona- sone's prints, we think we cannot call them more than ingenious. They have none of the best quali- ties ; 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, sometimes with the needle and sometimes with the graver, several small com- positions which, in their size at l^ast, remind us cf the works of inferior German artists, or of the en- gravers of the school of Lyons. He was the first Italian artist who succeeded in rendering complicated subjects in such a limited space without sacrificing EN-GRAVING IN ITALY. 71 the expression or losing the picturesque 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 endeavored 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 engraved by the " Master of the Die." Several of these impor- tant plates have been considered Marc- Antonio's com- positions, 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 char- acter 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 Yico, came to Rome as soon as he knew enough to profit by regular in- struction. He at once yielded to the influence of Marc-Antonio. His first occupation on arriving in Rome was to reproduce the engravings by that mas- ter in order to gain facility in the use of the graver. Compelled later to comply with the requirements of the editor Tomaso Barlacchi, who shared with An- drea Salamanca the trade in engravings at Rome, he copied simultaneously the compositions of Maz- zuoli, of Perino del Vaga, and of Vasari. Towards 1545 he left Rome and went to Florence, where, 72 WONDEKS OF ENGRAVING. under the special protection of Cosmo II. of Medici, he occupied himself entirely with the reproduction of the works of Baccio Bandinelli. His talent had now attained its fullest development, and the " Leda," executed 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 draw- ing, fall of his genius and energy, is faithfully ren- dered. -andrart, and the other in German verse. They are posterity's homage to the greatest artist Germany ev r produced. Albert Diirer owes his great reputation to his Fie;. 10. The Virgin aaj the Infant Jesus. Engraved by ALBERT DUKEB. ENGRAVING IN GERMANY. 169 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 ar.d 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 marvel- lous 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 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 origi- nality 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 sor- row. The Virgin is a good mother, watching her 170 UONDEES OF ENGRAVING. child with loving eyes, or pressing 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 dra- peries, and his command of all the mysteries 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 cele- brated original engravings show no signs of fatigue, although they required such slow, careful, and labori- ous work. " Melancholia " (a design we scarcely un- derstand)," The Horse of Death," " The Nativity," " St. Hubert," and several small Madonnas, well suited to arouse alike the zeal of Christian believers, and the admiration of artists, are perhaps worthy of honor, rather on account of the great manual skill than the inventive power displayed in them. Albert Durer excelled all goldsmiths in carving metal, and all art- ists in his skill as a designer, and in his knowledge of engraving. All Albert Diirer's landscapes, intersected and enlivened by rivers and full of fortified castles and turreted 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 ENGRAVING IN GERMANY. 171 proportions is in a great measure atoned for by the delicate finish of the distances. Albert Durer 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 Durer, 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-Anto- nio's engravings, and palpably borrowed from them in his own compositions, did not gain any thing either by his reproductions or his thefts. His drawing re- mains inferior, without character or expression ; his heads are ugly, and sometimes grotesque ; his engrav- ing, which is delicate and often skilful, is only of real interest when he employs himself in goldsmith's works 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 172 WONDERS OF ENGKAVING. 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 unfortunate errors of taste, which are to be regretted in an artist of talent. Two portraits of Charles Y. and Ferdinand L, en- graved in 1531, are Bartholomew Beham's principal works ; and they are so true to nature, that they may rank among the best productions of the German school. Hans-Sebald Beham, like his uncle and mas- ter, 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 distinguish them from each other, but for the initials beneath them. Neither of them shrank from ugliness, and both were equally skilled in all the resources of the graver, which en- abled them to cut into the copper with a rare dexter- ity. 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. Nothing 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 his- tory of art this imputation which Sandrart has cast on ENGRAVING IX GERMANY. 173 Hans-Sebald Beham ; we prefer to consider him, what he in reality was, an earnest and hard-working man, who made the mistake of 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 1560, 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 Durer and Marc-Antonio his engraving is soft, with Belmm it is rather 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 by the great masters, is replaced by thin and widely- distanced lines, which scarcely sufiice 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 great 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 petite mattres. In this well-ar- ranged 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. 174 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 trust- worthy evidence on this vexed question than the false historical records in favor during the following cen- turies. If Italy influenced George Pencz, it w;is northern Italy ; Venice and her painters pleased him better than Rome and the pupils of Raphael, and he doubtless had Giovanni Bellini, Titian, and Giorgione in his mind when designing some of the figures of his compositions. 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. Among the best of petits maitrea who faintly re- flected 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 Diirer's engravings constantly before him. He caught his style in a great measure, especial' ly in the pose of his heads. Aldegrever tried every style, but was most successful when he merely repre- sented 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 snch abrupt folds as in designs of his own invention. He surpassed all competitors in the orna- ments and figures with which he embellished the Fig. 19 G?rman Costume H AT/DEGREVER. ENGRAVING IN GERMANY. 177 sheathes 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 distinc- tion 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. It would not be easy to explain the esteem in which their works are held, for the copies of their predeces- sors' 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 ai 1 incisive needle, these small landscapes by Lautensack 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 12 178 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. to notice these artists, as they left no good specimens of their work. Line-engraving declined when the school founded by Albert Durer 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 died in the same town in 1570. Like \hapetit8 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 supplied numerous designs to wood-engravers, has left a num- ber of fine and delicate, but monotonous, etchings. The designs are small and confused. One of Am- man'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 ENGRAVING Es GERMANY. 179 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 maitres. He was born at Liege in 1528, and established himself- at an early age at Frankfurt, where he died in 1598. 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 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 fig- ures are represented, or when he engraved ornaments, which betoken a decided style and a vivid imagina- tion. In this he resembled those engravers who rival- led 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 monopolized 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 180 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING G renter, a great admirer of allegorical subjects and armorial bearings ; the Ha'ids, 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 destroy- ed. Many of their engravings are skilfully executed, that is all. The Germans of the seventeenth and Mulicv Bafilienfir . ax9' Fig. 20. A Lady of Bale. VV. HOLLAR. EXGRAVENG Ef GERMANY. 181 eighteenth centuries all yielded to the same tempta- tion, and thought too much of tine strokes. They delighted, 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 com- pare rival schools, and all his engravings are so en- tirely 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 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 engrav- ings were decidedly inferior. Wendel Dieterlin, unlike Hollar, who travelled incessantly, 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 enthu- siasm, he was daunted by nothing ; with admirable spirit, he invented forms of the greatest variety, and, had he not imprudently introduced figures of ques- tionable taste into these ornaments, he might have taken honorable rank among the architectural en- gravers of the Renaissance. His adventurous needle, while remaining entirely under his control, went boldly 182 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 be- come extinct in Germany. J.-E. Ridinger, Ch. Diet- rich, Ch.-B. Rode and Weirotter were painters of in- ferior 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 engravings. Dietrich struggled hard, but with- out 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, journeyed a great deal, but gained nothing by his travels ; his engravings are pretentious and very careless ; there is no real thought in his pompous compositions, 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 Frede- rick 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 ENGRAVING IN GERMANY. 183 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 recognized 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 en- graver of his time. Every distinguished visitor to Paris who cared at all for art, solicited an introduc- tion to him, and each one justly acknowledged the greatness of his genius and the refinement of his taste ; for John George Wille possessed a large collec- tion 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 execu- tion ; 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 mis- taken his aim ; for should not an engraver identify himself entirely with his original and devote his whole energy to reproducing faithfully the work of the paint- er he has chosen ? George Frederick Schmidt began life with his intimate friend and fellow-countryman Wille. They came to Paris together, and their early struggles were the same. Schmidt found a friend in Nicholas Lan- 184 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 pub- lisher 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 sagacity by entrusting to the young artist a portrait of the Count of Evreux, whicli he had fin- ished. He was completely satisfied with the result. This was most fortunate for Schmidt, as Rigaud, con- vinced of his powers, gave him, with the prelate's consent, the portrait of St. Albiu, Archbishop of Cambray, to copy, and the cordial and well-deserved reception of this beautiful engraving completely estab- lished its author's fame. From this time (1742) Schmidt brought out engravings every year, all testi- fying 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 coloring. 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 execution ; and in this branch of art Schmidt did not excel. He ENGRAVING IN GERMANY. 185 iseems 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 direc- tion of J. G. Wille, and afterwards faithfully trans- mitted 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 Ra- phael's celebrated cartoon of " The Dispute on the Sacrament," and other works, has shown his power of faithfully 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. 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, what- ever 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 neighboring countries ; if England has attracted to her shores foreign masters such as Holbein, Yandyck, 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 ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. 187 only, and we must begin by stating that the English 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 engrav- ings from their prayer-books ; whereas the earliest wood-cuts of Italy, Germany, France, and the Low Countries 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 venerable 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." Unfortunately, in England as in other countries, engraving had at first no individual character. William Caxton seldom il- lustrated his books with engravings, and when he did indulge in them he could only employ awkward carv- ers 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, " Thy mage, or Mirrour of the 188 WONDEKS OF ENGRAVING. 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 engravers. In an edition of ^Esop's Fables (" The Subtyl Hy story es and Fables of Esope ") published three years later, in 1484, by Caxton, we h'nd some engravings copied from preced- ing Latin and French editions, which would seem to confirm our opinion of tlie inferiority of other nations to ourselves, if any comparison be possible between works of no talent and possessing archaeological in- terest only. There were certainly many other books containing wood-cuts 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 re- pudiating the claims of all competitors by the asser- tion 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 would be waste of time to refute it. Instead of going so far back, we will commence our study when Eng- * 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 Naamali." Gen. iv. 22. ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. 189 lish engraving acquired an individual character and \vas 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, somewhat harshly, vignettes, ornaments, and por- traits, succeeding better, like most of his fellow-coun- trymen, with the human face than with any thing else. William Faithome 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 English 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 leav- ing 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 Champagne and then with Robert Nanteuil, whose lessons were of great service to him. He soon became famous, and when events allowed of his re- 190 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. turn to England in 1650, he was cordially welcomed by liis fellow-country men on account of liis talent- Like his friend and master, Nanteuil, lie drew por- traits 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 expression of the physiognomy, as seen in the numer- ous 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 re- markable for a power of coloring to which the French engraver never aspired. The portraits of R. Bay- feild, William Paston, William Sanderson, and oth- ers, 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 caressing the Infant Jesus," after Laurent de la Hyre, which slightty recall the style of Couvay and of ]\Iel- lan, without all their talent, would not alone entitle Faithorne to very high rank. i = '. 