392 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



given (Fig. 50), by permission of the Century Company, of part of an 

 engraving by Mr. Cole from Mr. St. Gaudens's " Angel of the Morgan 

 Tomb." The face of the angel is engraved with the same white lines 

 crossing one another which we find in the little fifteenth century "Cru- 

 cifixion," with this difference only, that while the lines of the mediaeval 

 artist are rigid and coarse, those of his modern follower are flexible and 

 delicate. It would be more appropriate, therefore, to call these old pro- 

 ductions mediaeval white-line engravings for relief -printing, rather than 

 " dotted prints " or " gravures en maniere criblee " or " Schrotblatter." 



Fig. 50. 

 Enlargement of Part of a Wood-Engraving by T. Cole. 



(By permission of The Century Company.) 



The use of the white line in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is not, 

 however, confined to the class of prints just spoken of. There are extant 

 a few white-line relief-engravings ~of the same period which have no- 

 thing in common with the so-called "dotted prints," and which, judging 

 from the absence of the characteristic love of ornamentation and from 

 the better quality of the draftsmanship, would seem to be, not the 

 work of artisan goldsmiths, but of regular designers and engravers. 

 One of these, ascribed to the close of the fifteenth century, is also here 

 reproduced (PI. l) from an impression in the U. S. National Museum. 

 That it is not a negative impression, that is to say, an impression printed 

 from an intaglio plate inked on the surface,* is evident from the way in 



* The subject of negative and positive impressions is illustrated in the U. S. Na- 

 tional Museum l>y prints from both intaglio and relief plates. The specimens in 

 question will he found in the Hall of Graphic Arts, eastern side, alcove 1, in frames 1 

 and la. 



