GERMAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



fophers of Athens.'" AnJ " The Judgment of Solomon ;'' 

 all in very large folio. " The Coronation Proceffion of 

 Queen Maria Therefa at Prcfbourg ;" alfo of very large 

 dimenfions. 



Jean Elie Ridinger, a very diftinguiflicd engraver of ani- 

 mals, was born at Ulm in the year 1695, and died at Angf- 

 burg in 1787. His father was a reputable drawing mailer, 

 and from him our artiil received his earlieil inftruftions in the 

 art. He afterwards ftudied painting under Chrilloplier 

 lleifch, but as an engraver ftudied nature alone, and was one 

 of her fuccefsful votaries. He formed a ilyle of engraving 

 animals for himfelf, which confill chiefly of etching, which 

 is performed with charafteriftic freedom and firmnefs, tem- 

 pered and harmonifed, without being over laboured, with the 

 graver. He appears to have lludied in the wildeil and mod 

 unfrequented recefles of the forefts of Germany, and the 

 back grounds of his favage animals are conceived and exe- 

 cuted in a grand and mallerly ftyle, occafionally difplaying 

 all the wild vigour of luxuriant and uncontrolled vegetation, 

 which can only be contemplated in the depths of untrodden 

 forefts, and occafionally in his dens of bears, tygers, lynxes, 

 &c. the moft barren and difmal rocky folitudcs, infomuch 

 that the reflcfting fpeftator is led to wonder, either at the 

 bold truths and fertility of a daring imagination, or, if he 

 believes that Ridinger has really villted fuch fcenes, at the 

 dangers he muft have cfcaped. 



Nor are his portraits of wild and ferocious animals, lefs 

 than his landfcape fccnery, the rcfult of vigorous obferva- 

 tion, and exteniive power over the inftruments of his art. 

 In tracing their habits and manners, he combined the exatt- 

 titude of a naturalift with the talents of a confnmmate artlft. 



Several of Ridinger's prints may be called hiftorical, being 

 reprefentations of chafes which really took place in his time, 

 and at which he muft have been prefent, in the forefts of 

 Germany, with portraits of the animals that were killed or 

 taken, and beneath thefe engravings there is generally a par- 

 ticular defcription, or hiftory, of the chafe, in the German 

 language. 



He did not, however, draw the human figure, nor that of 

 the horfe, with equal ability ; and though his chiarofcuro be 

 often effeftive, yet in many inftances his lights are too much 

 fcattered. He worked from his own compofitions, and 

 fometimcs painted, as well as engraved, a favourite fubjecl, 

 but his pictures are not common. The moft efteenied of his 

 numerous engravings are thofe which follow : 



" The Tcrreftrial Paradifc," a f^t of twelve large folio 

 plates, in which are introduced, in an appropriate manner, 

 all the various animals ; the fubjefts are connetledby means 

 of the hiftory of Adam and Eve. Thefe are grand compo- 

 fitions, finely executed, and in England but rarely feen. A 

 fet of fixteen fables. A fet of heads of wolves and foxes, 

 finely executed. A fet of four large upright folios, which 

 by fome are eftecmed the maftcrpicces of Ridinger, and two 

 of which, reprcfcnting "Bears feafting on a Stag," and a 

 haunt of " Wild Boars in a Forcft:," are more cfpecially to 

 be admired. A pair of " Stag-hunting" and " Bear-hunting," 

 in large foho, both defigned from nature. Another pair of 

 hunting pieces, of "Tiie large Wild Boar with double Tufl<s," 

 and " The Stag in Rutting-time," dated 1755, and 1757, 

 taken by the duke and duchefs of Wirtemberg. A fet of 

 fixtcen hunting pieces of the larger and fmaller game, as prac- 

 tifed in the different ftates of Germany, with German and 

 French explanations beneath, rich and interefting compofi- 

 'tions. A fet of twelve plates of favage and carnivorous ani- 

 mals, all in large folio, and after his own defigns. 



Ridinger alfo engraved, with h is ufual ability, a lion-hunt, 

 after Rubens. 



The Prciflers were a numerous family of engravers, 

 whom we ftuili pafs with brief notices, as they rarely rofe 

 above m:'diocritv.. 



