

DEFINITION OF TEE ART OF ENGRAVING. 253 



the power of the greatest master of the German, or any north- 

 ern, school, Hans Holbein. 



8. You must feel, however, that I am using the word "en- 

 graving " in a somewhat different, and, you may imagine, a 

 wider, sense, than that which you are accustomed to attach to 

 it. So far from being a wider sense, it is in reality a more 

 accurate and restricted one, while yet it embraces every con- 

 ceivable right application of the art. And I wish, in this first 

 lecture, to make entirely clear to you the proper meaning of 

 the word, and proper range of the art of, engraving ; in my 

 next following lecture, to show you its place in Italian schools, 

 and then, in due order, the place it ought to take in our own, 

 and in all schools. 



9. First then, to-day, of the Differentia, or essential quality 

 of Engraving, as distinguished from other arts. 



What answer would you make to me, if I asked casually 

 what engraving was ? Perhaps the readiest which would oc- 

 cur to you would be, " The translation of pictures into black 

 and white by means admitting reduplication of impressions." 

 But if that be done by lithography, we do not call it engrav- 

 ing, whereas we speak contentedly and continually of seal 

 engraving, in which there is no question of black and white. 

 And, as scholars, you know that this customary mode of speak- 

 ing is quite accurate ; and that engraving means, primarily, 

 making a permanent cut or furrow in something. The cen- 

 tral syllable of the word has become a sorrowful one, meaning 

 the most permanent of furrows. 



10. But are you prepared absolutely to accept this limita- 

 tion with respect to engraving as a pictorial art ? Will you 

 call nothing an engraving, except a group of furrows or cavi- 

 ties cut in a hard substance ? What shall we say of mezzo- 

 tint engraving, for instance, in which, though indeed furrows 

 and cavities are produced mechanically as a ground, the 

 artist's work is in effacing them ? And when we consider the 

 power of engraving in representing pictures and multiplying 

 them, are we to recognize and admire no effects of light and 

 shade except those which are visibly produced by dots or 

 furrows ? I mean, will the virtue of an engraving be in ex* 



