Part IV

that of the cuts undoubtedly ill-signed by him, that any person in the least acquainted with works of art will, even on a cursory examination, perceive the strongly marked difference. The following cut is a reduced copy of that numbered 57 ; and which is the first of those representing horsemen bearing the banners of the several kingdoms, states, and cities subject to the house of Austria or to which Maximilian laid claim. It is one of the most gorgeous of the series ; but, from the manner in which the horses and their riders are represented, I feel convinced that it has not been drawn by Burgmair. The subject is thus described in the emperor's directions prefixed to the volume : " One on horseback bearing the banner of the arms of Austria ; another on horseback bearing the old Austrian arms ; another also on horseback bearing the arms of Stiria." On the parts which are left black in the banners it had been intended to insert inscriptions. The instruc- tions to the painter for this part of the procession are to the following effect : " One on horseback bearing on a lance a rhyme-tablet Then the arms of the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria on banners, with their shields, helms, and crests, borne by horsemen ; and the Those three are the numbers 77, 78, 79, representing musicians on horseback. The same person who drew the standard-bearers has evidently drawn those three cute also. IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 301 banners of those countries in which the emperor has carried on war shall be borne by riders in armour ; and the painter shall vary the armour according to the old manner. The banners of those countries in which No. 57. Apparently nut drawn hy Burgmair. the emperor has not carried on war shall be borne by horsemen without armour, but all splendidly clothed, each according to the costume of the country he represents. Every one shall wear a laurel wreath." The cut on the next page is copied from that numbered 107, but which accords with the description of No. 122. The subject is described by the emperor as follows: "Then shall come riding a man of Calicut, naked, except his loins covered with a girdle, bearing a rhyme-tablet, on which shall be inscribed tlic.se words, ' These people are the subjects of the famous crowns and houses heretofore named.'" In this cut the mark of Burgmair is perceived on the harness on the breast of the elephant. There are two other cuts of Indians belonging to the same part of the procession, each of which also contains Burgmair's mark. The cuts which were to follow the Indians and close the procession were the baggage-waggons and camp-followers of the army. Of those there are five cuts in the work published in 1796, and it is evident that some are wanting, for the two which may be considered as the 302 WOOD ENUKAVINO first and last of those five, respectively require a preceding and a following cut to render them complete ; and there are also one or two cuts wanting to complete the intermediate subjects. Those cuts are referred to in the French description under Nos. 125 to 129, but they are numbered 129, 128, 110, 111, 125. The last three, as parts of a large subject, follow each other as the numbers are here placed; and though the right side of No. 110 accords with the left of No. 128, inasmuch as they each contain the half of a tree which appears complete when they are joined together, yet there are no horses in No. 128 to NIL 107. With Burgiuair's mark. **^.-- . . .. . draw the waggon which is seen in No. 110. The order of Nos. 110, 111, and 125, is easily ascertained ; a horse at the left of No. 110 wants a tail which is to be found in No. Ill; and the outline of a mountain in the left of No. Ill is continued in the right of No. 125. From the back -grounds, trees, and figures in those cuts I am very much inclined to think that they have been engraved from designs by Albert Durer, if he did not actually draw them on the block himself. There is no mark to be found on any of them ; and they are extremely unlike any cuts which are undoubtedly of Burgmair's designing, and they are IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DUKKK. 303 decidedly superior to any that are usually ascribed to Hans Schaufflein. The following, which is a reduced copy of that numbered 110, will perhaps afford some idea of those cuts, and enable persons who are acquainted with Durer's works to judge for themselves with respect to the probability of their having been engraved from his designs. One or two of the other four contain still more striking resemblances of Durer's style. Besides the twelve cuts which, in the French preface to the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian, are said not to correspond witli J No. 110. Probalily drawn by Albert Durer. the original drawings, there are also six others which the editor says are not to be found in the original designs, and which he considers to have been additions made to the work while it was in the course of engraving. Those six cuts are described in an appendix, where their numbers are said to be from 130 to 135. In No. 130 the principal figures are a king and queen, on horseback, supposed to be intended for Philip the Fair, son of the Emperor Maximilian, and his wife Joanna of Castile. This cut is very indifferently executed, and has evidently been designed by the artist who made the drawings for the 804 WOOD ENGRAV1NO questiouable cuts containing the complicated locomotive carriages, men- tioned at page 290. No. 131, a princess on horseback, accompanied by two female attendants also on horseback, and guards on foot, has