1. Portrait oi E. Bjyfeild. Engraved by WILLIAM FAITHORNE. ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. 193 Many artists endeavored to follow the manner of "William Faithorne, but not one had sufficient orisri- O nality to merit a place in our review of the English, school. They were all inferior. Their fellow-coun- trymen 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 Kubens and Yandyck in English collections, and it was not until the eigh- teenth century that we find artists in England suffi- ciently 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 engrav- ers in England during this long period. Wenceslas Hollar, a German established in London, gave a praiseworthy impulse to etching. Again, Prince Ru- pert 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 line-engrav- ing and fre must again allude to French influence. Robert Strange, born in 1723, died in London in 1T95. When quite young he crossed the Channel and went to stndy in Paris with Philip Lebas, who taught him the first elements of engraving. But * Now in the South Kensington Museum. 194 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 conn- try, 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 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 gradations and fine proportions of his plates ENGRAVING IN ENGLAKD. 195 arc 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 al- though so far away. They diminish gradually whilst the trees and grass ot 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 attracted by the grand and masterly disposition of the forms, the deep infinite horizons, and the beautiful scenery of the landscapes, and he succeeded in interpreting the great qualities of the painter. Claude Lorraine was never better understood than by "Woollett, 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 Montpellier, may be included in the English school, because he spent the greater part of his life in Eng- land, and learnt his art there. He rendered Claude Lorraine's works with almost as much skill as Wool- lett. He too confined himself almost entirely to land- scapes of a particular style by Lorraine, Gaspar Pous- sin, or Patel. His plastic style of work admirably suited grand compositions such as theirs. The judi- 196 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. ciously distributed light, affecting each object differ- ently, in which these masters delighted, is transmitted to copper with remarkable accuracy. It would ap- pear 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 Yivares. Like the master from whom he took his inspiration, the engraver thoroughly un- derstood the laws of light arid 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 estab- lished 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 Philip Lebas, and returned to his native land after five years' ab- sence. 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, Fran- cesco Bartolozzi, which consisted in imitating witli the graver the effect produced on paper with a pen- cil. In the hands of a good draughtsman this process could, and did, accomplish much ; but Ryland had ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. 197 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 acci- dental circumstance, however, suddenly compelled him to give up engraving. He was accused of for- gery, tried, convicted, and condemned, and after that liis name was never heard again. The list of English line-engravers is soon exhaust- ed : there remain two only, George Vertue and Abra- ham Raimbach, who may be said to have attained any distinction in the history of English art. George Vertue excelled in reproducing the pictures of Sir Godfrey Kneller. His engraving is very correct, almost monotonously so ; but the English aristocracy patronized him because he was very skilful with physiognomy, and rendered most happily the distin- guished 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 politician, 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 Yertue ; and at the end of his work he has a long note on the English artist, in which lie awards just praise to the talent of his fellow-country- man. Abraham Raimbach closes the list of English en- gravers. He seemed born to interpret the works of 198 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. the painter Wilkie. He lias reproduced the well-con- ceived and spirited pictures called " Blind Man's Buff," "The Kent-Day," and the "Tillage Politi- cians " with surprising delicacy and skill. In spite of their large size these prints are what are called genre engravings ; they are prepared and nearly fin- ished in etching, and then almost entirely retouched with the graver ; and as combined by Raimbach, the two processes produced 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 trans- ferred to the metal. The bright and pleasing ap- pearance of the paintings is also rendered, and there is a general harmony about Raimbach's engravings which Wilkie's canvases 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 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 at- tractive example of Wenceslas Hollar, Mezzotint En- graving, introduced, as we have said, by Prince Rupert, was at once enthusiastically adopted in that country. It was more successful in England than ENGRAVING IX ENGLAND. 199 elsewhere-, and its rapid triumphs are easily accounted for. The works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Gains- borough, and of Sir Thomas Lawrence, softly and agreeably colored, arid not very strictly drawn, were well suited to this kind of engraving, which allows of vagueness of outline and great freedom of treatment. Anthony Vandyck's portraits taken in England were equally good subjects. This was at once recognized 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, ex- cel in portraiture, he owes his reputation rather to his justly admired engravings of fruit and flowers after Van Huysum, and his " Bathsheba leading Abishag to David" is considered the chef -d^ceu ere of mezzo- tint 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 200 WON DEES OF ENGRAVING. 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. fl. Smith, in his portraits of Master John Crewe and Lady Caroline Montagu, shows equal tal- ent to that of V. Green in the portraits of the Duke of Bedford, of W. Chambers, or the Lady Caroline Howard ; and MacArdell, J. Watts, James Ward, J. Faber, J. and Thomas Watson, E. Fisher, John Dix- on, W. Dickinson. G. Clint, C. H. Hodges, C. Turner, John Murphy, C. Corbutt, S. Paul, J. Grozer, John Jones, J. Spilsbury, 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, Yiscount G. Maiden and Lady Capel, the Duke of Portland, Mrs. Chambers, Viscountess Spencer, Lady Seaford, Fox, Miss Jacob, and Miss Horneck. These engravings 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 ac- quainted 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 ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. 201 dark, and producing altogether a more harmonious effect. Godfrey Kneller, although born at Lubeck in 1648. and formed in Rembrandt's school, must be in- cluded among English painters, notwithstanding his foreign origin and education. He established him- self in London when very young, and never again left it ; his style of painting resembles that of Eng- lish 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 Ivneller, the principal are those of William III., King of England, the painter William Vandevelde, the Countess of Salisbury, and John, Duke of Marl- borough. These engravings are exact copies of the master's somewhat formal paintings, but the execu- tion 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 War- ren by John Jones, of the Earl of Derby by George 202 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. Keating, and of Henry Duke of Buccleueh 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 aris- tocracy. Unfortunately 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 repro- duced 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 en- graver, Samuel Cousins, who produced a fine master- piece after one of his paintings. We allude to the portrait of Pius VII., the best mezzotint engraving of modern times. Thoroughly well-instructed in his art, the engraver has preserved all the life and gran- deur of the original ; he has managed the light with the greatest tact, and drawn the pontiff.'s head with a power unknown to most of his contemporaries. Charles Turner also engraved an excellent portrait of William Pitt after Lawrence ; and he himself, Eng- land's last great master, was fortunate enough to find many contemporary artists who thoroughly understood his works, and interpreted them with laudable talent. We have not yet spoken of the humorist 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 his- torical than artistic interest, as it borrowed its sub- ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. 203 jects largely from literature, politics, and contem- porary customs ; and would lose much by being con- sidered from a merely artistic point of view. "\Y i Hi am Hogarth is the master of this style. Born of poor parents, he was apprenticed to a gold- smith 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 man, who was to inaugurate a new style of art, began life by chasing metals, and engraving armorial bearings, fig- ures, and arabesques on silver, gold, or bronze. It was thus he learnt the trade of an engraver. After working for some years with a goldsmith, he deter- mined 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 sad- ness on his observing and inquiring mind, which made him see the saddest and most painful 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 204 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. of energy and character. Fielding said of his friend Hogarth : " The figures of other painters breathe, those of Hogarth think." lie was right. Hogarth ift more of a philosopher than an artist. His paint- ings, often dull and inharmonious, are no doubt clev- erly composed, and some figures are really artistic ; but the thought is every thing ; the subject absorbs all attention and interest at the expense of the draw- ing and execution. " The Harlot's Progress," " The Hake'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 works retained their original style and attractions better than they could have done in the hands of other artists. His engrav- ings 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 engrav- ings not only possess all the qualities of his pictures, but excel them in their harmony. There is a wide difference between William Ho- garth and other English painters of manners and ca- ricaturists. The master is anxious about the philo- sophical side of his work, and desirous of giving to his compositions all the value of a moral lesson, but ENGRAVING EN ENGLAND. 207 the caricaturists who succeeded him cared little to make their works of general interest. If they in- tended to ridicule any one they exaggerated his phys- ical defects, or represented him in rags, or wretched and scorned, that was all ; and if they did depict one of the thousand miseries of life, they carried buffoon- ery 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 strolling company of players. In this new career, he had to endure mortifications of all kinds. After wan- dering 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 re- turn 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 de- voted himself to this kind of work without intermis- sion. 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 represent- ed playing at cup-and-ball with the terrestrial globe. Later, in 1797, when the minister, lately so powerful, 208 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 supplied 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 direct- ed his attention rather to the manners of the people than to politics. The action of his characters is ex- cellent, 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 con- temporaries, and in this he generally succeeded. Towards the close of his life Thomas Rowlandson de- signed vignettes for books. The illustrated book which gained him the greatest success in England was " Doctor Syntax," an account of the innumera- ble adventures of a luckless traveller pursued by mis- fortune. The etchings, colored by hand, which ac- company the text show the witty side of Thomas ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. 209 Rowlandson's talent, and may be considered some of his best productions. Rowland son 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 alterna- tions between want and prodigality. When old and infirm, with faculties as much impaired by dissipation as by age, he sank into poverty and died on the 22d of April, 1827. George Cruickshank, who was also a caricaturist, 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 lite 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 humorist school which still exists in England. He is now old and works less than he did ; c5 but his influence is still great over young artists, and his style is still much in favor. CHAPTER YIL ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. Engravers on Wood Engravers on Metal The School of Fontaine- bleau Portrait-painters Nicolas Poussin and Jean Pesne Charles Lebrun and Gerard Audran The School of Watteau Vignette Engravers The School of David. FRANCE has small claim to the invention of en- graving, although she did not remain inactive while the movement was taking place in other countries. Several French wood-cuts are known to belong to the middle of the fifteenth century, and are in fact con- temporaneous with the earliest engravings brought out in other countries. Better still, some playing- cards of undoubted antiquity, as proved by the em- blems 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 barbarous style of some prints, with a text or legend in French attached to them, would furnish material for the re- searches of modern learning. But it would be use- less 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 ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 211 manner. The first book embellished with engravings appeared in France at the end of the fifteenth centu- ry, but the " Romance of Fierabras " (Lyons, 1480), " BeKal, or the Consolation of the Poor Fishers " (1484), and other works with wood-cuts, have a ficti- tious value only in the eyes of amateurs on account of their antiquity, and can scarcely be regarded as really significant specimens of wood-engraving. In fact, Antoine Verard's publications, " The Sea of His- tories " (La Mer des Histoires), amongst others, print- ed 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 with- out delicacy, and recall in many points the complica- ted arabesques of French architectural monuments of the fifteenth century ; but the invention is often hap- py, and we see the same love of truthful representa- tion in them with which we are familiar in earlier miniatures. The simplicity of the expressions, the life of the figures, make up for the want of knowl- edge of composition, and render us indulgent to the faults