6oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



translate painting. The early engravers were often original art- 

 ists who worked out designs of their own, but in course of time 

 a commercial reason prevailed over originality. It was found 

 that a well-known painting assured the sale of an engraving from 

 it beforehand, whereas an engraving which stood entirely on its 

 own merits came into the world without advantages, and had its 

 own way to make. Besides this, the engraver who copied a pic- 

 ture saved himself all the trouble of thinking out and composing 

 the design which he found ready to his hand. 



This is why we have to-day so very few original artists in steel 

 engraving and etching ; although there has been a great revival 

 of etching in the last twenty years, especially in Europe, and 

 many artists have acquired great skill in this mode of engraving 

 (Hayden in Europe and James D. Smillie in America being con- 

 sidered the best in their respective countries), it has nearly all 

 been copying. 



We can not but deplore this subordination of engraving to 

 painting, and when we look back to the great engravers of past 

 times, who composed and invented their own works, it is with a 

 feeling of regret that they have left so very few successors ; for 

 steel engravings have found a place in the hearts of the people of 

 this country that no other class of art can ever replace. 



Before leaving this subject of early engravers and their works, 

 let us look at the influence exerted upon them by Raphael and 

 Rubens. 



In Italy, Marc Antonio was considered one of the great artists 

 and copied Diirer, translating more than sixty of his woodcuts in 

 metal (for Dllrer was also a wood engraver). 



It is one of the most remarkable things in the history of art 

 that a man who had trained himself by copying northern work 

 little removed from pure Gothicism should have become, soon 

 afterward, the great engraver of Raphael, who was much pleased 

 with his work and aided him by personal advice. Yet, although 

 Raphael was a painter and Marc Antonio his interpreter, we must 

 not infer that engraving had as yet subordinated itself to paint- 

 ing. 



Raphael himself evidently considered engraving a distinct art, 

 for he never once set Marc Antonio to work from a picture, but 

 always gave him drawings, which the engraver might interpret 

 without going outside of his own art; consequently, Marc An- 

 tonio's works are always original engravings. A school of en- 

 graving was thus founded by Raphael through Marc Antonio, 

 which cast aside the minute details of the early schools for a 

 broad, harmonious treatment. 



Another school which marked a new development was 

 known as the engravers of Rubens. That great painter under- 



