WOOD-ENGRAVING. 



clofe of the ijth century, could have beenfuch as to render 

 them ill any material degree inftruniental in bringing about 

 that liidden and confiderable improvement which took place 

 ill tiitir art at that period. They had been accuftomed to 

 mannfafture the barbarous wood-cuts ufed by the illuminifts 

 and venders of playing-cards, and were probably incapable 

 ol comprehending or appreciating thofe delicate, but free 

 and mafterly touches, which charafterize the defigns of a 

 great and finifhed artift like Durer ; and if fo, wholly un- 

 qualified to reprefent them with any tolerable degree of 

 fidelity. We may, therefore, readily believe that the nume- 

 rous and flouri/hing fchool of wood-engravers, which vve 

 find fpreading over Germany, and from thence to Italy, in 

 the early part of the i6th century, owes its excellence to 

 the great deCgners of that thne ; and efpecially to Albert 

 Durer, who during his youth afliduoufly applied himfelf 

 to the praftice and improvement of the art, and afterward 

 taught it to numerous pupils, who, already grounded in the 

 principles of defign, and working continually under the eye 

 of their mafter, by degrees became qualified to affift him 

 greatly in his numerous works of this kind. The intel- 

 ligence, the delicacy, and the feeling, which we obferve in 

 the execution of moft of the wood-cuts of Albert Durer, 

 can only, Mr. Ottley thinks, be accounted for in this way ; 

 and the reader will probably admit that his opinion on the 

 fubjedl is not a little llrengthened by the circumftance of 

 Durer having been himfelf the publifher of all his chief 

 works of this kind, more efpecially when added to the fadl, 

 that of the years 1509, 1510, and 1511, during which fo 

 large a proportion of his wood-engravings were executed, 

 we have fcarcely any thing by his hand engraved in 

 copper. 



The fudden and confiderable improvement of which we 

 have fpoken, confilled of a fuperior ftyle of execution, as 

 well as of defign. The meagre and miferable forms derived 

 from the legends of fuperftition, and the Greek painters of 

 the dark ages, began to give way to a clearer view of nature ; 

 and the few and fcanty fingle-lined hatchings, which rather 

 indicated than expreffed fhadow, were fuperfeded by thofe 

 bold courfes of lines, as if hatched with a pen, and crofTed 

 with fecond and in fome inftances with third courfes of 

 lines, which Wolgemuth introduced, and Durer im- 

 proved. 



This mode of execution appeared to many perfons fo 

 very difEcult, and requiring fo much more of pains and 

 patient labour than they were warranted by other parts of 

 thefe engravings in believing to have been bellowed on them, 

 as to have excited confiderable doubts whether the prints 

 which contain thefe dark croffings were really imprefled 

 from wooden blocks. They were by fome perfons rather 

 fuppofed to have been printed from calls, for which the en- 

 graved blocks ferved perhaps as matrixes ; and a controverfy 

 hinging on this doubt has been for fome time carried on by 

 antiquarian inquirers, with fufficient boldnefs on both fides. 

 The truth, however, could only remain with one party, and 

 the fublequent produAion by Mr. Ottley, of fome of the 

 engraved blocks of wood themfelves, either from the hands 

 of Albert Durer, or thofe of his difciples, has proved that 

 the dark crofllngs were aftually delivered from wood, and 

 fettled the controverfy, as far as refpefts that artift and his 

 contemporaries, if not his fucceflbrs. 



The readers of our account of the German fchool of en- 

 graving, may have obferved that ourfelves were among the 

 number of fceptics. As the truth was our objeft, we wil- 

 lingly confefs our earlier miftake now that the faft is afcer- 

 tained ; and have too much refpedl for truth and the public 

 to feel the lead backwardnefs in recording it. Whether we 



12 



flatter ourfelves that we can afford this record out of tFiff 

 ftock of our reputation, is for our private feelings. If from 

 our expreflion of doubt, refearch in the right direftion, 

 and fatisfaftory afcertainment, have refulted, our fcepticifm 

 has not been in vain ; nor have we been in vain anxious to 

 tell what we believed, as well as what we knew. Refpeft- 

 ing the dark crofs-hatchings which fo frequently occur in 

 the works of Albert Durer, Mr. Ottley's argument is con- 

 clufive : yet there are two things in his book on engraving, 

 for which we cannot award to him the fame approbation j 

 and thefe are, his difcontinuing his hiftory precifely at the 

 fame epoch where Mr. Landfeer had been obliged to break 

 off a courfe of (publifhed) lefiures that are confeffedly im- 

 perfeft ; and his mif-ftating both the words and meaning of 

 that writer, in the only place where he profefTes to have 

 quoted him. 



We Ihall next proceed to defcribe the modes of workman- 

 (hip, or execution, which have prevailed among the marc 

 modern praftitioners of the art ; beginning with that which 

 is in ufe for the more common or ordinary purpofes, and 

 following with thofe refinements of the art which are prac- 

 tifed only by its fuperior profelTors. Our account will be 

 followed by fome anecdotes and remarks relative to the 

 earlier hiftory of the art, which we hope will prove in no 

 fmall degree worthy of the notice of the connoifTeur and 

 print-coUeftor. 



Before the artift begins his engraving, the furface of the 

 block or tablet which is to receive it, muft, by means of an 

 inftrument termed a fcraper, fucceeding to a fine vvatch- 

 fpring faw, be made level, and fufBciently fmooth for the re- 

 ception of the defign which is intended to be reprefented. 

 Should this defign be very fimple in its nature, fuch as a 

 fmall geometrical diagram, for example, being previoufly 

 drawn on paper either with a black-lead pencil, or Indian 

 ink, it is fometimes laid on an engraver's fand-bag, or other 

 fuch hard cufhion, and the block being carefully placed over 

 it, a fmart blow ftruck on the back of the block with a 

 broad-faced hammer, will transfer the lines from the paper 

 to the wood, in a manner fufficiently plain and accurate for 

 fuch purpofes, when by means of the gravers, gouges, fcra- 

 pers, &c. which have been before mentioned, the engraver 

 begins his work of incifions and hollows, fcooping away the 

 whole furface of the block, except the diagram, or other 

 fimple defign required. 



In other cafes, the defign to be engraven is either traced 

 by pafliiig a blunted fteel-point over the outlines, the back 

 of the drawing being rubbed with powdered red-chalk, or is 

 flcetched out with a black-lead pencil, and the different 

 fhades wafhed in with Indian ink, in the fame manner as a 

 chiaro-fcuro drawing on paper. This method is ufed in 

 making drawings for cuts to be introduced in common and 

 cheap publications, in which a bold fhewy effeft is chiefly 

 required. In engraving fuch drawings made on the wood, 

 the artift renders the feveral forms and tints by incifions cut 

 in the block ; and the principle on which he proceeds may 

 be readily conceived by recolleiSing (what we have alluded 

 to in an earlier part of this article), that were the block to 

 be printed before the engraver commenced his operations, 

 it would yield merely a black fpot : every incifion therefore 

 made in the block will produce the impreffion of a white 

 line or hatching, and thus afford the means of introducing 

 any portion of light that may be required. By the multi- 

 plication of thefe white lines or hatchings, the engraver 

 lightens the tint at his pleafure ; and by the various widths, 

 thicknefTes, croffings, and intertextures of the incifions thus 

 made in the wood, not only the forms and various gradations 

 of fhadow from light to darknefs, but alfo the textures or 



external 