of drawing, and the imperfections which abound in these early efforts. The " Dance of Death," print- ed for the first time in 1485, by Antoine Yerard, and often reprinted since, perhaps contains more interest- ing engravings than the " Sea of Histories." The persons successively summoned by Death, each re- ceive 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 212 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. him to the tomb, with a resignation of which the Em- peror is incapable ; the merchant loaves his business with despair ; the usurer cannot make up his mind to relinquish his treasure ; the knight tries to struggle with Death, who is hurrying 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 Ihe 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. Wcod-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 Yerard and Simon Yostre occupy the first place among these printers. Books issued by them and bearing their 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 ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 213 sometimes to private life, for the subjects of his orna- ments. Occasionally, by some strange whim, a pro- fane object, such as a centaur drawing a bow, is intro- duced among sacred ornaments. The composition is as varied as the invention, but the style of the en- gravers is always the same. The figures always stand out on a background covered with stippling, which is supposed to imitate the golden backgrounds of minia- tures. The figures are disposed without affectation, the action is simple and life-like. There is a larger engraving at the beginning of each service, which generally represents a biblical subject ; " The Crea- tion of Eve," "The Annunciation," "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 Ger- man works, others Flemish figures, but the greater number seem to have taken their inspiration from the French miniatures, 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 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 214 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 God art, and Francis Ilegnault, 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 w r orks 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, Bullarit, Philibert Delorme, and Pierre Lescot ; the painters, Jean Cousin and the Clouets, had added entirely new lustre to French art. Engraving did not linger be- hind. Guided by these masters, wood-engravers in their humbler sphere showed talent at least equal to that of their neighbors. They cut wood with the same ease and delicacy, and they copied the excellent models before them so faithfully as sometimes to sac- rifice 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 ENGRAVING IX FRANCE. 215 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 ele- gance. French art in them clearly displays its na- tional 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 r 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 diffi- cult to class the publications of this period. One thing is certain, they are by different artists. But 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), 216 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. and " The Loves of Cupid and Psyche " (Paris, Jeanne de Maruef, widow of Denis Janot, 1546). The translation of the " Dream of Polyphilus " (Paris, 1546), also contains engravings of a most ele- gant 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 trustworthy evidence as to the name of the artist. Hitherto one only of this great num- ber of wood-engravers has been the subject of a spe- cial work, and by means of the numerous engravings collected and published by his biographer, we can form a very fair idea of his talent. Geoffroy 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, whicli 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 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 Co- lines and signed in full, Geoffroy Tory, we arc Fig. 20. Herri II. From the "Entry of Hern- II. into Paris in Ly GEorrnoY TCEY. ENGRAVING m FRANCE. 219 Bure 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 re- quired 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 borrowed from the purest sources, and resembles the antique ; the supple grace- ful figures show the love of elegance which the artists of Fontainebleau carried to extremes. Reasoning by analogy, and without referring to uny engravings but those bearing the cross of Lorraine, we can without hesitation ascribe to Geoft'roy Tory " The Entry of Henry II. into Paris in 1549," " The Old and New Covenants," an allegorical composition engraved on a design, recalling the manner of Jean Cousin, and " Francis I. listening to Machault reading his Trans- lation of Diodorus Siculus." These engravings, which are worthy of the first place in every choice collection, are the only ones which we feel sure were entirely engraved by Geoffroy 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 wor- thy 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 cen- 220 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. tury, 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 favor. 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 event-^, 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, 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 oc- curred 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 ; ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 221 Jean Loclerc, Denis de Mathoniere, Marin Bonneraer, 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 stndios, and set an exam- ple to their pupils by themselves taking part in the work. Unfortunately, the necessity for rapid produc- tion was detrimental to these engravings. They still retain a faint and distant resemblance to the graceful and spirited works of French art of the sixteenth century, but they are clumsily and carelessly exe- cuted. Sometimes, however, in spite of all the hasty work of the engraver, the drawing shows excellent taste and incontestable ability ; it is only when trade encroaching on art first invaded and then took posses- sion of it, that wood-engraving, so successfully prac- tised in France for more than a century, disappeared entirely, to remain in complete oblivion for two cen- turies ; that is to say, until our own time, when some picturesque publications forced themselves on 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 re- produced by him could scarcely attract attention at a time when so many copper-plate engravers were de- signing 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- 222 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. chosen. Far more talent than Papillon possessed was required to effect a revival of wood-engraving, and his attempt proved abortive. Fifty years later the same design was conceived, and being worked out with tal- ent and enthusiasm, it met with decided and brilliant success. Large publications were set on foot, and ow- ing to the earnest intelligence of those who conducted them, they prospered beyond expectation ; 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 nourished once more, and no one now dreams of disputing the superiority of France in this popular style of en- graving. 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 peculiar process, called maniere 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 ENGRAVING ES T FRAXCE. 223 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 i'e^ 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 recognized. 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 maniere 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 Brey den bach's book, called " Holy Pil- grimages to Jerusalem and the adjacent Neighbor- hood " (Lyon, Michel Topie de Pymont and Jacques Heremberck, 1488). They reproduce on copper, wood- engravings published at Mayence two years before, 224 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. and they give us panoramas of Yenice, Parcnzo, 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 de- signs are careful, and on this account their author called the Engraver of 1488 deserves honorable mention in a comprehensive review of French artists. Noel Garnier, who caine 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 engravings by Albert Diirer, George Pencz, and Hans-Sebald Beharn are characterized by deplorable feebleness, 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 1540) but he could not avail himself 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 favorite 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. ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 225 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 Gourmout, signed their engravings witli their monograms ; a double C and a J and G interlaced. They were probably jew- ellers before they became engravers. Their style of working on copper resembles that of the second-rate wood-engravers who flourished at Lyons in the six- teenth century, and they were probably guided by them. They chiefly excelled in small compositions. They delighted in complicated architecture, and peo- pled their porticos and unfinished rotundas with small biblical or fabulous personages, which they drew with some spirit ; the neat and careful execu- tion betraying 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 Nativ- ity," 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 dis- dain to handle the needle. He was not content with supplying wood-engravers with the excellent designs which illustrate his " Treatise on Perspective " and 226 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. liis "Book of Portraiture," lie wished himself to fathom the difficulties of an art which, although al- most at its zenith in other countries, was only begin- ning to make head in France. He engraved and signed three plates : " The Conversion of St. Paul," " The Annunciation," and " The Entombment," im- pressions from which are very rare. Boldly and skil- fully 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 ele^ gance 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 contemplation, are content to adore. In the " Annunciation," the celestial messenger is a contrast to the modest and shrinking Virgin, who receives the news with grati- tude, mingled with a kind of dread. Finally " St. Paul," stretched on his back, among his soldiers, seems to implore Divine mercy, with his arms ex- tended 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 etch- ers of great original power are very numerous, even ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 227 witliout including those of the school of Fontaine- bleau. Tlie style of Pierre "Woeiriot, an artist of Lorraine, in his engravings after his own designs, resembles that of his predecessor, Jean Duvet. lie, too, overdid the work in his figures. All his portraits are not of equal merit, but we are favorably im- pressed by his engraved likenesses of Louise Lahbe, Francois de Serocourt, Antoine le Pois, and of him- self. 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 PVance. Nicolas Beatrizet and Nicolo della Casa, fellow- countryman of Woeiriot, passed their lives in Italy. They were French by birth only, and their style 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 b-3 found in his works. Paris was not, in the sixteenth century, what she be- 228 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. came 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 honorable name. Orleans, amongst others, could pride herself on having produced the engraver Etienne De- laune. He was certainly one of the most prolific of the clever engravers of the French Renaissance. His style gives evident proof that he had studied a gold- smith's trade. This accounts for his love of small works. He did produce two or three large engrav- ings, 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 compositions in very small spaces, and yet, with so much 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 lov- ing care, as they were submitted to the direct gaze of the public. Numerous ornaments, some elegant ara- besques, some pieces of jewelry, and two rare engrav- ings 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 Vajlet were born and worked at Orleans. The former executed, with a cer- tain harshness, about ten engravings of allegorical ENGRAVING IX FRANCE. 229 figures 1 ' Force," " Abundance," " Justice," &c. The drawing shows that the artist liad kept pace with the progress made in France in his age, but the engraving has fa lluii far short of the designer's intention, and is miserably poor. Pierre Yailet 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 u Chariclee," he has shown that he could also cleverly render the designs of others. Joseph Boillot was a native of Langres. He hab 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, " 1'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 diverges glaces Je veis le mien profil despeinct nai'vement Lors je delibere en moy soudainement De graver ce pourtraict dont vous voyez les traces." At Bourges, Jean Bouchier, a very clever artist. 230 BONDERS OF ENGIZAVING. but of little celebrity, whose works show real talent, engraved six plates 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 be- loved. Jean Bouchier's engravings are distinguished rather for correctness of drawing and justice of ex- pression 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 desirable to pur- sue 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 " Venus jealous of Psyche urging Love to avenge her wrongs," after Giulio JRomano al- though rather too freely rendered, give a more favora- ble idea of his talent than all his other works. In some engravings which adorn the " Ballet Comique de la Koync faict aux nopces de Monsieur le ENGRAVING IX FRANCE. 231 Due de Joyeuse er de Madamoyselle de Vaudemont" (Paris, 1582, in -Ito.), 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-organ- ized school of painting in France, although many of their neighbors possessed an almost embarrassing number, some sought their models in Flanders, some in Italy. Charles Hallery, Pierre Firens, and Jean Baptiste Barbe took their inspiration from the works of Wierix, and did not fail to imitate his feeble style of interpreting nature. Like their patrons, they suc- ceeded better with portraits than with religious sub- jects. The latter, indeed, are executed with weari- some monotony, every thing is worked out with equal care, and the art of bringing the interesting parts into relief is altogether wanting. Philip Thomassin, Vale- rien Regnart, and other Frenchmen of the same period, turned to Italy ; but instead of studying the master- pieces of Marc- Antonio and his pupils, they addressed themselves to Cornelius Cort, a Flemish artist estab- lished at Rome, and tried to imitate his pompous and insipid style. By this strange fancy they gained noth- ing and sacrificed their own originality. Their harsh engravings of these compositions of questionable taste could give them but a very inferior position as artists. 232 WOSTDEBS or ENGKAVING. Tlie engravers of whom we liuvc 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 combinations of the styles peculiar to each country. Two Italian masters, Rosso and Prhnaticcio, di- rected the school. They were both highly gifted, and their works taught better lessons than any amount of the best theoretic instruction could have given. TVhile architects enlarged the king's favorite 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 worked 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 suc- ceeded by the nicety of his work in giving to each. EN'GEAVIXG IN FKAXCE. 