254 ARIADNE FLORENT1NA. 



hibiting tliese imperfect means of its effect, or in concealing 

 them? 



11. Here, for instance, is the head of a soldier by Durer, 

 a mere gridiron of black lines. Would this be better or 

 worse engraving if it were more like a photograph or litho- 

 graph, and no lines seen? suppose, more like the head of 

 Mr. Santley, now in all the music-shops, and really quite de- 

 ceptive in light and shade, when seen from over the way ? 

 Do you think Durer's work would be better if it were more 

 like that ? And would you have me, therefore, leaving the 

 question of technical method of production altogether to the 

 craftsman, consider pictorial engraving simply as the produc- 

 tion of a light-and-shade drawing, by some method permitting 

 its multiplication for the public ? 



12. This, you observe, is a very practical question indeed. 

 For instance, the illustrations of my own lectures on sculpture 

 are equivalent to permanent photographs. There can be little 

 doubt that means will be discovered of thus producing perfect 

 facsimiles of artists' drawings ; so that, if no more than fac- 

 simile be required, the old art of cutting furrows in metal 

 may be considered as, at this day, virtually ended. And, in- 

 deed, it is said that line engravers cannot any more get ap- 

 prentices, and that a pure steel or copper plate is not likely 

 to be again produced, when once the old living masters of the 

 bright field shall have been all laid in their earth-furrows. 



13. Suppose, then, that this come to pass ; and more than 

 this, suppose that wood engraving also be superseded, and 

 that instead of imperfect transcripts of drawings, on wood- 

 blocks or metal-plates, photography enabled us to give, quite 

 cheaply, and without limit to number facsimiles of the fin- 

 ished light-and-shade drawings of artists themselves. Another 

 group of questions instantly offers itself, on these new condi- 

 tions ; namely, What are the best means for a light-and-shade 

 drawing the pen, or the pencil, the charcoal, or the flat 

 wash ? That is to say, the pen, producing shade by black 

 lines, as old engraving did ; the pencil, producing shade by 

 grey lines, variable in force ; the charcoal, producing a smoky 

 shadow with no lines in it, or the washed tint, producing a 



