) THE WONDERS OF ENGEAVING. BY GEORGES DUPLESSIS. ILLUSTRATED WITFI TIIIKTY-FOUB WOOD-ENGBAVING8. NEW YOKE: CHARLES SCRIBN^ER & CO, 1871. illustrated library of Wonders. PUBLISHED BT , (parks 654 BROADWAY, NEW YOEK. Bach one volume 12mo. Price per volume, 11.50. Titles of Books. No. of Illustrations THUNDER AND LIOHTNINO, .... 39 WONDERS OP OPTICS, . 70 WONDERS OF HEAT, ..... 90 INTELLIGENCE OP ANIMALS, . 54 GBEAT HUNTS, ...... 22 EGTPT 3,300 YKARS AGO, . 40 WONDERS OP POMPEII, .... 28 THE SUN, BT A. GUILLEMIN, . 63 SUBLIME IN NATURE, ..... SO WONDERS OP GLASS-MAKING, . 63 WONDERS OP ITALIAN ART, .... 28 WONDERS OP THE HUMAN BODY, 46 WONDERS OP ARCHITECTURE, LIGHTHOUSES AND LIGHTSHIPS, 60 BOTTOM OP THE OCEAN, 68 WONDERS OP BODILY STRENGTH AND HKILL, 70 WONDERFUL BALLOON ASCENTS, 30 ACOUSTICS. ..... 114 WONDERS OP THE HEAVENS, . 48 THE MOON, BY A. GUILLKMIN, 60 WONDERS OP SCULPTURE .... 61 WONDERS OP ENGRAVING, 32 WONDERS OP VEGETATION, .... 45 WONDERS OP THE INVISIBLE WORLD, 97 CELEBRATED ESCAPES, .... 26 WATER, ...... 77 HYDRAULICS, .... 40 ELECTRICITY, ..... 71 SUBTERRANEAN WORLD, .... 27 * In Press for early Publication. The above works sent to any address, post-paid, upon receipt of the price 6j> the publishers. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L PAGB THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING 9 CHAPTER H. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. Engravers on Wood Nielli Copperplate Engraving at Florence, in the Northern Cities, at Milan, Parma, Bologna, and Rome 13 CHAPTER HI. ENGRAVING IN SPAIN. Giuseppe Ribera and Francesco Goya 83 CHAPTER IV. ENGRAVING IN THE Low COUNTRIES. Engravers on Wood in the loth Century Early Engravers on Metal Holland : Rem- brandt, Ruysdael, and Paul Potter Belgium : Rubens, Bols- wert, Paul Pontius, and Anthony Vandyck 88 CHAPTER V. ENGRAVING IN GKRMANY. Early Engravers on Wood Maximil- ian's Engravers Engraving on Metal The Master of 1466, Martin Schongauer and Albert Diirer 143 CHAPTER VI. ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND. Engraving on Wood W. Caxton The Influence of Foreign Masters on English Art Its Originality in the Eighteenth Century, and its Influence on our Age 186 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. PACE ENGRAVING IN FRANCE. Engravers on Wood Engravers on Metal The School of Fontainebleau Portrait-painters Nicolas Poussin and Jean Pesne Charles Lebrun and Gerard Audran The School of Watteau Vignette Engravers The School of David 210 CHAPTER VIII. PROCESSES. Engraving on Wood, Camai'eu Copperplate Engrav- ing Line-Engraving, Etching, Dry Point, Combination of Etching and Line-Engraving, Mezzotint, Aquatint, Chalk style, Engraving in Color, Physionotracy, Heliography or Photog- raphy Printing 309 INDEX OF EXGRAVKRS' NAMES .331 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE SAINT SEBASTIAN Niello 19 SIBYL AGRIPPINA Botticelli 25 VIRGIN AND CHILD Mantegna 34 A YOUTH Campagnola 41 LUCRETIA Raimondi 63 A POET Ribera 82 THE CONDEMNED Goya 85 THE UYLENSPIEGEL L. van Leydcn 9ti A LANDSCAPE Rembrandt 103 Two Cows Paul Potter. 109 A CORNFIELD Ruysdael 113 COSTUME Goltzius 119 SMNT CATHERINE Rnbenx 129 PORTRA IT OF SNYDERS Vundyck 137 DANCE OF DEATH (after Holbein) H. Lutzelburger 161 SAMSON AND THE LION Master of 1466 153 THE INFANT JESUS M. Schongauer 159 VIRGIN AND INFANT JESUS Albert Diirer 167 GERMAN COSTUME Aldegrever 175 A LADY OF BALE W. Hollar 1 80 PORTRAIT OF R. BAYFIELD W. Faithorne 191 MARRIAGE A LA MODE W. Hogarth 205 HENRI II Geoffroy Tory 217 HEAD OF CHRIST Claude Mellan 241 CLAUDE DERUET Jacques Callot 249 8 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE SUNRISE Claude Lorraine 253 TIME DISCLOSING TRUTH G. Aitdran, after Nico- las Poussiii 261 ARABESQUE ORNAMENT J. Lepautre 281 A COSTUME A. Watteau 285 STUDIO or A COPPERPLATE ENGRAVER. .Abraham Souse 313 THE MOUNTEBANK Rembrandt 317 VANITY J. Callot 318 A PORTRAIT Prince Rupert 320 COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING A. JBosse 328 THE WONDERS OF ENGRAYING. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING. BEFORE reviewing the various schools of Engrav- ing, and studying the growth of this art in each sepa- rate country, it seems expedient to us to recapitulate in a few words, the very diverse and often contradic- tory opinions put forth concerning its origin. By doing this, we shall avoid unnecessary repetition, and, without occupying ourselves unduly with the purely archaeological question, we can ascertain the charac- teristics of each school, examine the works worthy of attention executed in each country, and enumerate the artists whom future generations will remember and judge. We must not forget to say that we in- tend to occupy oui-selves solely with that kind of En- from which are taken graving impressions ; and, pur- posely neglecting ancient engraving, we commence our work only at the period when. Printing having 10 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING. been