233 group, to each figure, its true distinctness and its true proportions. 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 fet- tered by the limited capabilities of his tools, and his work is cold compared with his etchings. 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 inhabited. His architecture proves his visit to Italy, his costumes his sojourn in Prance, 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 exactness by Francis Hogenberg. Vasari not unreasonably conjectures that Leonard Tiry (called by some historians of engraving Leon 234 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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. Boyvin's numerous engravings after Rosso, Primaticcio, 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 hand- ling the burin. Guido Ruggieri followed Rosso and Primaticcio 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 favor 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 ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 235 school of Fontainebleau. Four plates with his initial?, dated 1544:, are of subjects from the Kew Testament ; they are rather harsh, but the handling is clear, bold, and free. The compositions, too, are happily con- ceived ; the drawing is tirm, 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 etchings of an ultra-picturesque style. His slender figures of the Virgin or the Shepherds adoring the infant Jesus are exaggerations of Rosso' s favorite 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 produc- tions. Jacques Prevost, born at Gray, has left a portrait of Francis I., 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 persever- ing pursuit of truth, as it proves that the artist of Franche Comte thought more of these than of Court favor. We will merely mention the existence of the nu- merous anonymous engravings inspired by the artists 236 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. of Fontainebleau ; any discussion of their merits would delay us too long. Their authors are known under the collective name of the anonymous engrav- ers 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- 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 iu 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 admira- ble paintings by the Florentine artist on the walls of Francis I.'s palace ; and it would be a great honor 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 honorable. They gave an impulse to French artists which no fel- low-countrymen would have done ; and we must re- member that we have to thank the gallant engravers of Fontainebleau, in a great measure, for that school ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 237 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 Fontaine- bleau with scenes from mythology in a style which combined that of the Italian, Flemish, and French schools, an art entirely national was coming into fash- ion at Court, and spreading throughout France. We allude to portrait-painting. We know that the beau- tiful series of portraits produced in the sixteenth cen- tury are said to be traceable to Flanders, and that John Yan Eyck and Hans Hemling 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, char- acter, and individuality. Little do they care for the processes employed, or for the complete sacrifice of their own personality. The crayons ascribed to Clou- et, Qnesnel, and Duraontier are admirable. Their simplicity 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 produced by a breath, a breath fixing the life 238 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. and expression 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 difficul- ties 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 give the harmonious aspect of the originals was beyond his powers. Jean Rabel, Thomas de Leu, Leonard Gualtier, Pierre Daret, Claude M ell an 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 Babel'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 president De Thou, and the chancellor De 1'Hopital ; they are like w y hat history leads ns to be- lieve, we feel in looking at them that Rabel has left us true and favorable likenesses. Although his en- graving is somewhat timid and inexperienced, it faith- fully renders the design, and nevei' shows awkward- ness or want of knowledge of drawing. Thomas de Leu never surpassed Jean Rabel, although he was a far more skilful engraver. His ability only injured ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 230 his drawing by making it labored. We must tliank liim for putting the names of those from whom he took his models under many of his plates. This pre- caution establishes the authenticity of great masters' K-orks, and rescues many artists from oblivion. Isaie Fournier, James Blame, Jacob Bunel, Darlay, G. Guibert, Quesnel, Daniel and Pieire Dumonstier, are indebted to him for all or part of their fame. The chief merit cf Thomas de Leu was the faith- fulness 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 influ- enced by the pompous compositions and monotonous engravings 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 as- cetic subjects to nature, and when he addressed him- self, 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- 240 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. rary of Thomas dc Leu, and we may almost say his rival. Being neighbors, the two artists often took the same person's portraits. Their styles were differ- ent. 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 portraits were harsher and less pleasing than those of Leu. Briot, Jean Picard, and Jasper 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 unpar- donably dull. The faces of the figures hardly stand out from the copper, so haivh 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 vi- gnettes. 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 Wieiix, and never have any attempt at individuality. To continue this uninterrupted list of portrait- takers who are such an honor to the French school, we must pass on to the. seventeenth century, and con- sider Pierre Daret, Claude Mellan, and Michel La^ne, Fig. 24. Head of Cariit. Engraved by C-ACSE MZLL-^:;. ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 243 of whom we have before spoken, and who were under Louis XIII. what Thomas de Leu and Leonard Gual- tier had been under Henry IV. Few persons of any celebrity or importance escaped these experienced art- ists. Unfortunately, although they drew well, their style of engraving was very unpleasing. Pierre Daret, whose work with the graver was generally cold and monotonous, yet managed to reproduce very fairly the Abbe of Saint Ciran, after Daniel Dumon- stier. Claude Mellan, who rather paraded his skill in drawing a full-faced head of Christ with one un- broken 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 drawing 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 ; Francois Yillamene and the Sade- lers 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 indepen- dence. 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 Marcassns after D. Dunionstier, of Strozzi after Simon Vouet, of Brunver and Evrard 244 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. Jabacli 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 individuality. Unfortunately, at the end of his ca- reer, Michel Lasne swerved from the right path. He was jealous of the success of Claude Mellan, deter- mined to imitate him, and proceeded to make his strokes as wide apart as possible, and, to use an au- thorized expression, he manoeuvred so much, that he sacrificed correct drawing to the useless display of his knowledge. In this mistaken endeavor, 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 Consecration of Louis XIII. in the Cathedral of Rheims," " The Consecration of Marie de Medicis," " Henry IY. 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 correct- ENGRAVING IN FKANCE. 245 ness ; and in addition to the interest which always attaches to a contemporary representation of an his- torical event, they are of value on account of their artistic composition and practical ability. Up to this period we have not found France tak- ing 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 influence. 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 com- plete their education, or to establish their reputation, hurried to France from every side. She developed talents and gave lustre to reputations already ac- quired. Her influence on art itself was ever on the increase, and even now fresh successes are constantly proving that she still retains the preeminence 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 exceptional position in the history of art. His life was strange and worth relating. He was born at Nancy, in 1592 ; at twelve years old he set off secret- ly for Rome with a band of gypsies^, but being recog- nized 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 246 WONDKK8 OF ENGRAVING. 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 tend their young son to Rome, a favorable opportunity presenting itself. This soon occurred. In 1609 an ambassador, accredited to the Pope by Henry II., of Lorraine, was willing to take charge of Jacques Cal- lot, who had already given proof of exceptional abil- ity in a few engravings. His stay in Rome decided his fate. When in the Eternal City he is said to have at tirst followed the lessons of Ant. Tempesta, proba- bly with his fellow-countrymen, Israel Henriet and Claude Deniet, 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 Phi- lippe Thomassin, 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, w y hich 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 origi- nal 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 en- trusted him with the engraving of " The Funeral of the Queen of Spain." He acquitted himself credit- ably of this commission, and this first important ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 247 work gave him considerable reputation, which was increased and established by a successful invention. He wished to give up line-engraving, and find some mode of working better suited to his prolific and in- genious spirit, to his ardent and 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 un- certain. Callot set himself to work to bring it to perfection. He spread a thick coat of varnish on a moderately heated plate, thereby obtaining a uni- formly 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 any thing 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 Peo- ple " (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 24:8 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. by his proud and noble patriotism. The king, hav- ing heard of the artist's talent, proposed to Callot that lie should engrave the siege of Nancy. He re- fused without hesitation, and his answer to the king has been transmitted 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 honor of my prince and my country." He testified his horror of war in a still more decided manner in his series of fine and sarcastic original engravings known as " The Miseries of War." In eighteen compositions, all most picturesque, he depicted the unheard-of suffer- ings, 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 an- other 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 Posteiite. Passant jette les yeux sur cette escriture, quand tu scauras de combien mon voyage a este ad- vance, tu ne seras pas marri que ie retarde un peu le tien : Je suis Jacques Calot, ce grand et excellent cal- cographe, qui repose en ce lieu en attandant la resur- rection des corps. Ma naissance fut mediocre, ma condition noble, ma vie courte et heureuse ; mais ma Fig. 25 Portrait of CLAUDE DEBUET. Etching by JACQUES CALLOT. ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 251 renommee a este et sera sans pareille ; personne ne in'a este esgal en toute sorte de perfection pour le dessein et la graveure sur 1'airain. Toute la terre a consenti aux louanges extraordinaires qui men out este donnecs sans que pour cela je sois jainais sorti de ma modestie naturelle. Je nasquis a Nancy, 1'annee 1594, et mourus aussi a Nancy le 23 e Mars 1635, au regret iucroyable de la Lorraine, ma patrie, et de tous les plus rares esprits de notre siecle, et princi- palement de damoiselle Catherine Puttinger, mon espouse qui pour un dernier temoignage d'amitie in'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 long- er. He is one of the most interesting of French art- ists. His numerous works give most authentic his- torical information on the costumes and manners of the time of Louis XIII. His works on engraving and architecture show an erudition rare amongst art- ists, and give us information on the state of art at a time when treatises by the trading classes were cer- tainly not common. His engravings have a charm all their own, independent of the subject represented. We must, however, make one reservation in our favor- able notice. Although in his " Treatise on Engrav- ing" 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 252 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. tried to imitate the strokes of the graver ; in spite of this, however, his drawing was always spirited, and 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 lias 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 Dernet 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 imi- tate in them the manner of Callot, but he did not attain to any thing like the same delicacy of hand- ling. 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 fellow-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. EXGEAYING IN FRANCE. 255 Sebastian Leclerc flourished later ; he was born at Metz on the 26th of September, 1637, and died in Paris on the 25th of October, 1714. He neverthe- less preserved the remembrance of Callot, and in his small original engravings of costumes he often re- minds us of the master whom France so justly counts among her most illustrious children. Lorraine gave birth to another of the most cele- brated 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 modem 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 per- vade 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 rendering them, he takes his inspira- tion direct from nature, and his poetic spirit does the re.-t. At no time has landscape been treated with such majesty, grace, and bold simplicity ; and wheth- er he be considered as a painter or as an engraver Claude Lorraine is undoubtedly the greatest inter- preter of nature the world has ever produced. 256 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 honor added to the painter's popularity. Orders flowed into Youet'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 Torte- bat, seemed to have devoted their existence to spread- ing the renown of their father-in-law. Of these two painter-engravers, Michel Doriguy was by far the more skilful ; his easy and sometimes bold needle rendered the limpid coloring and the occasionally incorrect drawing of Simon Vouet with remarkable ENGRAVING IN FEANCE. 