WOOD-ENGRAVING. 



tablets furnifhing merely the lineaments of the figures, &c. " 

 reprefented, and the colourift, or illuminift, (as he has fome- 

 times been termed,) fupplying the reft. By degrees a few- 

 light hatchings were introduced, thinly fcattered upon the 

 folds of the draperies, (hadows of the flefti, and other parts 

 of the defign ; and occafionally, when the opening of a door 

 or a window, or the mouth of a cavern, was to be exprefied, 

 the block was left untouched, that it might print black in 

 fuch places, and thereby diminifh the tadc of the colourift. 

 It was foon difcovered, that with little additional labour of 

 the wood-engraver, much more might be accomphflied. It 

 was eafy to reprefent the bugbear figure of Lucifer with 

 its appropriate blacknefs, and at the fame time to exprefs 

 the internal markings of his body and limbs, by means of 

 thin lines cut in the block, and which would be rendered 

 white in the imprefTion. 



The ornamental borders which, in feme inftances, fur- 

 rounded the devotional cuts of thofe times, were rendered 

 more attraftive to the eye, by the oppofition of broadifti 

 ■white and black lines ; and fometimes intermediate fpaces of 

 greater extent were enlivened by large white dots cut out, 

 or perhaps punched at equal diftances, on the block ; or 

 decorated with fprigs of foliage, or fmall flowers, re- 

 lieved by a fimilar procefs, upon a black ground. Grada- 

 tions of fliadow next began to be attempted in the figures 

 and other parts of wood-engravings, by means of white 

 dots, differing from each other in their magnitude and proxi- 

 mity according to the degree of ftiade or darknefs required. 

 This mode of finiftiing engravings in wood appears to 

 have been praftifed at Mentz, among other places, at an 

 early period of the invention of typography, and was after- 

 wards occafionally reforted to by the wood-engravers of 

 other countries; efpecially thofe of Paris, where, at the 

 clofe of the 15th and commencement of the i6th centuries, 

 numerous fmall books of devotion were printed by Antoine 

 Verrard, Simon Voftre, and others, in which the borders 

 furrounding the pages were decorated by figures very deli- 

 cately engraved, and relieved upon a black ground, fpecked 

 over, with extreme nicety of workmanfhip, with minute 

 white dots, fuch as have been defcribed. 



Thefe innovations or improvements in the art of wood- 

 engraving, were fuch as involved but little additional labour 

 or difficulty in the execution ; at the fame time, they 

 were calculated to give to the decorations of books a 

 (hewy effeft : but the artifts of Germany, finding or fancy- 

 ing them to be incompatible with the purpofe of imitating 

 by wood-cuts the appearance of their original defigns, the 

 former and more fimple method was again reforted to. 



It appears to have been at the earher period of the art 

 the pradice of thofe mafters, who furniftied defigns for the 

 wood-engravers to work from, carefully to avoid all crofs- 

 hatchings, which it is probable were by many perfons con- 

 fidered as beyond the power of the xylographift to repre- 

 fent. Wolgerauth perceived that though it was difficult to 

 effeft crofs-hatchings, it was not impoffible ; and in the 

 cuts of the Nuremberg Chronicle, — the execution of which 

 he doubtlefs faperintended, befide furniftiing the defigns, — 

 a fuccefsful attempt was firft made to imitate the bold 

 hatchings of a pen-drawing, croffing each other, as occafion 

 prompted the defigner, in various direftions. To Wolge- 

 muth belongs the praife of having been the firft who duly 

 appreciated the powers of this art ; and it is more than pro- 

 bable that he proved with his own hand, to the artifts who 

 were employed under him, the pradticability of the ftyle of 

 workmanfhip that he required. 

 1 Engraving on wood now offered inducements to its prac- 

 I tice, which had not before been contemplated. Albert 

 Vol. XXXVIII. 



