132 Mr. Atkinson's Sketch of the late T. Berwick. 



No. XVI. — Sketch of the Life and Works of the late Thomas Bewick. 

 By Mr. George C. Atkinson. 



Read June 1.5, 1830. 



The invention of Wood Engraving, forms an epoch of the most in- 

 teresting description in the history of the Fine Arts. William Pluy- 

 DENDORF and Michael Wolgemuth engraved blocks for the Nuremburg 

 Chronicle, folio edition, 1493, and are the first artists on wood whose 

 names are preserved. Their productions, though possessed of consider- 

 able spirit, are stiff and inaccurate in representation. 



It is to Albert Durer, however, that we are indebted for the most 

 finished and beautiful wood engravings of that early period. Though 

 born in 1471, and possessed of an imagination most fertile, it was not 

 till three or four years after the publication of the Nuremburgh Chronicle, 

 that he exhibited to the public any specimens of his talent. The im- 

 pressions taken from his blocks are not uncommon, and are exceedingly 

 spirited, but rather deficient in grace. 



Hans Holbein followed, and in 1530 published his Dance of Death, 

 consisting of fifty-three small cuts. He produced other engravings both 

 before and after, but this is the most celebrated of his efforts in that 

 way. 



One great characteristic of the wood engravings of the old masters is 

 the frequent introduction of " cross-hatchings ;" an operation of most 

 difficult execution in the present mode of wood engraving, where each 

 square cavity must be cut out with a tool, to leave prominences, the 

 impressions from which would exhibit the crossing of parallel lines.* 



Bewick thought that these cavities were produced by means of a 



* A wood block to give such an impression would resemble, in its indentations, the ini- 

 presssion of a wafer stamp upon wax. 