discovered, Engraving became a iiew art and produced important results. Let us bear in mind, to begin with, that there are two processes, very different in their execution, al- though similar enough in their results engraving on metal and on wood in the all that is engraving ; first, to be impressed on the paper is cut in sunken lines on the metal the second involves work of a diametri- ; kind all that is to in the cally opposite ; appear proof must be raised on the wood, and the graver must carefully remove all those parts which the printer's press is not to touch. Whole volumes might be written if we wished to discuss or even to review the opinions put forth by scholars on the origin of engraving. Every country has taken part in the discussion, and eminent men on all sides have become the champions, each of his own country. National pride has often interfered in the dispute, and it would have run the risk of becoming bitter had it descended to the arena of personalities instead of remaining in the hands of earnest workers. The French have the greater facility for discussing the various opinions on this matter, inasmuch as they have no claim to be considered its inventors. France has indeed put forth some pretensions on this matter, and has been willing to consider one Bernard Milnet (an artist whose very name is more than problemati- the most ancient after a careful cal) engraver ; but, this is investigation, opinion now abandoned by all, even by those who first adopted it. THE ORIGIN OF ENGRAVING. 11 It is not the same with our neighbors : for a long " " time the St. Christopher of 1423 was thought the most ancient known example of engraving. But late- ly a discovery by the Baron of Reitfenberg, overthrew this and the of which he opinion ; engraving 1418, obtained for the Museum of Brussels (the date of which appears to us incontestable), transported the real period of the invention five years backward. In our day, thanks to two plates printed on the leaves of a manuscript which M. Henri Delaborde has de- * scribed and commented on with remarkable clear- ness, we know, that in 1406, the art of wood-engrav- ing must have existed and the printing-press been brought into use. The history of copper-plate engraving, properly so called, has passed through the same vicissitudes. Before the Abbe Zani found in one of the collections " of prints in Paris, a proof of the Pax of Florence," executed in 1452 by Maso Finiguerra as shown by the official registers German scholars looked upon Martin Schongauer as the true inventor of copper- plate engraving; quoting in testimony some impres- sions executed, according to them, about 1460. From this period, already far removed from us (as the Abbe Zani's discovery took place only at the end of the eighteenth century), investigators have not been dis- couraged, and their efforts have been crowned with " " success. Passavant, in the Archives de Naumann * " Gazette des Beaux-arts," March, 1869. 12 WONDEHS OF ENGRAVING. (4-e Annee, 1858, p. 1), has carefully described a figure of the Virgin, bearing date 1451. Renouvier, in a very learned pamphlet, has revealed the existence of " a series of prints of the Passion," executed in 1446. Persevering efforts in this direction might, without doubt, lead to some new discovery. Some day or other, we doubt not, Germany or Flanders will be the inventor of and proclaimed printed engravings ; that the archives of history, examined with great care, and turned over in every possible way, will furnish a document before which every ambition must succumb. But we should be much surprised if all these patient researches led to any thing more than the knowledge of a mere fact and we shall be much mistaken if ; any art-object worthy of the name can be cited to contradict our theory, that it was in 1452, in Italy, at Florence, that the first really important specimen of the art of an event brilliant engraving appeared ; enough to be in itself alone an historical landmark. CHAPTER II. ENGRAVING IN ITALY. Engravers on Wood Nielli Copperplate Engraving at Florence, in the Northern Cities, at Milan, Parma, Bologna, and Rome. THE history of engraving in Italy follows that of were also painting tolerably closely ; many painters engravers, and those who did not themselves take the trouble of engraving upon metal or wood, were suffi- ciently greedy of fame to gather around them en- gravers who multiplied the works they produced under their supervision. Wood-engraving did not in Italy, as in other coun- tries, precede engraving on metal. It appeared at the same time. It is in printed books that we must look for the first instances of this useful art, which, when combined with the text, is peculiarly well suit- ed to bring the author's thought visibly before the eyes, whilst the words explain it to the mind. In Italy, wood-engraving was slower in acquiring real importance than in other countries. Although from the first half of the fifteenth century, we find 14 WONDERS OF ENGRAVING.