evidently been designed by the same artist as No. 130. These two, I am inclined to think, belong to some other work. Nos. 132, 133, and 134, are from the designs of Hans Burgmair, whose mark is to be found on each ; and there can be little doubt of their having been intended for Maximilian's Triumphal Procession. They form one continuous subject, which represents twelve men, habited in various costume, leading the same A number of horses splendidly caparisoned. figure on horseback bearing a rhvme-tnblet leads this part of the procession ; and above the horses are large scrolls probably intended to contain their names, with those of the countries to which they belong. The cut on the opposite page is a reduced copy of the last, numbered 135, which is thus described in the appendix: "The fore part of a triumphal car, drawn by tour horses yoked abreast, and managed by a winged female tigure who holds in her left hand a wreath of laurel." There is no mark on the original cut ; but from the manner in which the horses are drawn it seems like one of Burgmair's designing. That the cuts of the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian were engraved by diU'erent persons is certain from the names at their backs ; and I think the difference that is to be perceived in the style of drawing renders it in the highest degree probable that the subjects were designed, or at least drawn on the wood, by different artists. I am inclined to think that Burgmair drew very few besides those that contain his mark ; the cuts of the banner-bearers 1 am persuaded are not of his drawing; a third artist, of inferior talent, seems to have made the drawings of the fanciful cars containing the emperor and his family ; and the five cuts of the baggage-waggons and cam]) followers, appear, as I have already said, extremely like the designs of Albert Durer. The best engraved cuts are to be found among those which contain Burgmair's mark. Some of the banner-bearers are also very ably executed, though not in so free or bold a manner : which 1 conceive to be owing to the more laboured style in which the subject has been drawn on the block. The mechanical subjects, with their accompanying figures, are the worst engraved as well as the worst drawn of the whole. The five cuts which I suppose to have been designed by Albert Durer are engraved with great spirit, but not so well as the best of those which contain the mark of Burgmair. Though there are still in existence upwards of a hundred of the original blocks designed by Albert Durer, and upwards of three hundred designed by the most eminent of his contemporaries, yet a person who professes to lie an instructor of the public on subjects of art made the following statement before the Select Committee of the House of IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 305 Commons on Arts and their Connexion with Manufactures, appointed in 1835. He is asked, " Do you consider that the progress of the arts in this country is impeded by the want of protection for new inventions of importance?" and he proceeds to enlighten the committee as follows. " Very much impeded. Inventions connected with the arts of design, of new instruments, or new processes, for example, are, from the ease with which they can be pirated, more difficult of protection than any other inventions whatever. Such protection as the existing laws afford is quite inadequate. I cannot better illustrate my meaning, than by mentioning the case of engraving in metallic relief, an art which is supposed to have existed three or four centuries ago ; and the re- discovery of which has long been a desideratum among artists. Albert Durer, who was both a painter and engraver, cfitainly possessed thin art No. 135. Apparently designed liy Hnrgmair. that is to say, the art of transferring his designs, after they had been sketched on paper, immediately into metallic relief, so that they might be printed along with letter-press. At present, the only sort of engravings you can print along with letter-press are wood engravings, or stereotype casts from wood engravings ; and then those engravings are but copies, and often very rude copies, of their originals ; while, in the case of Albert Durer, it is QUITE CLEAR that it was his own identical designs Wood that were transferred into the metallic relief. engravings, too, are limited in point of size, because they can only be executed on box-u-ood, the width of which is very small ; in fact, we have no wood engravings on a single block of a larger size than octavo : when the engraving is larger, two or three blocks are joined together ; but this is attended with so much difficulty and inconvenience, that it is seldom done. From the x 306 WOOD ENGRAVING specimens of metallic relief engraving, left us by Albert Durer, there is every reason to infer that he was under no such limitation ; that he could produce plates of any size." This statement abounds in errors, and may justify a suspicion that the person who made it had never seen the cuts designed by Albert Durer which he pretends were executed in " metallic relief." At the commencement he says that the art of engraving in metallic relief is supposed to have existed three or four centuries ago ; and immediately afterwards he asserts that Albert Durer "certainly possessed tlii.s art;" as if by his mere word he could convert a groundless fiction into a positive fact. When he made this confident assertion he seems not to have been aware that many of the original prar-tive blocks of the cuts pretendedly executed in metallic relief are .