Jean Daniel IVcifler, an engraver of portraits, was of 

 Nuremberg, and lived at the clofc of the fcvcntcenth and 

 beginning of the eighteenth centuries. His fon Jean Juftiri 

 was born in the fame city in the year 1698, aad died there- 

 in 1771. He refided in Italy a confiderabie lime, and he- 

 came direftorof the Imperial academy of Augfburg. Hii 

 moftdiftinguiftied works are "The Apothcolis of vEneas. ' 

 A fet of the four elements, after Edmond Bouchardon ; 

 and another fet of the four parts of the day, all in folio. 

 A fet of lifty plates of the antique ftatiies pri.fervcd at 

 Rome, from drawings by Bouciiardon ; fmall uprights. The 

 cielin^s of the Jefuits' church at Antwerp, after Rulu-n.i, 

 confiiting of twenty fmall plates, cxdufivt- of the portraits 

 of Rubens and Vandyke. 



George iMartin Preifler, a younger brother of Jean Juftin, 

 was alfo of Nuremberg ; lie engraved, in the family ftyle, a 

 confiderabie ;^nuniber of portraits, and a fet of twenty -oiw 

 plates of ftatues, at Rome aad at Florence, from drawing! 

 by his brother Jean Martin. 



The engraving of Valentine Daniel, another fon of Jeati 

 Daniel Pitifler, was chiefly continud to book plates and por- 

 traits. 



Jean Martin Priefier, the fourth fon of .lean Daniel, tra- 

 velled from Nuremberg to Rome for improvement, and be- 

 came, on the whole, perhap.s, the beft engraver of the familv. 

 He accepted an invitation to Denm.-irk, and was living in 

 good repute at Copenhagen ill tlie year 1770. His ftyle is 

 clear and neat, but deficient in vigour, and liis bell prints arc. 

 " Chriil bearing his Crofs," a large folio, from Paolo Wtl- 

 nefe. " Seniiramis, placing tlie Crown of Ninus upon her 

 own Head," from Guido, a large folio, ingraved with the 

 former, for the Drefdcn gallery. " A Battle,'' from Par- 

 rocel, and a Bacchanalian fubjed, from Pierre, both i:i 

 large folio. 



Jean Alexander Thiele was born at Erfiirth in the year 

 1C9J, and from the rank of a common foldier rofe to be a 

 diftinguilhed engraver and painter of landfcajies. -'\ decided 

 tafte for this art, and fome pidures of Agricola, which it 

 w as his good fortune to fee and copy in dillemper, introduced 

 him to the notice of that artift, by whofe inftruftions he failed 

 not to profit. He is believed to have been the firft in Germa- 

 ny who attemped to paint landfcape in cravons, which, 

 though an ineligible mode of art, is a proof of his ingenuity : 

 he afterwards acquired a knowledge of oil-painting under 

 Menyoky, in wliich he gloried, and in which he excelled. 

 His ftudy was the romanlic part of Saxony, and more cfpe- 

 cially the banks of the Elbe and the Sala. His etchings, of 

 whicli the fubjcfts of the principal are named below, are 

 rude but maftcrly. The celebrated Dietrich ftudied under 

 him at Drefden, where he left a fon, and where he died in 

 the year 1752. 



A pair of moimtainous landfcapes, adorned with ruins of 

 ancient buildings, dated 1725, in folio, and very rare; a 

 pair of fmaller landfcape.', of more ruftic character ; a fet 

 of three mountainous landfcapes ; a landfcape of grander 

 charafter, adorned witii ruined monuinents of antiquity, in 

 quarto ; a pair of " The ancient Port or Mouth of th« 

 Elbe,'' drawn from nature, and dated 1742 ; a pair oi" views 

 at Naumburg, all in quarto ; a fet of fix of fupcrlor exe- 

 cution, from nature, including views of Pilnitz, Koaing- 

 ftein, Mullen, and Drefden, dated 1726, in large folio. 



Paul Troger was born at Zcll, in llie biftiopric of Brixen, in 



the year 1695, and died at Vienna in 1777. He lUidied the 



rudiments of his profelfion in his birth-place, and aftetwarJs 



B b 2 travdUa 



