376 THE DKLLA CIIUSCA SCHOOL OF KNGHAVJNG. 



ledge of nature displayed in the forms. Colour both in painting and 

 engraving, so fascinates artists that it has become the first considera- 

 tion with them to produce it, to the sacrifice of all more intellectual 

 qualities. Instead of being the handmaid of art, she becomes the 

 mistress. We enjoy colour with as keen a relish as any worshipper 

 of Sir Joshua or Titian, whether the instruments used be those of a 

 painter or of an engraver, and we admit the beauty of tone in a 

 print but where this is all that is substituted for those fine old 

 book-illustrations, so exquisite in feeling and attention to nature's 

 variety in the character of objects, we lament that the same parent 

 could beget children of natures so incompatible. 



In the hands of many of our engravers who deserve no higher title 

 than that of manufacturers, art instead of being a guide to Nature, 

 to shew us a beauty, that seems ideal, in the most familiar object 

 and the charm of truth in the most fantastic invention be- 

 comes the destroyer of her spirit and variety of character, breathing 

 over all objects a disgusting softness, and reducing her to a state of 

 imbecility. There is a small steel plate in one of the annuals, for 

 which the engraver was paid something about 200 guineas : the sub- 

 ject is a very ordinary looking woman in a bonnet, evidently a por- 

 trait there is some foliage, and a bit of sky ; the workmanship is 

 indisputably laborious to a painful excess, the rounding and toning 

 are carried to the utmost limit of possible delicacy, but we are unin- 

 terested in the figure, owing to the absence of beauty and expression, 

 nor is there any opposition of texture in the substances introduced. 

 We have seen many a small vignette on wood, rich in its display 

 of inventive powers, sparkling with light and shadow, like a jewel, 

 carrying the fancy as by a spell abroad into the world ; we have 

 wished to know the artist who touched it into life, and the engraver 

 who has feelingly cut it ; and all this charm has been created at the 

 cost, to the publisher, very likely, of a sum not exceeding three or 

 four pounds. We know that there are eyes desirous of nothing 

 beyond the soft exterior of an ivory miniature, but the possessors of 

 such eyes are not the elite of the world of taste. The cartoons, if 

 reduced to the compass of an octavo page, would be still unintelli- 

 gible to them unless they were enamelled like the lid of a snuff-box. 

 "People of the common level of understanding," says Pope, "are 

 principally delighted with the little niceties and fantastical operations 

 of art, and constantly think that finest which is least natural." 



As far as regards gradation of tinting, the blending of light with 

 shade, or the silver softness of moonlight, we award all due praise to 

 the class of embellishments to which we allude ; but we wish to see 

 this minute and careful workmanship, instead of destroying the spirit 

 of what ought to be the principal parts of a picture, such as the 

 figures, prominent buildings, trees, &c. made skilful use of in the 

 development of the elegant drawing of heads, delicate marking of 

 points about the figures, sharpness in the folds of draperies, close 

 attention to expression and character in the features. In land- 

 scape subjects, the surfaces of rocks, bark of trees, &c. convey 

 no idea of their peculiar texture : the same silky fineness gene- 

 rally covers the rough-coated oak, and the lady's gown ; all draw- 

 ing is lost in figures by an unmeaning roundness, mystifying 