-~t.il! in existence ; and when, .speaking of the difficulty of getting blocks of a larger size than an octavo, he says, "From the specimens of metallic relief engraving, left us by Albert Durer, there is every reason to infer that he was under no such limitation, that he could produce plates of any sixe," he affords a positive proof that he knows nothing of the subject on which he has spoken so confidently. Had he ever examined the large cuts engraved from 1 hirer's designs, he would have seen, in several, undeniable marks of the junction of the blocks, proving directly the reverse of what he asserts on this point. What he says with respect to the modern practice of the art is as incorrect as his assertions about Albert Durer's engraving in metallic relief. Though it is true that there are few modern engravings on box-wood of a larger size than octavo, it is nut true that the forming of a large block of two or more pieces is attended with much difficulty, and is seldom done. The making of such l>lucks is now a regular trade ; they are formed without the least difficulty, and hundreds of cuts on such blocks are engraved in London every year.t When he says that wood engravings "can only be made ' in 1 box-wood, he gives another proof of his ignorance of the subject. Mo-t of the earlier wood engravings were executed on blocks of pear- tree or crab ; and even at the present time box-wood is seldom used for the large cuts on posting-bills. In short, every statement that this pei-son has made on the subject of wood and pretended metallic relief engraving is incorrect ; and it is rather surprising that none of the Minutes of Evidence before the Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures, p. 130. Ordered to be printed, 16th August 1836. t Among the principal modern wood-cuts engraved on blocks consisting of several pieces the following may be mentioned : The Chillingham Bull, by Thomas Bewick, 1789 ; A view of St Nicholas' Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, by Charlton Nesbit, from a drawing by B. Johnson, 1798 ; The Diploma of the Highland Society, by Luke Clennell, from a design by B. West, P.R.A. 1808 ; The Death of Dentatus, by William Harvey, from a painting by B. B. Haydon, 1821 ; and The Old Horse waiting for Death, left unfinished, by T. Bewick, and published in 1832. IN THE TIME Of ALBERT DUKER. 307 members of the committee should have exposed his ignorance. When such persons put themselves forward as the instructors of mechanics on the subject of art, it cannot be a matter of surprise that in the arts as applied to manufactures we should be inferior to our continental neigh- bours. The art of imitating drawings called chiaro-scuro by means of impressions from two or more blocks, was cultivated with great success in Italy by Ugo da Carpi about 1518. The invention of this art, as has been previously remarked, is ascribed to him by some writers, but without any sufficient grounds ; for not even the slightest evidence has been produced by them to show that he, or any other Italian artist, had executed a single cut in this manner previous to 1509, the date of a chiaro-scuro wood engraving from a design by Lucas Cranach. Though it is highly probable that Ugo da Carpi was not the inventor of this art, it is certain that he greatly improved it. The chiaro-scuros executed by him are not only superior to those of the German artists, who most likely preceded him in this department of wood engraving, but to the present time they remain unsurpassed. In the present clay Mr. George ISaxter has attempted to extend the boundaries of this art by calling in the aid of aquatint for his outlines and first ground, and by copying the positive colours of an oil or water-colour painting. Most of Ugo da Carpi's chiaro-scuros are from Raffaele's designs, and it is said that the great painter himself drew some of the subjects on the blocks. Independent of the excellence of the designs, the characteristics of L>a Carpi's chiaro- scuros are their effect and the simplicity of their execution ; for all of them, except one or two, appear to have been produced from not more than three blocks. The following may be mentioned as the principal of A Da Carpi's works in this style. Sibyl reading with a boy holding a torch, from two blocks, said by Vasari to be the artist's first attempt in this style ; Jacob's Dream ; David cutting off the head of Goliah ; the Death of Ananias ; Giving the Keys to Peter ; the miraculous Draught of Fishes the Descent from the Cross the Eesurrection and ^Eueas ; ; ; carrying away his father Anchises on his shoulders from the fire of * Troy ; all the preceding from the designs of Kafiaele. Among the subjects designed by other masters are St. Peter preaching, after Polidoro ; and Diogenes showing the plucked cock in ridicule of Plato's definition of man, " a two-legged animal without feathers," after Par- * At the foot of this cut, to the right, after the name of the designer, " RAPHAEL UBBINAS," is the following privilege, granted by Pope Leo X. and the Doge of Venice, prohibiting all persons from pirating the work. " QUISQ.CIS HAS TABELLAS INVITO AUTORE Dm IHPRIMET EX LEONIS X. ET ILL PRINCIPIS VENETIABUM DECRETIS EXCOMI- NICATIONIS SENTENTIAM ET ALIAS PENAS INCURBET." Below this inscription is the engraver's name with the date : " Romae apud Ugum de Carpi impressum. MDXVIII." x2 308 WOOD ENGRAVING megiano. The latter, which is remarkably bold and spirited, is from four blocks ; and Vasari says that it is the best of all Da Carpi's chiaro- scuros. Many of Da Carpi's productions in this style were copied by Andrea Andreani of Milan, about 1580. That of ^Eneas carrying his father on his shoulders was copied by Fxiward