257 fidelity. He represented almost all the important compositions of the painter with scrupulous exact- ness ; indeed, so great was Simon Vouet's influence over his son-in-law, that Dorigny's original paintings were mere fac-si miles 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 hear date 1664, his last 1668. He evidently soon gave up engraving to devote him- self entirely to painting. Francois 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 othsr numerous en- gravings are often poor, and fail to render the soft- ness of the paintings of the French school at the be- ginning 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-engravings after Vouet or his imitators. We merely state that we consider the esteem in which the works of these engravers are held is somewhat exaggerated. Laurent de la Hyre and Francois Chanveau did not resist the influence of the all-powerful master, but they freed themselves in a measure from the yoke which oppressed the French school, and showed their independence in some en- 258 WONDLRS OF ENGRAVING. gravings of exaggerated elegance, which remind us of the school of Fontahieblean. They both employed etching; Laurent do 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 work- ing 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 Yignon 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 P>re- biette produced some light and spirited engravings ; at Toulouse, 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 Fonge cnigmatique de la Peinture Parlante). At Chateaudun, Nicolas Clia- pron transferred to metal some designs he had exe- cuted in Rome after the paintings of Raphael in the ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 259 loggie of the Vatican, he appears to have understood these great works better than any artist who has, as jet, arisen ; at Aries, Nicolas Delafage engraved in a t>tvle somewhat like that of Italy in the seventeenth century ; his figures of the Virgin are skilfully exe- cuted, but they are not very remarkable. Indeed we might find one or two artists in almost every province who successfully employed engraving which had now become acclimatized in France. But all th!s provincial enthusiasm was not enough. Art requires a higher education than all France could give to achieve any great success; and, therefore, art- ists who had their reputation at heart nocked 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 permanently ; among the latter was the immor- tal Nicolas Poussin, the greatest artist France has ever produced. As a painter he does not come with- in 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 arrangement and style of his figures, in the grandeur of the lines, and the expres- 260 WONDKK8 OF ENGRAVING. sion of the faces and gestures rather than in the com- position or the coloring'. We are aware that the mas- ter used a red preparation for his canvases, which from the first injured his colors, and gave them the sober, gloomy, sad appearance 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 ob- scurity which often prevents our grasping the mean- ing of the originals all at once. Jean Pesne devoted himself to the reproduction of Poussin's works, ren- dering 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. He obtained excellent results by means of etching alone. His style is bold and sure, never pedantic or labored ; 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 in- debted for rendering Poussin's works in all their majestic beauty. He was equally successful with subjects of every variety. He is never inferior to his model, whether he is engraving the " Seven Sacra- ments," the " Trance of St. Paul," or the " Triumph of Galatea." He pays untiring attention to the cor- EXGKAVING IN FRANCE. 263 rectness of the figures or objects, and gives us a faith- ful 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 draw- ing, engraved the best work of Nicolas Poussin, which may perhaps also be considered a wonder of engrav- ing. " Time disclosing Truth " is a magnificent com- position 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 grav- iug-tool, he seems," says M. Denon, " to have em- ployed 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 oc- casionally placed his talent at the service of Nicolas Poussin, and produced very few engravings after that master, he must still be classed with Jean Pesne, and a female artist, of whom we shall presently speak, 261 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 identify herself entirely with work of an exalted kind, more especially when that work requires an extended education and a knowledge of the human mind such as in our present state of civilization is usually monopolized by man. The genius of Pous- sin 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 Musgeo Anth. Stella, Parisiis." This plate, repro- ducing one of Poussin's most important compositions, interprets the painting as faithfully as possible. The 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 sui-prising exact- ness ; and, but that the work in the first proof was rather too metallic, we should unreservedly agree ENGKAVISU IN FRANCE. 265 with Wattelet that " Claudine Stella excelled all en- gravers in rendering Ponssin's coloring." "We have now named the chief engravers after Poussin, but we should not be doing justice to his influence 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 inspira- tion from Poussin's works. Giovanni Dughet, Pous- sin'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 skilTin handling the graver than in interpreting Poussin ; " The Baptism of Christ " by Louis de Chatillon 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 Lenfant, Etienne Baudet, An- toine Gamier, Michel Natalis, Jean No! in, Pierre Yan Somer, and many others often took their inspi- ration from Nicolas Poussin, and were only worthy of notice when they had the good taste to follow that 2G6 WONDERS or ENGRAVING. master. Many an engraver who cannot produce a good original plate, will execute a remarkable work with an excellent model before him. Nicolas Ponssin 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 winch must always conform to the eternal laws of beauty. They called Ponssin's works to their aid in their endeavor to check the universal spread of bad taste and evil ten- dencies. Peyron thought he could not better illus- trate his notions of reform than by recommending the admirable design " The Daughters of Jethro " as a model for beginners, and an example for mas- ters. This was but just homage to the artist who so successfully studied antiquity. It would be unjust not to refer the origin of the Renaissance, of which we are speaking, to the greatest master of the French school. Engraving also, though led astray for a time by frivolous, though often witty compositions, began to aspire to higher works ; and M. Boucher-Desnoyers, to quote one amongst many contemporary engravers, has skilfully executed a plate, " Eliczer and Rebecca," a splendidly 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 mention, arose at the same time as these gifted mas- ters, with their lofty ideal ; these men devoted their talent to preserving the memory of important histor- ENGRAVING IX FKAXCE. 2G7 ical 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 descendants. 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. It' the work be badly engraved the intelli- gence conveyed in it is probably incorrect. If it be signed by an artist of talent it is most likely a trust- worthy representation of the monument or fact de- picted. 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 work- ing at the history and manners of his time. An his- torian of the reign of Louis XIII. would lose much valuable information 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 conscientiousness for which they are justly valued. Claude Chatillon's engravings of views of the "Hotel de Ville of Paris," of the " Hospital of St. Louis," of the " Hotel de Severs," " The Place Dauphine." 268 WONDEKS OF ENGRAVIKG. 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 w r ith " Rain- bouillet, near the Gate of St. Antoine," the property of the father-in-law of Tallament des Reaux, with the " Old Chamher of the Peers," and the " Church and Cemetery of the Innocents at Paris ; " and Ga- briel 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 inferior artists, and losing its high position every- where 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 engrav- ings 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 ENGRAVING EST FRANCE. 269 Rome lie already knew enough of drawing to appre- ciate the works he saw there, and he had acquired 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 Haratti, he chiefly copied antique statues and the works of great mas- ters, 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 Jorclanus 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 showing the head of Holofernes to the People," " Esther before Ahasu- erus," and " Solomon making Bathsheba sit upon his Throne." As they were executed with talent these engravings drew attention in France to their author, and on 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 confidence. Full of earnestness and enthu- siasm, Gerard Audran set to work without delay, and at the end of six years he had accomplished this really gigantic task (1 672-1678). He employed line- engraving and etching alternately, and has rendered the original paintings with such fidelity that we can 270 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. still estimate them at their true value, although time has almost entirely destroyed their power arid har- mony. 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 Mem- ber 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 ac- tivity was ever on the increase, and his talent be- ing now fully developed all his works were master- pieces. 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 Mar- tyrdom of St. Gervais and St. Protais ; " " The Aurora ; " and " The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," after Eustache Lesueur ; " The Plague of Egina ; " "The Cupola of the Yal 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 indefatigable artist's excellent works. Until his death at Paris on the 26th of July, 1703, 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 An- ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 271 tiquity." This work is still worthy of the honor in which it has been held since its publication (1683). Gerard Edelinck, Robert ISTantenil, and Jean Morin, superior artists of surprising ability, worked at the same time as Gerard Andran. They addressed themselves 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 naturalized 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 XI V., 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 fully developed. The drawing and coloring are, neverthe- less, very well rendered. We can only speak in the highest terms of the great number of Edelinck'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 272 WONDEES OF ENGRAVING. Darius," after Lebrun ; the portraits of Charles Le- brun, Francois 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 superior 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 coloring 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 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 Regnesson ; and at last he began to assume his own individual style, which consisted in modelling with the greatest ENGBAVESTG IN FKANCE. 273 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 Fomponne 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 Nan- teuil is held on account of his works, the art of en- graving 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 declared free and distinct from the mechanical arts, amongst which it had hitherto been unjustly confounded, 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 speak- ing employed line-engraving exclusively, and obtained marvellous results from this inadequate process ; another equally celebrated engraver, however, con- 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 coloring and clearness for which the originals are distinguished. He engraved many compositions 274 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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. Hav- ing ffiven the outline and chief characteristics of the o o face, he shaded the flesh with a quantity of stippling, which, being mellowed and softened by the acid, pro- duced 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 Riche- lieu, Marguerite Lemon, J. F. P. de Gondi, N. Chris- ty n, 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 giv- "ing the combined ease and firmness which make the master's portraits real masterpieces. They obtained counterfeits, nothing more, they missed the life-like- ness 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 ENGRAVING IN FRANCK. 275 engraved the " Yierge an Linge," after Raphael, in a very praiseworthy manner, and a great number of portraits after French artists, which prove his knowl- edge of physiognomy and his refined taste. Antoine Masson carried line-engraving to the greatest perfec- tion possible ; and if technical skill were every thing, he might take one of the highest positions in the his- tory of art, but the French appreciate rather correct drawing than manual dexterity in engraving, and therefore we must class Antoine Masson amongst sec- ondary artists, and the only work of his to be recom- mended is the portrait of Brisacier, which is certainly his best engraving ; it is less labored 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 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, bora at Paris, also yielded to the influence of Edelinck, and learnt from him a style of coloring which suited well the portraits of the newsman of Holland, Lafond, after Henry Gascard, and those after Yandyck's beautiful works. Autoine Trouvain, 276 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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. Francois 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 XI Y. 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 Youet. 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 domi- nant 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 ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 277 boldly conceived in a style not unlike that of Jacques Callot. It' 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 1'rom the hand which painted the beautiful series of " The Passion," the designs of which have been un- hesitatingly attributed to Nicolas Poussin by a mod- ern editor. Louis de Boullongne and Michel-Ange Corneille followed the same track in engraving as in painting, and gave no proofs of originality in either. Their engravings, like their paintings, prove their great admiration for Poussin, whilst they give biit 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. 