ENGRAVING 293 



occur on cuts, were the designers and draughtsmen on the wood ; but the engraver 

 was considered in the light of a mechanician, and, except in a very few instances, his 

 name was not displayed. To fully understand this, it is necessary hero to explain the 

 \vhole process of wood-engraving at this time. A block of wood -being prepared 

 from a perpendicular cutting of pear-tree, upon the surface was made a drawing, in 

 which every line was delineated with pencil or reed-pen, exactly as the cut was 

 ultimately to appear ; the intervening spaces of plain wood between every line were 

 then cut away ; and in this manual dexterity consisted the whole merit of the engraver. 

 The abundance of cross-hatching so constantly found in old woodcuts, is explained 

 by the fact of this being the easiest and best mode for the draughtsman to employ in 

 getting his effects of light and shade ; the extreme labour it involves to the engraver 

 not being considered ; but when it is understood that each minute space has to be cut 

 down from each angle of the lines, and the centre entirely cleared out, some idea may 

 be formed of the labour required, when thousands of such squares occur on some of 

 Diirer's largo cuts, independent of other work. The backs of some of these old blocks, 

 particularly those in the ' Triumphs of Maximilian,' are marked with the names of the 

 engravers, and there is proof that women practised the art ; but it is not at all likely 

 that the artists who designed, and drew upon the wood these designs, went through 

 the merely mechanical labour of engraving them. 



The great impetus thus given to wood-engraving, 1 kept it prominently before the 

 world during the whole of the sixteenth century, when the presses of the Continent 

 continually brought forth a series of volumes remarkable for the beauty of the cuts 

 by which they were illustrated. This practice of the book trade gave rise to a 

 series of artists known as ' the little masters ' of the German school, from the small 

 size of their works ; among whom the principal who connected themselves with 

 engraving on wood were Virgil Solis, Henry Aldegraver, the two Behaims, Lucas 

 Cranach, Urse Graff, Albert Altdorffer, Jost Ammon, and Solomon Bernard. 



In Italy, Ugo da Carpi practised with success, from the year 1518, the art of en- 

 graving on wood imitations of tinted drawings : an art which originated with the 

 Germans, but which he much enlarged and improved. It consisted in a series of blocks 

 cut to imitate patches of colour, and made to print over each other in gradations of 

 tint, until the chiar-oscuro of a drawing was secured ; then the coarser and bolder 

 lines defining the whole design were printed over all, and a capital imitation effected 

 of the bold cartoons, consisting of vivid outline and broad washes of tint, used as first 

 sketches for their pictures and frescoes by the artists of that era. 



A perfect rage for book illustration seems to have beset the printers soon after the 

 death of Diirer. The most prolific artists who supplied their wants were Jost Ammon 

 and Solomon Bernard : the former executed a multitude of designs on every imagin- 

 able subject ; the latter, equally prolific, devoted himself chiefly to the illustration of 

 sacred or classic literature. The greatest publishers of such books were Sigismond 

 Feyeraband, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine ; Jean de Tournes, and Trechsel, of Lyons ; 

 and Plantyn, of Antwerp. From their presses issued a series of small volumes, which, 

 can only come under the generic title of ' picture books ; ' for they were got up for 

 the sake of exhibiting the favourite art of wood-engraving, and only contain a few 

 descriptive lines of type beneath each cut. The cuts executed by Ammon are all 

 remarkable for correctness of drawing and vigorous effect; those of Bernard are 

 less scholastically correct, but contain more evidence of grace and fancy. The de- 

 signs of these artists abound in books published between 1550 and 1580 ; bu the 

 most admirable series were executed in a little volume, published at Lyons, in 1538, 

 without the name of draughtsman or engraver, the ' Simulachres de la Mort,' known 

 among bibliographers as the ' Lyon's Dance of Death,' a collection of cuts which, 

 for minute beauty and perfection of design and execution, are completely unrivalled, 

 and have not been equalled by any modern copyist. 2 This was the Augustan age of 

 book illustration, which flourished in popular favour until the close of the sixteenth 

 century, when a minute lameness, in contradistinction to the vigour of the earlier en- 

 gravers, began to appear, and reached its culmination in such cuts as were given in 

 Nicolay's 'Travels in Turkey ' (Antwerp, 1576). 



1 Diirer's engravings were so exceedingly popular, that they found their way all over Europe. 

 Raphael admired them in Rome, and was induced to perpetuate his own designs by employing Marc 

 Antonio Raimondi to engrave them on metal under his own superintendence. So originated the 

 modern print trade. Diirer's designs were so much in request, that Lucas van Leyden imitated them 

 on copper, for sale to such persons as could not perceive the great difference between the vigorous 

 originals and his tame and disagreeable copies. Diirer was ultimately obliged to apply for legal re- 

 strictions against these piracies. 



2 The designs have been popularly ascribed to Holbein, and, apparently, with reason. An artist 

 named Hans Lutzelburgher, of Basle, has been conjectured to have been the engraver, from the 

 initials H. L. on one of them. By this time it had become usual to append the initials of engravers 

 to woodcuts, as well as those of the designers. 



