WHITE-LINE ENGRAVING FOR RELIEF-PRINTING. 387 



brought out by white dots and lines, or sometimes by white dots 

 only, or by white lines only, on a black ground, which is precisely the 

 reverse of the ordinary wood-cuts of the time, these being to all iuteuts 

 and purposes reproductions of drawiugs in black lines on a white 

 ground, or, in other words, black-line fac-simile work. The strange 

 appearance of the " dotted prints " is furthermore increased by the 

 admixture of ordinary work in black lines on a white ground with 

 the work in white liues and dots ou a black ground, so that it would 

 seem as if two opposing principles, harshly contrasting with one 

 another, had been utilized in their execution. The result was that 

 most investigators were sorely puzzled as to the nature of these queer 

 productions. All sorts of speculations were indulged in as to the 

 material — whether wood or metal — and the modus operandi employed, 

 one of the suggestions offered being that they were the outcome of a 

 combination of intaglio-engraving and relief-engraving, and it was 

 naturally enough asked, what motive could possibly have prevailed 

 upon their originators to adopt such an "irrational" method of pro- 

 ceeding? 



"Crible," says Mr. Henri Hymans, the excellent curator of the print 

 department in the Koyal Library of Belgium, in his essay entitled 

 "Gravures criblees,"* "is a sort of engraving in which the subject is 

 worked out by a combination of dots and of lines.crossiug one another, 

 and relieved white against a black ground; but in which, nevertheless, 

 black lines on a white ground are also seen, producing a more curious 

 than happy combination of intaglio-engraving (gravure en creux) and 

 relief-eu graving {gravure en relief)." Again, speaking of a still-existing 

 plate engraved on copper for relief-printing, of which an impression is 

 given in the article in question (see the reproduction, PI. xlviii), Mr. 

 Hymans says that it is "executed in intaglio and in relief at one and the 

 same time. * * * The features, the rays which surround the heads 

 of the saints, the folds of the drapery, in a word, everything which 

 marks form, is engraved in relief, as in wood-engraving; t elsewhere, 

 however, intaglio-engraving (la taille douce) has been used to a consid- 

 erable extent, and produces in the impression white lines on a black 

 ground. * * * If we ask for the reasons which may have prevailed 

 upon the artist to use so tedious and difficult a process, and one, more- 

 over, so limited in its means of expression, * * * we can only find 

 them in the necessities forced upon him by a long edition anil the de- 

 sire to prevent the wearing of the plate. * * * Unfortunately the 

 existence of the plates [plate?] * * * can throw light only upon 

 the technique of the curious and irrational art which forms the subject 

 of our article, without allowing us to draw a conclusion which would 

 bring us a step nearer to the discovery of its origin." 



* See "Documents iconograpuiques et bibliograpliiques de la bibliotheque royale 

 do Belgique." Brussels, 1887, pp. 14, 17, and 18. 



t This is not quite correct, as the rays of the nimbi arc decidedly white on a black 

 ground. 