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 ad- mirably rendered the noble beauties of that glorious neighborhood, which have inspired and affected so many artists. To conclude, Claude Lefevre, a most talented portrait painter, has engraved two or three compositions, which would have made him famous, 278 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 engrav- ings 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, "Wal- lerant Vaillant, born 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 beween 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 process in that country, and his boldness was success- ful. His drawing was agreeable rather than grand, but his tints were harmonious, and he has shown more knowledge and experience than could have been expected from an artist employing a new pro- cess, in the portraits of the engraver " Etienne Gan- trel," after Largilliere ; of the a Marquis of Praslin," and of " G. J. B. de Choiseul," after H. Rigaud ; of ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 279 the printer " Alexander Boudan ; " and in " Tlie Adoration of the Shepherds," after L. Herluyson. About the same time the celebrated amateur, Boyer d'Aguilles, had the greater number of the pictures in his gallery at Aix reproduced in mezzotint by a skil- ful 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 occasion- ally used mezzotint, although they did not confine themselves to it. The painter Andre Bouys engraved his own portrait ; the coloring 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 Correggio, showed that he understood that colored 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 color 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 XIY. Few remarkable works were published 280 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. at this time, although engraving was more widely practised than ever before, the fashion of carefully engraving immense almanacs, 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 Le- clerc, 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 theological 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. 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 seventeenth 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 skil- ful in different styles, have left a number of engrav- ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 283 ings which are complete and authentic records of the ornamentation of apartments in their day. The abun- dant and graceful arabesques which have escaped destruction in the Palace of Versailles or the splendid mansions of France are met with again in innumera- ble spirited engravings by Lepaiure, 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 rendering the works of one artist, Antoine Watteau, the painter of festive gatherings and rural picnics. He was a colorist after Rubens. No doubt his style was very different to that of his favorite master, but he never lost sight of, he never ceased to admire, the splendid and attractive coloring of the master of the Medicean Gallery. Rubens treated grand and stately subjects, Watteau only painted familiar scenes ; but he had exceptional talent for decoration, he inaugurated a new style, and in a great measure realized 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, Francois 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 honor by Gerard Audran's excel- 284 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. lent 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 tal- ented engravers, the names of Benoit Audran, Laurent Cars, Nicolas Cochin, Michel Aubert, Nicolas de Lar- messin, Ph. Lebas, Jean Moyreau, 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 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 corresponded exactly with the painting before them. We arc in- debted to this mode of proceeding for some remarka- ble works, and although the greater number of Wat- teau's paintings have now disappeared, we are for- tunately 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 29. A Costume. Etching ly A. WATTEAC. ENGRAVING IX FRAXCE. 287 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 Ora- phale " after Francois Lemoine. Is icolas de Larmessin rendered the " Pilgrims of the Isle of Oythera " by Watteau with admirable fidelity, and obtained admis- sion to the Academy by his portrait of u Guillanme 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 copy- ing the paintings of his contemporaries ; Louis Snru- gue had the good sense to take all his models from living masters, who could guide him, and this precau- tion saved him from ever producing inferior works ; he was quite equal to rendering the paintings of Antoine Coypel, Francois Boucher, G. B. Pater, or Watteau, and he often gave a harmony to his engrav- ings which the originals did not possess ; finally, Gi- rard 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 " Cas- cade," proves that his correct drawing and plastic graver were uninjured by his having worked for pub- lishers 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 celebrated. Watteau's imitators were equally attracted by the works of Boucher, Lancret, and Pater, and as ready to repro- 288 WONDEKS OF ENGKAVESTG. dnce them. They had some qualities in common with those of Watteau, and they sold well. If these en- gravings after relatively inferior artists are less ad- mired 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 prac- tised in France. We allude to the facsimile repro- ductions 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, 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 ac- customed 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 en- gravings after the " Teetotum," the " Raker," and the " Governess " are very correctly designed, and have ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 289 as harmonious an appearance as the originals. Lau- rent Cars, Charles Nicolas Cochin, Filloeul, 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 (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 etch- ings. Honore Fragonard, whose numerous paintings, long neglected, are now overrated, was a clever en- graver, 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. Anbin drew all that took his fancy. He made clever and suirited sketches of all that most 19 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 o O century would one day be sought after. He 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" (L'Incendie 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. 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 pro-" 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 u Treatise on Painting," by Bernard Dupuy du Grez, with four etchings which EXGEAVLXG EX FRANCE. 291 remind us more of Lebrun's manner than of that of the pleasing masters of the eighteenth century. Hubert II ibert 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 pu- pil or the master. Wattelet, the author of the " Dic- tionary of Painting," justly valued on account of the comprehensive information it contains on art and art- ists of all times and countries, and its just and clear criticisms, was but an inferior painter, better able to recognize 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, show- ing rare knowledge of physiognomy. The Count of Caylus, an archasologist 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 pro- found comprehension of masterpieces, but his works are illustrations of many different styles, and he evi- dently had a true love of beauty. One quasi-royal hand designed to practise engraving we allude to the Marquise de Pompadour. Besides a number of 292 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. engravings after lithographs by Jacques Guay she has signed three or four plates which would not be un- worthy 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. We have already said that the French were par- ticularly 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 distin- guished painter, eager to reproduce his works. The Drevets, father and son, generally took their models from Hyacinthe TCigaud 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 Kigaud, and of " Hyacinthe Rigaud," after a painting by the mas- ter himself. The engraver copied the best works only, ENGBAVING IN FRANCE. 293 and was fully equal to his great task, rendering these pictures so instinct with life, with manly energy. Tlie portrait of Bossuet by Pierre Drevet, the son, after Rigaud, immortalizes 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 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 precision 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, employed the same process which his relations had raised to honor, with the important difference that his line-engraving was often cold and disagreeably mo- notonous. The engravers of whom we have spoken produced 294r WONDEBS OF ENGKAVING. 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 Kigaud painting his Wife's Portrait." Jacques Beau- varlet made the mistake of overloading his plates with monotonous lines. His portrait of the sculptor Bouchardon 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. do Troy. This engraving is really superior to his more celebrated one after Vanloo'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 wearisome metallic appearance, which does not do EXGKAVIN'G IN FRANCE. 295 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 seera 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 tal- ent of Wille ; he too was an excellent line-engraver, and many of his works justify his renown. Two brothers, Pierre Charles and Francois Robert Ingouf, engraved together a numerous series of por- traits which show little originality or practical skill. Charles Mcolas 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 paint- ing. These artists engraved, with the aid of a very strong magnifying glass, some very pleasing por- traits, 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 forgotten. J. B. Grateloup was so en- amored of fine strokes that he tried to imitate with 296 . WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 be- came blind when we examine his portrait of Bossuet after Rigaud's painting, 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. They were small, it is true, but well suited to the lit- erature of jthat period. By a vignette we understand 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 Ids own day, with gilded ceilings and deco- rated with flowers ; but we can forgive these ana- chronisms on account of the spirited composition of the whole, and the faithful record the artist has left us of the interior decorations of his time. In these finely ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 297 conceived and well drawn engravings we have com- prehensive 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, Ghendt, and Noel Lemire show both inventive power and ability in interpreting the ideas of others. P. P. Choffard was preeminently 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 observations, which are valuable from such an artist as Choffard. 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 predecessors, and produced some excellent and spirited vignettes at the end of the 298 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. eighteenth century ; but unfortunately he was after- wards led astray by an evil influence which altered his style and seemed to paralyze his powers. His engravings in the " Songs " of Laborde, the " Judg- ment of Paris," a poem by Iinbert, and the " Good Soldier," by Boussanelle, sparkle with wit and are arranged with ease, whilst his engravings for the " Holy Bible " and the u Metamorphoses of Ovid " are pretentious and labored. "When Moreau com- posed 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 endeavored 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 ENG RAVING IN FRANCE. 299 art of this period ; we will merely notice, that in de- fault 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. 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 pom- pous 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 homeliness which, in the eighteenth century as now, must have characterized family life. In paint- ing, he contrasted colors without entirely blending them. Some engravers endeavored 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 colored parts and to fin- ish off the engraving. His best engravings, the " Vil- lage Bride," the " Paralytic," 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 300 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. practical ability, and an evident desire to be faithful to the painting. Jean Massard profited by the lessons of his master, George Wille, and gave proof of talent in the " Broken Pitcher," the " Benevolent Lady," and the u Well-loved Mother." Jean Charles Levas- seur produced good engravings of the " Stepmother," the " Destroyed Will," the " Little Scapegrace," and "Youthful Study," which, give a very just idea of Greuze's paintings. Numbers of engravers contribu- ted greatly to the fame of this artist's works, and he was most fortunate in finding so many skilful inter- preters in his own time. Great and exaggerated as was Greuze's success, his conventional and pretentious manner of treating domestic joys and woes was imi- tated 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 ail, 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 an- tique 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 endeavor, by his writings and engravings, to make the beauties of antiquity and of the Kenais- ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 301 sance known and appreciated. Jean Francois Pey- ron was equally zealous in the good cause. He en- graved some of Poussin's works, and brought out original compositions in the same style. Joseph Marie Vien followed up Peyron's efforts, and assumed the subdued manner. He attracted many young artists by his talent, but he could not carry out the noble work. He has but the honor 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 color- ists, 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. Du- plessis Bertaux, compared by his contemporaries to Callot, engraved an immense number of the events of the Revolution. His etching was delicate, often 302 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. spirited ; he was most skilful in arranging compli- cated compositions, but when he had to deal with larger figures than usual Ms power deserted him, and his drawing became heavy and very incorrect. In this he resembled 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 color the " Garden of the Palais Royal," the "Gallery of the Palais Royal," the "Shrub- beries," 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 color- ing by means of successive plates ; his spirited draw- ing was well suited to this process, which, in his hands, fulfilled all the requirements of art. When the storms of the Revolution were over, Debuconrt 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 produced any thing original. He aged rapidly, and the engravings of his early life alone are worthy of study. At this transition period, Sergent Marcean also distinguished 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 ENGBAVTNXJ IX FRAKCE. 303 are scarcely worth mentioning ; their works are in- teresting as referring to one of the most important eras of French history, hut not fronnan artistic point of view. Suffice it to say that they are very numer- ous, and may be 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 favor they had enjoyed. Before closing our review of engraving in France- we must speak of one artist who used etching him- self, 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 charming design of " Phrosyne and Helidora " to copper. There are evident signs of inexperience in this engraving. It is rather the work of a good 304: WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. painter than of an engraver. Louis Copia and Bar- thelemy Roger engraved Prud'hon's chief works under his supervision, and seem to have entirely caught the spirit of the painter. Their line-engrav- ings, which were finished off with well-distributed stippling, enable every one to admire the " French Constitution," " Innocence beguiled by Love," " In- nocence 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 splendor. 