DEFINITION OF THE ART OF ENGRAVING. 255 



transparent shadow with no lines in it. Which of these 

 methods is the best ? or have they, each and all, virtues to 

 be separately studied, and distinctively applied ? 



14 See how curiously the questions multiply on us. 1st, 

 Is engraving to be only considered as cut work ? 2nd, For 

 present designs multipliable without cutting, by the sunshine, 

 what methods or instruments of drawing will be best ? And 

 now, 3rdly, before we can discuss these questions at all, is 

 there not another lying at the root of both, namely, what a 

 light- and-shade drawing itself properly is, and how it differs, 

 or should differ, from a painting, whether by mere defi- 

 ciency, or by some entirely distinct merit ? 



15. For instance, you know how confidently it is said, in 

 common talk about Turner, that his works are intelligible 

 and beautiful when engraved, though incomprehensible as 

 paintings. Admitting this to be so, do you suppose it is be- 

 cause the translation into light and shade is deficient in some 

 qualities which the painting had, or that it possesses some qual- 

 ity which the painting had not ? Does it please more because 

 it is deficient in the colour which confused a feeble spectator, 

 and offended a dogmatic one, or because it possesses a deci- 

 sion in its steady linear labour which interprets, or corrects, 

 the swift pencilling of the artist ? 



16. Do you notice the two words I have just used, Decision, 

 and Linear f Decision, again introducing the idea of cuts or 

 divisions, as opposed to gradations ; Linear, as opposed to 

 massive or broad ? 



Yet we use all these words at different times in praise, 

 while they evidently mark inconsistent qualities. Softness 

 and decision, breadth and delineation, cannot co-exist in equal 

 degrees. There must surely therefore be a virtue in the en- 

 graving inconsistent with that of the painting, and vice versd. 



Now, be clear about these three questions which we have 

 to-day to answer. 



A. Is all engraving to be cut work ? 



B. If it need not be cut work, but only the reproduction 



of a drawing, what methods of executing a light-and- 

 shade drawing will be best ? 



