Qritkal Opinion 



IN MOST histories of prints it was considered sufficient to note that certain artists 

 worked in woodcut chiaroscuro; the quaUty of such work was rarely discussed. 

 But Jackson was an exception: something about his prints aroused critics to defense 

 or attack. The cleavage is absolute, strange for one who was presumably a mere 

 reproductive artist. Nothing could show more clearly the unsettled nature of 

 Jackson's standing than a sampling of these opinions. 



Horace Walpole in a letter, dated June 12, 1753, to Sir Horace Mann de- 

 scribing the furnishings in Strawberry Hill, commented:" 



The bovi^ window below leads into a little parlour hung with a stone-colour Gothic 

 paper and Jackson's Venetian prints, which I could never endure while they pre- 

 tended, infamous as they are, to be after Titian, &c., but when I gave them this air 

 of barbarous bas-reliefs, they succeeded to a miracle; it is impossible at first sight 

 not to conclude diat they contain the history of Attila or Tottila done about the 

 very era. 



Von Heinecken " says they are "in the maimer of Hugo da Carpi but much 

 inferior in execution." But Huber, Rost, and Martini " noted Jackson's independ- 

 ent approach : 



Jackson's prints, which are certainly not without merit, are in general less 

 sought after by collectors than they deserve. His style is original and is concerned 

 entirely with broad effects. 



BavereP^ also had a high opinion of Jackson's work. Describing the Venetian 

 prints, he says that Jackson "had a skillful and daring attack, and it is regrettable 

 that he did not produce more work." Nagler's " criticism typifies the academic 

 preconceptions of some writers on the subject of chiaroscuro: 



^^ The Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. Toynbee, 1903, vol. 3, p. 166. 



"Von Heinecken, 1771, p. 94. 



*^ Huber, Rost, and Martini, 1808, vol. 9, pp. 121-123. 



*^ Baverel, 1807, vol. i, pp. 341-342. 



" Kiinstler-Lexicon, op. cit. 