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 en- gravings 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 suc- ceeded, 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 eyes of good judges, and have' been most useful examples to the modern French school of engraving. ENGRAVLSG LN FRAKCE. 305 Pierre Alexander Tardieu, who took lessons of Wille with Bervic, was almost equally talented, although he was less famous, and had few pupils. His masterpiece, the portrait of the Earl of Arundel after A. Yandyck, may be considered one of the most remarkable works of the French school. This engraving admirably renders the bright and harmo- nious coloring of the great Flemish painter's work ; it is executed entirely with the graver, and the same process 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 paint- ing, 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 interpretations of the 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 stippling, but later he conceived great admiration for Raphael. He at once saw that profound study 306 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. of drawing and constant application could alone enable him to cope with the difficulties of the great master's paintings, and with rare courage he set to work and recommenced his education. He began by superintending the publication of a collection of copies from old pictures, but as soon as he felt himself master of the difficulties of drawing he ven- tured to engrave " La belle Jardiniere " after the painting in the Louvre. He was completely success- ful, and his fame was at once established in a bril- liant manner. Orders flowed in on every side, and in a few years he successfully engraved the ' Por- trait of the Emperor Napoleon," that of " M. de "Talleyrand," and u Belisarius " after Gerard, the " Madonna della Sedia," the " Madonna di Folig- no," the " Yierge au Linge," the " Yierge de la Maison d'Albe " after Raphael, and the " Yierge aux Rochers " after Leonardo da Yinci. This fer- tility is the more surprising when we note the care and delicacy of the execution of the smallest details in Boucher Desnoyers' engravings. He interpreted Raphael's paintings better than any of his prede- cessors. The " Transfiguration " was his last work. When his powers were already failing him, he deter- mined 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 undying love and unfading appreciation of the master of his choice. ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. 307 Boucher Desnoyers is not the only distinguished engraver of the nineteenth century. Messrs. Forster, Martinet, Calamatta, and Mercuri rank high in the school ; and M. Henriquel-Dupont, author of " The Lady," after Vandyck, u Lord Strafford," " The Por- trait of M. Bertin," and the " Hemieycle du Palais des Beaux-Arts," has recently shown in his " Disci- ples of Ernraaus " 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 Hnot appear likely to reproduce the line-engraving of better days. M. Gaillard devotes himself entirely to superior works, and renders . their character and i their peculiar beauty well on metal ; M. Leopold Flameng has worked his way to the rank of a mas- ter ; in a different style of art Messrs. Gaucherd and Jules Jacquemart have been preeminently 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 308 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. famous, and even found a true school of etching in France. 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 com- positions, engravers turned to the engraving of his- tory. 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 successful. 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 beauti- ful ? Did they not lead the way in the progress now being carried out ? CHAPTER VIII. PROCESSES. Engraving on Wood, Camaieu Copperplate Engraving Line-Engrav- ing, Etching, Dry Point, Combination of Etching and Line-Engrav- ing, Mezzotint, Aquatint, Chalk style, Engraving in Color, Physio- notracy, Heliography or Photography Printing. BEFORE closing our history of engraving and en- gravers it will be as well to say a few words on the many different processes employed. Engraving re- quires, 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. Engraving on Wood. Wood-engraving is earlier than any other kind, it even 'preceded printing, prop- 310 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. erly so called ; characters were engraved on wood before movable types were invented. The first works embellished with woodcuts, the " Speculum Humanse Salvationis," the " Biblia Pauperum," and others less celebrated, appeared at a time when manu- scripts 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 invented. 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 movable types were invented, and. of course, the entire mys- tery of printing was solved. Pictures were used from the first as being easily understood by the peo- ple 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 " let- ters of indulgence." Wood being easily cut, was at first employed by the " picture carvers," so called because they cut strokes in the wood roughly, but which outlined their designs. The earliest woodcut with a positive inscription bears date 1418. The PROCESSES. 311 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 woodcut ; the invention is now, how- ever, moved back five years, and some new discovery may even yet fix it a few years earlier. This ques- tion 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. Tiie religious pictures brought out by poor en- gravers, 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 de- signer 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 indepen- dently, unless the strokes are not indicated, or a mere wash gives the shading in any object. The tools employed by him are called burins, or gravers, scopers, needles, chisels, gouges, scrapers, and mallets. Engraving en Camdieu. Engraving en camdieu 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 obtained. When printing was first introduced the only object was to multiply or counterfeit manu- scripts, and printers generally left a small space at 312 WONDERS OF ENGKAVING. 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 en- graving en cama'ieu, 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 impression. 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 outline, 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 en- graving en cama'ieu. The word camdieu thus applied is derived from cameo, a stone in layers of different colors, so much and so successfully employed in an- tique gem-engraving. Copperplate Engraving. This process is diamet- rically opposite to that employed in engraving on PROCESSES. 315 wood. In the latter all that is to be dark in the im- pression 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. Copperplate engraving neces- sitates long and careful work, and somewhat intricate preliminary studies. Having made a correct draw- ing 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 halt-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 re- quire 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 between parallel lines when the shadows require deepening, 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 labors 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 the coloring of their etchings. "We will speak of them when we have considered the process of etching.. 316 WONDEES OF ENGRAVING. Etcldng. We have said that line-engraving, which requires slow and careful execution and com- plete 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 colored with lampblack 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 impression. 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 manage- ment 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 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 PROCESSES. 317 takes a proof of it, by which tho artist can judge of his work. If any parts are too much or too little Fig. 31. The Mountebank, etched by EEMEKANDT 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 recovered ; the work is then gone over with the needle wherever it requires strength- ening, and bitten in again. Any lines too strongly bitten in the first time are rubbed np with a burnish- er, a round tool used for that purpose. So many facilities were attractive to painters, and numbers employed etching : it is the only mode of engraving which does not require, preliminary study, 318 WONDEUS OF ENGKAV1NG. 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 . Fig. 32. Vanity, etched t>y J. C ALLOT. learn it, those who have excelled in it are few. The drawing being the chief thing, it is absolutely neces- sary to be a skilful designer before becoming a good etcher. It is essential, also, to have sufficient know- ledge of chiaroscuro 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 distin- guished etchers are rare, and that in this, as in every branch of art, to excel in it is the exception and not the rule. PROCESSES. 319 Engraving with the Dry Point. By this we understand 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 engravings with a dry point are so much valued and fetch so high a price at sales. The Combination of Etching and Line-Engrav- ing. This kind of engraving must be noticed in a history of the art, because in it etching plays a sec- ondary 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 colored 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 opera- tion performed, the engraver 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 height- ening, doubling or trebling of the hatching, as occa- sion 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 320 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. supplied to him ; in the same way the engraver often takes up and completes the work in his own indi- vidual style when the mechanical part is done, allow- ing some clever pupil to prepare the plate aud do the etching. Mezzotint Engraving. Horace Walpole, anxious to give the honor of the invention of this style to a fellow-countryman, tells us, in his " Anecdotes of Fig. G3. A profile Portrait, Mezzotint Engraving by Prince RUPERT, Palatine of the Rhine. Painting,'' vol. v. p. 1G1 (Ed. 1828), how Prince Rupert, the nephew of Charles I., was led to its dis- covery when living in retirement at Brussels, after PROCESSES. 321 the year 1649. Ct Going out early one morning, lie 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 de\v had fallen in the night, had made his fnsil rusty, and that he was scraping and cleaning it. The prince look- ing 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. " 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 so trifling an accident conceived mezzotinto. The prince com luded that some contrivance might be found to cover a brass plate with such a grained ground of fine-pressed holes, which would undoubt- edly give an impression all black, and that by scrap- ing away proper parts the smooth superficies would leave the rest of the paper white. Communicating his idea to Wallerant Vaillant, a painter whom he maintained, they made several experiments." Unfortunately for the English historian, mezzo- tint engraving had already been invented for several years, and Louis of Siegen, a German officer, had employed it in 1643, for his portrait of Amelia Eliza- beth, the Landgravine of Hesse-Cassel ; and a certain Francois Aspruck had engraved a series of thirteen plates of Christ and the Apostles, and one of "Venus 322 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. 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 acre typi gcnere" 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-circu- lar 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 engrav- ing. 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 with the rocking-tool may make the proof look spirit- less and confused, the transitions from light to shade may so easily be slurred over that the greatest pre- caution is needed to obtain good and pleasing grada- tions 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 disappears altogether. PROCESSES. 323 Aquatint Engraving. This process resembles mez- zotint 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 en- graver begins by tracing the outlines of his design on the bare plate, which he then sprinkles equally with very tine sand or resin from a sieve. Resin is preferable to sand or any thing 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 equidistant dots makes the print look soft and harmonious. The tone produced resembles that of a washed drawing to such an extent that the first aqua- tint engravings by J. B. Leprince, the inventor (about 1787), were often taken for washed drawings. The art has been perfected since the time of Leprincu, and some able arti?ts have obtained admirable re- sults from it. The Chalk Style supplies a modern demand, and was really invented by Francois and Dumarteau, although 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 mul- tiplication 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, 324 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. without which they woiild err inevitably. To obtain these fac-similes the engraver uses a revolving wheel ~ O or roulette. T\hieh 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 rough- ened, which produces similar effects to the roulette, is sometimes used. To give the appearance of draw- ings in red or bistre, the greater number of Francois and Demarteau's engravings have been printed in red or brown, thereby aiding the illusion. Engraving in Color naturally followed the chalk style, and the process is rather like that of engraving en camdieu. 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 colored inks. By means of an exact register he was able to print the colors in the correct places. He obtained surprising results, and executed a portrait of Louis XV. which at a distance might really deceive the most experi- enced eye. To imitate drawings he employed the same process as Francois and Demarteau. The only difference between the two stvles consists in the vari- PROCESSES. 325 ation of tone obtained by means of superposed print- ings. Engraving in color lias 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 mon- uments of many -colored architecture, could not have been well rendered without great expense by any other process before the invention of chromo-lithog- raphy. 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 mathematically. 