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73 
in wood engraving, which sought its effects by woodcuts simply 
in black and white, which were in all essential points entirely 
similar to modern works. England was far behind the other 
nations of Europe in its appreciation of art, and wood engraving 
throve there as feebly as did the other arts of design. The first 
English book with woodcuts, was Caxton’s ‘‘ Game and Playe of 
the Chesse” (1476). The first edition was issued two years 
earlier without illustrations. It is likely that Caxton imported 
the blocks from which these cuts were printed, as he did the 
type for his text. Caxton printed all the English poetry of any 
moment that was in existence. His reverence for ‘that 
worshipful man, Geoffry Chaucer, who ought to be eternally 
remembered,” was shown not merely by his edition of ‘‘ The 
Canterbury Tales,”’ but by his reprint of them when a purer text 
of the poem offered itself. The first edition had no illustrations ; 
the second was embellished by crude woodcuts altogether 
unworthy of the text. The two great names which dominated 
Teutonic art, were Diirer and Holbein. Holbein was the perfeet 
outcome of the Northern Renaissance, and in Durer they had a 
more definite national type: a ‘leuton always, with stubborn 
Gothic elements ever struggling against the spirit of the 
Renaissance, 
The Revival of Art began in England in the workshop of 
Thomas Bewick (1753—1828), called the father of the true art 
of engraving in wood. ‘ White line,’ a new mechanical mode 
of obtaining ‘‘colour”’ was first used by Bewick. By the old 
method, after the simple work in outline of the very early 
.engrayer had been relinquished for the style of which Diirer was 
the great master, the block was treated as a white surface, on 
which the designer drew with pen and ink, and obtained greys 
and blacks by increasing the number of cross strokes as if he were 
drawing on paper; by the new method the block was treated as 
a black surface, and the colour was lessened by increasing the 
number of white lines. In both cases colour depended on 
the relative quantity of black and white in the prints. The 
new method arranged colour differently, so that it could be ob- 
tained by an easy instead of a difficult mechanical process. 
From Bewick’s time up to the late sixties of the last century 
was a good time for engravers. The very demand for illustrated 
books was like to be again the ruin of the art, when about 1876 
the art of photography came to the artistic rescue. Once photo- 
graphy was used the drawing could be made of any size, it was 
mechanically reversed, the original was preserved, and the artist 
was free. Yet other groups were etchings and photogravures, 
both producing work of the highest artistic quality, but too ex- 
pensive for common use. More cheaply producible are the 
various lithographic processes. 
