KNORAVIKO. 



ENGRAVING. 



one biting in; which nifficiently explain* their monotonous appear- 

 ance, and prove* that (topping out wa not understood, or it would 

 bare been had recourse to, aa iU advantage* could not have been 

 overlooked. It U moat probable that the defective and monotonous 

 tone occasioned by the want of this knowledge is the reason that so 

 few corroded etchings were executed by Albert Purer, who must have 

 been otherwise fasoinsted by the facilities which this mode of engraving 

 offered ; aa it is, his corroded etchings are much inferior to his other 

 works, both on copper and wood. [Dl>REH, ALBERT, in Btou. 1 >iv. ) 



The principal German engravers, after Albert Diirer, are his pupil, 

 Henry Aldegraver, together with Bartholomew and Hans Sebald 

 Beham, Albert Altdorfer, James Bink, George Penz, Virgil Solia, &c. 

 But the history of pure German art is very short, for most of these 

 German engravers travelled into Italy for improvement, attracted by 

 the fame of Marc Antonio ; several of them are indeed his reputed 

 disciples ; and the consequence is, that the two schools may be said to 

 have immediately, in some measure, blended ; as under the influence 

 of Italian taste the peculiar characteristics of German art in a great 

 11. > Man ''] ; -r .1. l'i :.i tin- -null .-i.'.r "I the lu.ijMuu ni tin- \\ink.s 

 produced by these German engravers, they are generally distinguished 

 as the " little masters," although many large plates were executed by 

 them. 



Lucas Jacobs, best known by the name of Lucas Van Leyden, was 

 the father of the Dutch and Flemish schools, and the contemporary 

 and friend of Albert Diirer, whose defects he fully possessed, while he 

 fell short of his excellences. After Lucas Van Leyden the art was 

 maintained in the Low Countries by the Wierinxes, the Sodelers, 

 whose works are multifarious, and embrace every class of subject ; the 

 elder and younger Jode ; Cornelius, Theodore, and Philip Galle, and 

 Abraham and Cornelius Bloemart. The latter, perhaps less actuated 

 by the commercial spirit in which the art was at this time practised, 

 attempted improvements with success ; and by working delicate tints 

 on the lights, which hod hitherto been left only as so many white 

 spots, he brought his works to a degree of finish and harmony not 

 previously attained. This artist studied and indeed died at Rome, 

 whither also Goltzius travelled for improvement, who imparted a 

 boldness to engraving which forms a striking contrast to the neat stiff 

 manner of his predecessors. Goltzius was a man of great abilities, and 

 drew the human figure admirably ; but in endeavouring to avoid the 

 dry Gothic taste of his countrymen, he went into the opposite ex- 

 treme. The same observations will apply to the works of Sprangher ; 

 and these faults were exaggerated and carried to the extreme of bom- 

 bast by the disciple of Goltzius, Miiller ; but the freedom with which 

 he handled the graver is truly surprising. To these succeeded Lucas 

 Killian, Matham, and Saenredam ; and at the commencement of the 

 17th century the two Bolswerts, who had formed their style on that of 

 Goltzius, improved themselves under the instructions of Rubens. 



Etching, at this period, was practised by many of the painters in the 

 Low Countries with great success ; and we need scarcely say, that it is 

 principally to this process that we are indebted for those treasures of 

 art, the engraved works of Rembrandt : not that in his finished works he 

 confined himself to etching ; he also called in the assistance of the 

 graver and the dry point. His etchings being very numerous, ore of 

 unequal merit ; and many, the subjects of which are of a .- ncred or 

 dignified nature, are debased by the vulgarity of the characters intro- 

 duced : but notwithstanding these and other defects, his best works 

 are greatly and deservedly prized, for they are inimitably fine, and 

 rirmfdn the excellences of the best paintings, even by his own hand, 

 in a degree not equalled by the works of any other engraver. To 

 mention the artists of this school from whose hands we have etchings 

 would be to name nearly all the most eminent painters belonging to 

 it. Berghem, Cuyp, Karl du Jardin, Paul Potter, Ruysdael, Ostade, 

 Waterloo, Adrian van de Veldt, with many others, have all enriched 

 the portfolio of the collector with works of great taste and skill. 

 Among the more professedly engravers not already noticed we must 

 mention Count Goudt as possessing extraordinary skill, although he 

 cultivated the art less as a profession than for pleasure. The family 

 of the Visschers produced many and excellent works, from the 

 pictures of various masters; and Cornelius Visscher stands particularly 

 distinguished for the accuracy of his drawing and the fidelity with 

 which he has rendered the character of the pictures after which he 

 ngraved. 



In France engraving has been practised with pre-eminent success in 

 the departments of history and portraiture. The celebrity of the 

 school date* from the time of Louis XIV.; for although several 

 engraver* had appeared before that time, it was only under the foster- 

 ing influence of that monarch, assisted by the fine taste of Colbert, hi* 

 minister, that a school arose surpassing in excellence any which had 

 preceded it The family of the Audrans produced six eminent en- 

 gravers, but of these the most distinguished was Gerard Audran. He 

 was an admirable draftsman himself ; but the great excellence of his 

 works in other respect* was enhanced by the absence of all manner, 

 except such a* belonged to the painter after whom he engraved. He 

 was the first engraver who successfully united, to any extent, the use 

 of the graver and the etching point, and by thug availing himself of 

 the facilities arising from the use of the aquafortis, produced nume- 

 rous work* of great excellence and some of prodigious size, among 

 which we may mention the battles of Alexander, after Le Brun, each 



subject of the eerie* being engraved on three or four largo plates. 