Durer early applied himfelf to the ftudy and further advance, 

 ment of an art which at once promifed to reward his labourg 

 with fame and fortune ; and fo well had Nature qualified 

 him for the talk, that before the termination of the 15th 

 century, he produced his feries of wood-cuts of the Apoca- 

 lypfe ; a work which it cannot be doubted was received 

 throughout Europe with wonder and univerfal applaufe. 



Mr. Bartfch ftrongly infifts that neither Durer, Schau- 

 flein, Burgmair, nor the other great defigners of the Ger- 

 man fchool, who were contemporaneous, or nearly fo, ever 

 engraved in wood themfelves ; but that all they did was to 

 furnifti the defigns, leaving the taflc of cutting them upon 

 the tablets to the ordinary engravers in wood. Mr. Ottley 

 is, however, perfuaded that this opinion is in a great meafure 

 erroneous, notwithftanding the infcriptions which Bartfch 

 refers to, written anciently upon the backs of fo many of 

 the engraved tablets of the celebrated triumph of Maximilian, 

 and other works defigned by Hans Burgmair, and recording 

 the names of the individual wood-engravers who were em- 

 ployed to execute particular pieces of thofe extenfive under- 

 takings. 



One hundred and thirty-five of the folio tablets of Maxi- 

 milian's triumph are ftill preferved in the imperial library 

 at Vienna, where an edition of them was ftruck off in the 

 year 1796. According to Bartfch, they were engraved 

 from the defign (for the whole forms but one long pro- 

 ceffion) not of Albert Durer, as had formerly been fup- 

 pofed, but of Hans Burgmair, in 1516 and the three fol- 

 lowing years. The names of the different wood-engravers 

 employed are written, fays Mr. Bartfch, upon the backs 

 of feveral of the blocks, in the following manner. Upon 

 N° 18. of the edition juft mentioned, " Der kert an die 

 Ellend. hat Wilhalm gefchitten ;" /'. e. this block joins to 

 that which reprefents the elks. It was engraved by Wil- 

 liam : and fo of the reft. 



The names or initials of engravers found upon the backs 

 of thefe extraordinary tablets are feventeen in number, 

 and are as follow: i. Jerome Andre, furnamed Refch, 

 or Rofch (one of the moft eminent engravers of Nurem- 

 berg.) 2. Jan de Bonn. 3. Cornelius, (perhaps Corne- 

 lius de Bonn.) 4. Hans Frank. 5. Saint German. 6. Wil- 

 helm. 7. Corneille Liefrink. 8. Wilhelm Liefrink. Q.Alexis 

 Lindt. 10. Joffe de Negker. 11. Vincent Pfarkecher. 

 12. Jaques Rupp. 13. Hans Schaufehen. 14. Jan Ta- 

 berith. 15. F. P. 16. A monogram, compofed of H. F. 

 17. W. R. 



The imperial library likewife poffeffes an hundred and 

 twenty-two blocks, engraved from the defigns of Burgmair, 

 reprefenting the faints, male and female, of the family of 

 Maximihan. One hundred and nineteen of thefe were re- 

 pubhftied in the year 1799 ; and upon the backs of the 

 blocks were found the names of the eight following en- 

 gravers on wood ; -uiz. I. Hans Frank. 2. Corneille 

 Liefrink. 3. Alexis Lindt. 4. Joffe de Negker. 5. Wolf- 

 gang Refch. 6. Hans Taberith. 7. Wilhelm Taberith. 

 And, 8. Nicholas Seeman. Probably no writer who has 

 entered upon a critical examination of thefe early works 

 has been fo well qualified to judge of them as Mr. Ottley : 

 and that gentleman, while he admits that thefe infcriptions 

 of names fufficiently prove that the great bulk of the 

 numerous wood-cuts bearing the initials of Burgmair, were 

 not cut upon the wooden blocks by his own hand ; and 

 that by parity of reafoning it might be fair to conclude the 

 fame of a large proportion of thofe bearing the monograms 

 or initials of Durer, and other eminent defigners ; yet he 

 can by no means perfuade himfelf that the abilities of the 

 ordinary wood-engravers, who abounded in Germany at the 

 4 H clofe 