Kirkall, an English engraver in 1722. KirkaU's copy is not entirely from wood-blocks, like the original ; the outlines and the greater part of the shadows are from a copper-plate engraved in mezzotint, in a manner similar to that which has more recently been adopted by Mr. Baxter in his picture-printing. Lucas Dammetz, generally called Lucas van Leyden, from the place of his birth, was an excellent engraver on copper, and in this branch of urt more nearly approached Durer than any other of his German or Flemish contemporaries. He is said to have been born at Leyden in 1-tOG ; and, if this date be correct, he at a very early age gave decided proofs of his talents as an engraver on copper. One of his earliest prints, the monk Sergius killed by Mahomet, is dated 1508, when he was only fourteen years of age ; and at the age of twelve he is said to have painted, in distemper, a picture of St. Hubert which excited the admiration of all the artists of the time. Of his numerous copper-plate engravings there are no less than twenty-one which, though they contain no date, are supposed to have been executed previously to 1 .508. As several of those plates are of very considerable merit, it would appear that Luccis while yet a boy excelled, as a copper-plate engraver, most of his German and Dutch contemporaries. From 1508 to 1533, the year of his death, he appears to have engraved not less than two hundred copper-plates ; and, as if these were not sufficient to occupy his time, he in the same period painted several pictures, some of which were of large size. He is also said to have excelled as a painter on glass ; and like Durer, Cranach, and Hurgmair, he is ranked among the wood engravers of that period. The wood-cuts which contain the mark of Lucas van Leyden, or which are usually ascribed to him, are not numerous ; and, even admitting them to have been engraved by himself, the fact would contribute but little to his fame, for I have not seen one which might not have been executed by a professional " formschneider " of very moderate abilities. The total of the wood-cuts supposed to have been engraved by him does not exceed twenty. The following is a reduced copy of a wood-cut ascribed to Lucas van Leyden, in the Print Boom of the British Museum, but which is not in Bartsch's Catalogue, nor in the list of Lucas van Leyden's engravings in Meusel's Neue Miscellaneen. Though I very much question if the original cut were engraved by Lucas himself, I have no doubt of its being from his design. It represents the death of Sisera ; and, with a noble contempt of the unity of time, Jael is seen giving Sisera a drink of milk, driving the nail into his head, and IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 309 then showing the body, with herself in the act of driving the nail, to Barak and his followers : the absurdity of this threefold action has perhaps never been surpassed in any cut ancient or modern. Sir Boyle Roach said that it was impossible for any person, except a bird or a fish, to be in two places at once ; but here we have a pictorial representation of a female being in no less than three ; and in one of the localities actually pointing out to certain persons how she was then employed in another. Heineken, in his account of engravers of the Flemish school, has either committed an egregious mistake, or expressed himself with intentional ambiguity with respect to a wood-cut printed at Antwerp, 1 and which he saw in the collections of the Abbe de Marolles. His notice of this cut is as follows : " I found in the collections of the Abbe" de Marolles, in the cabinet of the King of France, a detached 310 WOOD ENGRAVING piece, which, in my opinion, is the most ancient of the wood engravings executed in the Low Countries which bear the name of the artist. This cut is marked, Gheprint t'Anttoerpen by my Phittery de. figursnider Printed at Antwerp, by me Phillery, the engraver of figures. It serves as a proof that the engravers of moulds were, at Antwerp, in that ancient time, also printers." In this vague and ambiguous account, the writer gives us no idea of the period to which he refers in the words "cet ancien terns." If he means the period Countries, the time between the pretended invention of Coster, and when typography was probably first practised in the Low that is, from about 1430 to 1472, he is wrong, and his statement would afford ground for a presumption that lie had either examined the cut very carelessly, or that he was so superficially acquainted with the progressive improvement of the art of wood engraving as to mistake a cut abounding in cross-hatching, and cer- tainly executed subsequent to loS-t, for one that had been executed about seventy years previously, when cross-hatching was never attempted, anil when the costume was as different from that of the figures represented in the cut as the costume of Vandyke's portraits is dissimilar to Hogarth's. The words "grarcurs dc mottle? I have translated literally "engravers of moulds," for I cannot conceive what else Ileinekeii can mean ; but this expression is scarcely warranted by the word " fyucrsnider" on (lie cut, which is almost the same as the (iennaii " formschncider ;" and whatever might be the original meaning of the word, it was certainly used to express merely a wood engraver. Compilers of Histories of Art, and Dictionaries of Painters and Engravers, who usually follow their leader, even in his slips, as regularly as a flock of sheep follow the bell-wether through a gap, have disseminated Heineken's mistake, and the antiquity of " Phillery s" wood-engraving is about as firmly established as Lawrence Coster's