WHITE-LINE ENGRAVING FOR RELIEF-PRINTING. 393 



which the lights are managed. It is questionable, however, whether 

 this plate was engraved in white lines in obedience to the demands of 

 the graver, or merely with a desire to produce an odd effect.* Of another 

 similar print, "The Satyr's Family," after Urse Graf, dated 1520, a good 

 reproduction of which is easily accessible in Hirth and Mather's "Master 

 Woodcuts of Four Centuries," t it seems almost certain that the motive 

 suggested prompted it. . The angularity of some of the curves in it 

 would, indeed, suggest that it was executed with the knife on wood. 



It has been pointed out already that the use of the white line, with 

 all the consequences it involves, could not lead to any lasting result at 

 the period under consideration. The possibilities contained in it could 

 not be recognized by the artists of the time, and for the fac simile re- 

 production of drawings, intaglio-engraving on metal and relief-cutting 

 on wood were far better fitted. White-line relief-engraving therefore 

 remained a premature shoot, destined to an early decay, since its time 

 had not yet come. But black -.line relief-cutting also could not maintain 

 its ground, so soon as it was asked to grapple with painting in the 

 modern sense of the word. For this purpose the plank and the knife 

 were insufficient, and hence the woodcut had to succumb in the com- 

 petition with intaglio-engraving on metal. It was only towards the 

 end of the eighteenth century, when the graver — this time, however, on 

 wood cut across the grain — again came into use, that relief-work once 

 more found itself in a position to enter the lists; for the new means at 

 its command enabled it to develop tint engraving, which made it possible 

 to produce blocks printable on the type-press and yet producing effects 

 suggestive of painting. Modern wood-engraving is no longer content 

 with drawing ; it paints, or at least endeavors to suggest the effects of 

 painting, and therein lies its true importance. 



To sum up, it may be regarded as proven that the so called "dotted 

 prints" are white-line engravings intended for relief- printing, that they 

 were executed with the graver, and, in some cases, with punches, on 

 metal (which does not exclude the possibility that similar work may 

 have been done on wood with the knife now and then, in the spirit of 

 imitation), and that, arguing from the means used and the love of 

 ornamentation displayed in them, their originators were goldsmiths. 



Although the simple explanation here offered dispels the mystery 

 which, in the eyes of most investigators and collectors, has hitherto eu- 



* This engraving, evidently intended for a title page, ocenrsin a number of different 

 states as to lettering. An impression in the Royal Library of Belgium, of which Mr. 

 Hynians gives a reproduction, is without lettering. Passavant, " Peintre-Graveur," I, 

 p. 101, describes a second, which would seem to be lettered "Pomerium do tempore, 

 fiatris Pelbarti ordiuis Saucti Fraucisci." According to Willshire, "Catalogue of 

 Early Prints," I, p. 320 a third impression, in the British Museum, has the legend 

 "Pomerium de Sanctis, fiatris Pelbarti ordiuis saucti Francisci." Still another im- 

 pression, in the collection of Mr. Jlenry F. Sewall, of New York, corresponds with the 

 one here reproduced. 



t " Meister-Holzscbnitte aus vier Jahrhunderten," Munich and Leipsic, 1890, pi. 

 108. 



