color plates since the Boo\ of St. Albans of i486, with its heraldic shields in three 

 or four colors, and the first book with block-princ plates in naturalistic colors/ 



Although critics have been interested in Jackson as an historical figure, they 

 have been uncertain about the merit of his work. Opinions vary surprisingly. Most 

 judgments were based on the Venetian chiaroscuros and depended upon the qual- 

 ity of impressions, many of which are poor. Criticisms when they have been ad- 

 verse have been surprisingly harsh. It is unusual, to say the least, for writers to take 

 time explaining how bad an artist is. To do this implies, in any case, that he war- 

 rants serious attention ; space in histories is not usually wasted on nonentities. We 

 can see now that Jackson was misunderstood because the uses of the woodcut 

 were rigidly circumscribed by tradition. 



Status of the Woodcut 



AFTER the 15th century the woodcut lost its primitive power and became a self- 

 effacing medium for creating facsimile impressions of drawings and for illustrating 

 and decorating books, periodicals, and cheap popular broadsides. At its lowest ebb, 

 in the late 17th century, and in the i8th, it was used to make patterns for workers 

 in embroidery and needlework and to supply outlines for wallpaper designs to be 

 filled in later by "paper-stainers." 



The prime deficiency of the woodcut as an art form lay in the division of 

 labor which the process permitted. Draughtsmen usually drew on the blocks; the 

 main function of the cutter was to follow the lines precisely and carefully. Small 

 room existed for individual style or original interpretation; there was little in the 

 technique to distinguish one cutter from another. In spite of these limitations. 



' Occasional book illustrations in two or three colors, confined chiefly to initial letters and orna- 

 mental borders, appeared as early as the 15th century. Ratdolt in 1485 printed astronomical diagrams in 

 red, orange, and black, and used similar colors in a Crucifixion in the Passau missal of 1494. The Liber 

 selectarum cantionum of Senfel, 1520, however, has a frontispiece printed in a broad range of colors from 

 more than four woodblocks. The design is attributed to Hans Weiditz. 



7 



