DEFINITION OF THE ART OF ENGRA VINO. 267 



field is the purest type of such art ; and is, on hilly land, an 

 exquisite piece of decoration. 



Therefore it will follow that engraving distinguishes itself 

 from ordinary drawing by greater need of muscular effort. 



Tbe quality of a pen drawing is to be produced easily, de- 

 liberately, always,* but with a point that glides over the 

 paper. Engraving, on the contrary, requires always force, 

 and its virtue is that of a line produced by pressure, or by- 

 blows of a chisel. 



It involves, therefore, always, ideas of power and dexterity, 

 but also of restraint ; and the delight you take in it should 

 involve the understanding of the difficulty the workman dealt 

 with. You perhaps doubt the extent to which this feeling 

 justly extends, (in the first volume of " Modern Painters," ex- 

 pressed under the head "Ideas of Power.") But why is a 

 large stone in any building grander than a small one ? Sim- 

 ply because it was more difficult to raise it. So, also, an en- 

 graved line is, and ought to be, recognized as more grand 

 than a pen or pencil line, because it was more difficult to exe- 

 cute it. 



In this mosaic of Lucca front you forgive much, and ad- 

 mire much, because you see it is all cut in stone. So, in wood 

 and steel, you ought to see that every line has been costly ; 

 but observe, costly of deliberative, no less than athletic or 

 executive power. The main use of the restraint which makes 

 the line difficult to draw, is to give time and motive for delib- 

 eration in drawing it, and to ensure its being the best in your 

 power. 



37. For, as with deliberation, so without repentance, your 

 engraved line must be. It may, indeed, be burnished or 

 beaten out again in metal, or patched and botched in stone ; 

 but always to disadvantage, and at pains which must not be 

 incurred often. And there is a singular evidence in one of 

 Durer's finest plates that, in his time, or at least in his manner 

 of work, it was not possible at all. Among the disputes as to 

 the meaning of Durer's Knight and Death, you will find it 

 sometimes suggested, or insisted, that the horse's raised foot 

 * Compare Inaugural Lectures, 144. 