 The AbW Foutenac remark* of him that " far from conceiving that a 

 servile arrangement of itroke*, and the too frequently cold and affected 

 clearness of the graver were the great essentials of historical engraving, 

 he gave worth to hi* work* by a bold mixture of free hatchings and 

 dots, placed together apparently without order, but with an niimit.il.l. 

 degree of taste, and has left to posterity most admirable examples of 

 the style in which grand compositions ought to be treated." 



Gerard Edelinck, although born at Antwerp, may be fairly con- 

 sidered of the French school, and was an engraver of the highest 

 order. In portrait Nanteuil is no less celebrated than his contempora- 

 ries : the beauty and clearness of his style has perhaps never been 

 exceeded. The Drevets (Peter Drcvet in particular) are scarcely less 

 distinguished; nor must we omit the name of John Louis Koullet, 

 whose engraving of the ' Dead Christ with the fainting Virgin . 

 Annibale Carracci, is one of the finest specimens which the art haa 

 produced. In addition we can only notice the names of Le Clerc, 

 Simoneau, Chereau, Cochin, Dupuis, Beauvais, Balechou, Le Bas, John 

 George Wille, &c. &c. The modern and existing French school has 

 produced very able engravers, whose chief defect is, that de\ 

 from the course pursued by Gerard Audran and all the first artists, 

 they allow that which is merely mechanical to predominate in thrir 

 works ; and aiming at great dexterity in the use of the (/rarer aa 

 the chief objects, they make an ostentatious display of lines, the 

 uniformity and regularity of which often imparts, even to the flesh, 

 the appearance of net-work, when viewed closely. 



The English school of engraving dates only from about the middle of 

 the 17th century, but for another century the engravers who practised 

 here were chiefly foreigners. The founder of the British school was 

 William Faithorne the elder, one of the best portrait engravers of his 

 age ; he hod able contemporaries and successors, but engraving was an 

 exotic in England till the reign of George III., when with a school of 

 painting arose an assemblage of engravers in all the departments of 

 the art who may safely challenge comparison with those of any time 

 or nation. 



One of the earliest of these was Hogarth, an artist of most original 

 genius, whose engravings were all from his own designs, in a walk of 

 art entirely new. Landscapes hod hitherto never been engraved in a 

 satisfactory manner, the older engravers adhering to the use of the 

 graver only, which was inadequate to express with sufficient freedom 

 the playful luxuriance of foliage, the ruggedness of rocks, or the dash 

 of foaming waters. These objects were first accomplished by Francis 

 Vivares, who was a most accomplished etcher, and may be regarded as 

 the father of English landscape engravers, who have unquestionably 

 surpassed all their predecessors in this department of art. Woollett 

 followed in the same tract, carrying his landscapes very forward with 

 the etching point, and finishing them only with the graver. His best 

 works are almost unrivalled ; nor was he inferior in history, as hia 

 print of the death of General Wolfe, after West, sufficiently attests. 



These two artists carried landscape engraving at once to perfection. 

 Browne may be mentioned as a worthy follower ; he produced many 

 excellent plates after the old masters, and sometimes worked in con- 

 junction with Woollett. In history and portrait Sir Robert Strange 

 ably vindicated the honour of the art in this countrry : his engraving 

 of flesh has perhaps scarcely been equalled, certainly never excel 

 any master : his works are however often much deteriorated by his 

 defective drawing. Mezzotinto engraving, although not strictly born 

 among us, has been in no other country practised with a degree of 

 success at all approaching that attained by M'Ardell, Earlom, Smith, 

 Valentine, Green, and others. Bartolozzi, Hylond, Sharpe, Paul 

 Sandby, Middiman, Milton, Filler, are among the most eminent of 

 deceased engravers ; and Mr. Wilson Lowry is entitled to most 

 honourable mention as a great benefactor to the art, by the invention 

 of the ruling-machine, an instrument of great value for many pur- 

 poses, and the operation of which is perfect. At present, every depart- 

 ment of engraving is filled with artists of great abilities, any of whom 

 it would be invidious to name to the exclusion of others : it is enough 

 to say that their talents and their numbers have given the art a com- 

 mercial importance in this country to which it never attained in any 

 other. 



A modern engraving is usually the result of two processes, namely, 

 of direct incision with the graver, or the dry point, and of etching by 

 corrosion. Line engraving is the highest branch of the art, and that 

 which calls into exercise the full energies of the engraver. In it mu.-t 

 be exhibited ample knowledge of the resources of the art, and a skilful 

 handling of the burin. To produce really fine works, the engraver 

 must be himself not merely a clever mechanicien, but an artist, 

 possess the eye and mind of a painter as well as a thorough mastery of 

 his tools. If he have the one as well as the other, he will know how to 

 vary his lines almost indefinitely according to the character of his 

 subject, and the nature of the objects he has to imitate. 



The principal instrument of the engraver is the graver or tiin'n, 

 which differs in size and shape according to the character of the line 

 which it is intended to produce ; but the ordinary graver is of the form 

 of a quandrangular prism, both square and lozenge-shaped, and fitted 

 into a short handle, the whole being about five inches and a half long. 

 The square graver is used in cutting broad lines, and the lozenge- 

 shaped for more delicate ones. In making the incision, it is pushed 