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 physiog- nomy. His invention had great success at first, but for a short time only. Photography. Photographic engraving is a mod- ern invention. To M. Niepce de St. Victor belongs the honor of having discovered how to print a pho- tographic proof like a copperplate 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. Kiffaut, Cli. Negre, Baldus, Durand, and Gamier have brought 326 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. out excellent 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 what- ever kind, always requires great care. "Woocl-engrav- ings, 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-en- gravings with the text : " One thing is wanted," he says, " in early woodcuts, the finish now given to them in printing by a contrivance called dc'coupage. By attaching portions of paper or pasteboard, of suit- able thickness, to certain parts of the tympan (a thick sheet of leather through which the pressure is ap- plied to the wood block) more or less pressure is ob- tained on the different parts as required. If it be necessary to bring forward the foreground of an en- graving, 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." PROCESSES. 329 The process of printing is quite different in cop- perplate 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 w r hich 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 carefully 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. To omit nothing we ought perhaps to explain the numerous processes by which peculiar effects are pro- duced in printing engravings. But this would de- tain us too long. Suffice it to say that the printer, working under the supervision of the artist, may often be of great service to him. This cooperation, however, is only possible with etchings. In line- engravings there is little room for skill or manage- 330 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. PROCESSES. ment, every thing is so completely finished that the printer lias 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 ink- ing some parts more or less strongly they obtained different degrees of strength. Rembrandt, the mas- ter of etching, entrusted the printing of his engrav- ings 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, tilled 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), 97, 149, 176 Alix (Jean), 274 Altdorfer (Albrecht), 149, 171 Amman (Jost), 149, 178 Andrea (Zoan), 35 Andreani (Andrea), 16 Androuet du Cerceau (Jacques), 23G Assen (John Walter van), 92 Aubert (Michel), 284 Audnm (Benoit), 284 Audran (Gerard), 263, 264, 268, 269, 270, 271, 284 Agostino (Veneziano), 67 Avice (Chevalier), 265 Babel, 298 Backuysen (Louis), 115 Baldini (Baccio), 24 Baldus, 326 Balechou (Jacques), 294 Baquoy, 297 Barbari (Giacomo de), 37, 43 Barbe (Jean-Baptiste), 231 Barbieri (Giovanni Francesco) call- ed Guercino, 62 Barlow (Francis), 198 Baron (Bernard), 193 Barras (Sebastien), 279 Bartoli (Pietro Santo), 78 Bartolozzi (Francesco), 196 Baudet (Etienne), 265 Beatrizet (Nicolas), 76, 227 Beauvarlet (Jacques), 294 Bega (Cornelius), 106 Beham (Bartholomew), 76, 97, 171 Beham (Hans Sebald), 149, 171, 172, 224 Bella (Stefano della), 254 Bellange (Jacques), 258 Berghem (Nicolas), 107 Bernard (L.), 279 Bernard (Salomon), 215 Bervic (Charles Clement), 185, 304 Binck (Jacob), 76, 173 Bloemaert (Cornelius), 118, 135 Bloteling (Abraham), 123 Bocholt (Franz van), 162 Boillot (Joseph), 229 Bol (Ferdinand), 104 Boldrini (Niccolo), 16 Bolswert (Boethius of), 131 Bolswert (Schelte of), 131, 132, 139, 140 Bonasone (Giulio), 70 Bonn (Jan of), 148 332 INDEX OF ENGRAVERS NAMES. Bonnemer (Marin), 221 Bosse (Abraham), 261, 26? Both (Andrew), 111 Both (John), 111 Botticelli (Sandro), 24 Boucher (Frangois<), 283, 287 Boucher-Desnoyers (Auguste), 266, 307 Bouchier (Jean), 230 Boulanger (Jean), 272 Boullongne (Louis de), 277 Bourdon (Sebastien), 276 Bout (Peter), 115 Bouvs (Andre), 279 Boyer d'Aiguilles, 279 Boyvin (Rene), 232, 234 Brauwer (Adrien), 105 Brebiette (Pierre), 258 Brescia (Antonio da), 35 Briot, 242 Brizzio (Francesco), 60, 77 Bry (Theodore de), 179 Burgmair (Ilans), 147 Calamatta (Luigi), 307 Caliot (Jacques), 245, '247, 250, 251, 252, 255, 267, 276 Campagnola (Domenico), 37, ?.9, 42 Campagnoln (Giulio), 37, 38, 39, 42, 68 Canaletto (Antonio), 45, 46 Cantarini (.-'irnone), called the Pesa- resc, 61 Capcllani (Antonio), 79 Caraglio (Jacopo), 69 Carmona (Salvador), 84 Curmontelle (L. C. de), 291 Carpi (Ugo da), 16 Carracci (Agostino), 58, 59, 62, 76 Carracci (Annibale), 58, 59, 62 Carracci (Luigi), 57, 58 Cars (Laurent), 284, 286, 289, 296 Casa (Niccolo della), 227 Caxton (William), 187, 188 Caylus (Count of), 291 Chapron (Nicolas), 258 Chartier (Jean), 228 Chatillon (Claude), 267 Chauveau (Frangoi?), 258 Chofiart (P. P.), 296 Chretien, 303 Claas (Albert), 97 Clint (G.), 200 Cochin (Charles Nicolas), 289, 292. 295 Cochin (Nicolas), 284, 289 Codorc (Ollivier), 220 Collaert (Adrien), 98, 125 Copia (Louis), 304 Corbutt (C.), 200 Coriolano (Giovanni Baptista), 77 Corneille (Claude), 225 Corneille (Michel Ange), 277 Cornelisz (Jacob), 92 Cort (Cornelius), 59, 77, 231 Cossin (Jean), 225 Cousins (Samuel), 202 Couvay (Jean), 192, 266 Coypels (The), 289 Cranach (Lucas), 146 Cruiekshank (George), 209 Cruickshank (Isaac), 209 Cruickshank (Robert), 209 Cunego (Domcnieo), 79 INDEX OF ENGUAVEKS' NAMES. 333 Curenben (Dirck Yolkart), 98 Custos (Dominic), 179 Dalen (Cornelius van), 122 Daret (Pierre), 238, 242, 255 Daulle (Jean), 294 Daven (Leon, or Tiry), 233 Debucourt (Louis Philibert), 302 Dei (Matteo di Giovanni), 20 Delafage (Nicolas), 259 Delaunay (Robert), 297 Delaune (Etienne), 228 Delvaux (Josepli), 297 Demarteau (Giles), 288, 324 Dente (Marco) or Marco of Raven- na, 68 Deruet (Claude), 246, 254 Desfriches (Thomas), 291 Desplaws (Louis), 284 Dickinson (W.), 200 Dieterlin (Wendel), 181 Dietrich (Charles), 182 Dixon (John), 200, 202 Dorigny (Michel), 256, 257 Di-evet (Claude), 293 Divvet (Pierre), tliu father, 292 Divvet (Pierre), tl:e son, 293 Dubois (Hc-li), 267 Duflos (Claude), 296 Dugliet (Giovanni), 265 Dujardin (Karel), 108, 110 Dumousticr (Geoffrey), 235 Dunkarton (B.), 200 Duperac (Etienne), 227 Duplessis (Bertaux), 301 Dupre (Jean), 211 Duraud, 325 Diirer (Albert), 38, 42, 49, 53, 63, 68, 90, 94, 97, 117, 145, 146, 149, 162, 163, 164, 165, 169, 170, 171, 173, 177, 224, 247 Dusart (Cornelius), 95, 106 Duvet (Jean), 224, 227 Dyck (Anthony van), 132, 134, 136, 139, 140 Earlom (Richard), 199 Edelinck (Gerard), 265, 271, 272, 275, 280, 292, G05 Esquivel (Manuel), 84 Eustache (William), 214 Faber (J.), 200 Faithorne (William), 190, 193 Falck (Jeremiah), 122 Fantuzzi (Antonio), 232 Felsing (James), 185 Ficquet (Etienne), 295 Fillocul (Pierre), 289 Finiguerra (Maso), 11, 17, 18, 21, 27, 165 Firens (Pierre), 231, 244 Fisher (E.), 200 Fliimen (Albert), 280 Flameng (Leopold), 307 FJipart (Jean-Jaequis), 299 Forster (Francois), 307 Fragonard (Honore), 289 Francia (Francesco Raibolini, call- ed), 20, 21, 56 Franck (Hans), 148 Franco (Battista), 76 Francois (Alphonse), 307 Francois (Jean Charles), 288, 323 334 INDEX OF ENGRAVERS NAMES. Gaillard (Ferdinand), 307 Galle (Cornelius), 125, 135 Guile (Philip), 125 Galle (Theodore), 125 Gantrel (Etienue), 265 Gamier, 325 Gamier (Antoine), 265 Gamier (Noel), 224 Gatti (Oliviere), 77 Gaucherel (Leon), 307 Gaultier (Leonard), 238, 240, 242, 244 Gautier-Dagoti, 288 Gellee (Claude), called Claude Lor- raine, 111, 255, 256 Ghent (de), 297 Ghisi (Giorgio), 75, 76, 227 Gillray (James), 207, 208 Glockenton (Albert), 161 Godart (William), 214 Goltzius (Henry), 117, 118 Gourmond (Francois de), 221 Goya (Francesco), 83, 84, 87 Graf (Urs), 150 Granthomme (Jacques), 242 Grateloup (Jean Baptiste), 295 Gravelot (Hubert), 296 Green (V.), 260 Greuter (John Fred.), 77 Greuter (Martin), 179 Greuze (Jean Baptiste), 299, 300 Grozer (J.), 200 Griin (Hans Baldung), 148 Guidi (Raffaello), 77 Guillain (Simon), 277 Haids(The), 180 Hardouin (Gilles), 213 Hemrskerke (Martin), 98 Henriet (Israel), 246, 247 Henriquel-Dupont, 307 Heusch (William of), 111 Hirschvogel (Augustine), 177 Hodges (C. H.), 200 Hogarth (William), 203, 204, 207 Hogenberg (Francis), 233 Hollar (Wenceslas), 181, 193, 198 Hondius (Henry), 120 Hooghe (Romyn de), 124 Hopffers (David, James, and Lam- bert), 177 Hopffer (Daniel), 149 Houbraken (James), 124 Hoyan (Germain), 221 Huot (Adolphe), 307 Ingouf (Francois Robert), 295 Ingouf (Pierre Charles), 295, 299 Isac (Jaspar), 242 Jacquemart (Jules), 307 Jegher (Christopher), 136 Jode (Pierre, the elder), 134 Jode (Pierre, the younger), 134, 135, 140 Jones (John), 200, 201 Keating (George), 201 Keller (Joseph), 185 Kerver (Thielman), 218 Kilians (The), 179 Koburger, 145 La Hyre (Laurent de), 258 Lanfranco (Giovanni), 60 INDEX OF ENGRAVERS NAMES. 335 Larmessin (Nicolas), 183, 284, 287 Lasne (Michel), 238, 242, 257 Lautensack (Hans Sebald), 177 Lebas (Jacques Philippe), 196, 284, 289, 296 Leblond (Jacques Christophe), 288, 324 Lebrun (Charles), 276 Leclerc (Jean), 221 Leclerc (Sebastien), 255, 280 Lecomte (Marguerite), 291 Lefevre (Claude), 277 Lefevre (Valentin), 45 Leinire (No'. ; l), 297 Lenfant (Jean), 265 Leonardis (Giacomo), 47 Lepautre (Jean), 283 Lepicie (Bernard), 284, 288 Leu (Thomas de), 238, 240, 242, 244 Levasseur (Jean Charle.*), 300 Liefrinck (Wilhelm and Cornelius), 148 Limosin (Leonard), 234 Liudt (Alexis), 148 Lippi (Fra Filippo), 28 Livens (John), 104 Lolli (Lorenzo), 61 Lombard (Lambert), 98 Lombard (Pierre), 275 Longhi (Giuseppe), 80 Longueil (Joseph of), 297 Loutherbourg (Philippe), 290 Lucas of Leydeu, 94, 95, 96, 98, 160 Lutma (John), 323 Lutzelburger (Hans), 151, 152 Luyken (John), 124 Mac Ardell, 200 Mair, 162 Mallery (Charles), 231, 242 Mantegna (Andrea), 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 50, 224 Marco of Ravenna (Dente), 67, 68 Margottini (Giacomo), 62 Mariller, 297 Marot (Daniel), 282 Marot (Jean), 282 Martinet (Achille), 307 Massard (Jean), 300 Masson (Antoine), 275 Master of 1406.. 11 Master of 1446. .12 Master of 1451.. 12 Master of 1466.. 155, 157, 158, 161 Master of 1480. .92 Master of the Caducevs (Giacomo de Barbari), 43 Master of the Crab, 96 Master of the Crossed Staves (Haug Ulrick Vaechtlein), 149 Master of the Die, 71 Master of the Shuttle (Zwoll), 93 Master of the Star (or Dirck van Staren), 95, 96 Master of the Streamers, 155 Matliam (James), 118 Mathoniere (Denis of), 221 Matzys (Cornelius), 97 Mazzuoli (Francesco), called Parmi- giano, 53, 54, 55, 70, 247 Mecken (Israel van), 161, 163 Meissonnier (Juste-Aurele), 298 Meldolla (Andrea), 54, 55 336 INDEX OF ENGRAVERS NAMES. Mellan (Claude), 192, 242, 257, 272 Merian (Matthew), 179, 181 Millet, 277 Milnet (Bernard), 10, 223 Mocetto (Girolamo), 37, 42 Monaco (Pietro), 47 Montagna (Benedetto), 37, 42 Montcornet (Balthazar), 271 Moreau (the younger), 298 Morel (Antoine Alexander), 305 Morghcn (Rapliael), 80 Moriu (Jean), 271, 273 Moyreau (Jean), 284, 287 Miiller (Christian Frederick), 185 Mviller (John), 117 Muntaner (Francisco), 84 Murphy (John), 200 Musi (Ag.) Agostino Veniziano, 68 Nanteuil (Robert), 189, 271, 272, 273, 280, 292 Natalis (Michael), 135, 265 Negker (Josse), 148 Negre (Charles), 325 Niepce de Saint Victor, 325 Noliti (Jean), 265 Nooms (Rene), or Zeeman, 116 Oppenort (Gilles Marie), 298 Ostade (Adrien van), 95, 105, 106 Pader (Hilaire), 258 Panneels (William), 142 Papillon, 222 Passarotti (Bartolomeo), 57 Pass (Crispin Van de), 117, 267 Patin (Jacques), 231 Paul (S.), 200 Payne (John), 189 Pencz (George), 76, 173, 224 Percgrini da Cesana, 21 Perelle (Gabriel), 267 Perissim, 2'20, 244 Perrier (Francois), 257 Pesne (Jean), 260, 263 Peyron (J. F. P.), 266 Pfarkecker (Vincent), 148 Picard (Jean), 242 Pierre (Jean Baptiste), 290 Pigouchet (Philip), 213 Pilgrim (Vaechtlein), 149 Pitau (Nicolas), 275, 280 Pitteri (Marco), 46 Plattemontagne (Nicolas de), 274 PleydenwurflT (Wilhelm), 145 P6 (Piero del), 62 Poilly (Francois de), 274, 280 Pompadour (Marchioness of), 291 Ponce (Nicolas), 297 Pontius (Paul), 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 139, 140 Potter (Paul), 107, 108 Prevost (Jaques), 235 Prevost (Nicolas), 221 Primaticcio, 30, 232, 234 Procaccini (Camillo), 57 Prud'hon (P. P.), 303 Quenedey, 303, 325 Rabel (Jean), 238 Raibolini (called Francia), 20, 21, 57 Raibolini (Giacomo), 56 INDEX OF ENGRAVERS' NAMES. 337 Raibolini (Giulio), 56 Raimbiich (Abraham), 197 Raimondi (Marc Antonio), 20, 21, 57, So, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 76, 171, 231, 260 Ravenet (Simon), 196 Regnart (Valerian), 77, 231 Regnesson (Nicolas), 272 Rembrandt, 87, 88, 99, 100, 101, 104, 115, 116, 124, 330 Reni (Guido), 61, 62 Resch (Jeremiah), 146, 148 Reverdino (Cesare), 70 Ribera (Giacomo), 83, 84 Ridinger (John Elias), 182 Riffaut (A.), 325 Rivalz (Antoine), 290 Robert (Hubert), 291 Robetta, 30 Rode (Christian Bernard), 182 Roger (Barthelemy), 304 Rosso, 31, 32, 232, 234 Roullet (Jean Louis), 276 Rousseaux (Emile), 307 Rowlandson (Thomas), 208 Rubens (Peter Paul), 88, 98, 121, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 139, 140, 141, 142 Ruggieri (Guido), 232, 234 Rupert (Prince), 193, 278, 320, 321 Rupp (James), 148 Ruysdael (Jacob), 112 Ryland (William Wynne), 196, 207 Sablon (Pierre), 229 Sadelers (The), 125, 243 Saenredam (John), 117 Saint Aubin (Augustine de), 296, 297 Saint Aubin (Gabriel de), 289, 290 Saint German, 148 Saint Igny (Jean de), 254 Saint Mesniin, 303 Salmon (Adolphe), 307 Sarrabat (Isaac), 278 Savart (Pierre), 295 Schauflein (Hans), 147 Schmidt (George Frederick), 182, 183, 184, 294 Schongauer (Martin), 11, 90, 93, 150, 157, 158, 160, 161, 162, 173 Schuppen (Peter van), 275 Schut (Cornelius), 140 Scotin (Girard), 287 Scultori (Adamo), 73, 74, 75 Scultori (Diana), 73, 74, 75 Scultori (Giovanni Baptiste), 73, 75 Sergent Marceau, 302 Sesto (Cesare da), 51 Siegen (Louis of), 321 Silvestre (Israel), 267 Simonet (Jean-Baptiste), 297 Sirani (Andrea), 61 Smith (John Raphael), 200, 201 Solis (Virgilius), 149, 178 Somer (Peter van), 265 Sompel (Peter van), 135 Soutman (Peter), 121, 122, 136 Spierre (Francois), 276 Spilsbury (Y.), 200 Staren (Dirck ran), 95, 96 Stella (Claudine), 264, 265 338 INDEX OF ENGRAVERS NAMES. Stella (Jacques), 264 Stock (Andrew). 135 Stoop (Theodore), 107 Strange (Robert), 193 Surugue (Louis), 287, 289 Suyderoef (Jonas), 121 Swanevelt (Herman), 111 Taberith (Jan), 148 Tardieu (Pierre Alexander), 305 Tempesta (Antonio), 246 Thomas (John), 141 Thomassin (Philip), 69, 77, 231, 246 Tbulden (Theodore van), 141 Tibaldi (Domenico), 57 Tiepolo (Domenico), 46 Tilliard (Jean Baptiste), 297 Tiry (Leonard), 232, 233 Tortebat (Francois), 256 Tortorel, 220, 244 Tory (Geoffroy), 218, 220 Toschi (Paolo), 80 Trenta (Antonio da), 16 Trouvain (Antoine), 275 Turner (Ch.), 200, 202 Dliet (Van), 104 Vaechtlein (Hans Ulrich), called Pilgrim, 149 Vaillant (Wallerant), 278, 321 Valesio (Giovanni), 60 Vallet (Pierre), 228 Velde (Adrien van de), 107 Velde (Isaiah van de), 115 Verard (Antoine), 211, 212 Verrochio (Andrea), 50 Vertue (George), 197 Vico (^Eneas), 71, 72 Vignon (Claude), 258 Villamene (Franz), 77 Vinci (Leonardo da), 48, 49, 50, 51, 62 Visscher (Cornelius), 121, 122, 123, 124 Vivares (Francis), 195, 196 Voet (Alexander), 136 Vorsterman (Lucas), 133, 134, 139, 140 Vostre (Simon), 212, 213 Ward (James), 200 Waterloo, 114 Watson (J. and Thomas), 200 Watteau (Antoine), 284, 287 Wattelet (Claude Henri), 291 Watts (F.), 200 Weirotter (Francis Edmund), 182 Wierix(The), 125 Wille (John George), 182, 183, 185, 294, 300, 304 Withdoeck (Hans), 135 Woieriot (Pierre), 227 Wolgemuth, 145, 163 Woollett (William), 194, 195 Wouverman (Philip), 108 Wyngaerde (Francis Van den), 141 Zagel (Martin), 163 Zanetti (Antonio Maria), 17 Zeeman (surname of Kene Noorus), 116 Zwoll, 93 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. TE uc someM REGOML LJBRWY FAOUTY