CHAPTER V.

WOOD ENGRAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

Chiaro-Scuro Engraving on Wood -- A Copper-Plate by Mair Mistaken for the First Chiaro-Scuro -- Dotted Backgrounds in Old Wood-Cuts -- Albert Durer Probably Not a Wood-Engraver -- His Birth -- A Pupil of Michael Wolgemuth -- His Travels -- Cuts of the Apocalypse Designed by Him -- His Visit to Venice in 1506 -- The History of the Virgin and Christ’s Passion Engraved on Wood from his Designs -- His Triumphal Car and Triumphal Arch of the Emperor Maximilian -- His Invention of Etching -- His Carving -- Visit to the Netherlands -- His Death -- Wood-Cuts Designed by L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, and H. Schæfflein -- The Adventures of Sir Theurdank -- The Wise King -- The Triumphs of Maximilian -- Ugo Da Carpi -- Lucas Van Leyden -- William De Figuersnider -- Ursgraff -- Cuts Designed by Unknown Artists Between 1500 and 1528.

Most authors who have written on the history of engraving have incidentally noticed the art of chiaro-scuro engraving on wood, which began to be practised early in the sixteenth century.[V-1] The honour of the invention has been claimed for Italy by Vasari and other Italian writers, who seem to think that no improvement in the arts of design and engraving can originate on this side of the Alps. According to their account, chiaro-scuro engraving on wood was first introduced by Ugo da Carpi, who executed several pieces in that manner from the designs of Raffaele. But, though confident in their assertions, they are weak in their proofs; for they can produce no chiaro-scuros by Ugo da Carpi, or by any other Italian engraver, of an earlier date than 1518. The engravings of Italian artists in this style are not numerous, previous to 1530, and we can scarcely suppose that the earliest of them was executed before 1515. That the art was known and practised in Germany several years before this period there can be no doubt; for a chiaro-scuro wood engraving, a Repose in Egypt, by Lucas Cranach, is dated 1509; two others by Hans Baldung Grün are dated 1509 and 1510; and a portrait, in the same style, by Hans Burgmair, is dated 1512.

[Footnote V-1: Chiaro-scuros are executed by means of two or more blocks, in imitation of a drawing in sepia, India ink, or any other colour of two or more shades. The older chiaro-scuros are seldom executed with more than three blocks; on the first of which the general outline of the subject and the stronger shades were engraved and printed in the usual manner; from the second the lighter shades were communicated; and from the third a general tint was printed over the impressions of the other two.]

Some German writers, not satisfied with these proofs of the art being practised in Germany before it was known in Italy, refer to an engraving, dated 1499, by a German artist of the name of Mair, as one of the earliest executed in this manner. This engraving, which is from a copper-plate, cannot fairly be produced as evidence on the point in dispute; for though it bears the appearance of a chiaro-scuro engraving, yet it is not so in reality; for on a narrow inspection we may perceive that the light touches have neither been preserved, nor afterwards communicated by means of a block or a plate, but have been added with a fine pencil after the impression was taken. It is, in fact, nothing more than a copper-plate printed on dark-coloured paper, and afterwards heightened with a kind of white and yellow body-colour. It is very likely, however, that the subject was engraved and printed on a dark ground with the express intention of the lights being subsequently added by means of a pencil. The artist had questionless wished to produce an imitation of a chiaro-scuro drawing; but he certainly did not effect his purpose in the same manner as L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, or Ugo da Carpi, whose chiaro-scuro engravings had the lights preserved, and required no subsequent touching with the pencil to give to them that character.

The subject of this engraving is the Nativity, and there is an impression of it in the Print Room of the British Museum.[V-2] In the foreground, about the middle of the print, is the Virgin seated with the infant Jesus in her lap. At her feet is a cradle of wicker-work, and to the left is an angel kneeling in adoration. On the same side, but further distant, is Joseph leaning over a half door, holding a candle in one hand and shading it with the other. In the background is the stable, in which an ox and an ass are seen; and the directing star appears shining in the sky. The print is eight inches high, and five inches and three-eighths wide; at the top is the date 1499, and at the bottom the engraver’s name, MAIR. It is printed in black ink on paper which previous to receiving the impression had been tinted or stained a brownish-green colour. The lights have neither been preserved in the plate nor communicated by means of a second impression, but have been laid on by the hand with a fine pencil. The rays of the star, and the circles of light surrounding the head of the Virgin, and also that of the infant, are of a pale yellow, and the colour from its chalky appearance seems very like the touches of a crayon. The lights in the draperies and in the architectural parts of the subject have been laid on with a fine pencil guided by a steady hand. That the engraver intended his work to be finished in this manner there can be little doubt; and the impression referred to affords a proof of it; for Joseph’s candle, though he shades it with his left hand, in reality gives no light. The engraver had evidently intended that the light should be added in positive body colour; but the person--perhaps the engraver himself--whose business it was to add the finishing touches to the impression, has neglected to light Joseph’s candle.[V-3]

[Footnote V-2: This print is one of the valuable collection left to the Museum by the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, and the following remark in that gentleman’s writing is inserted on the opposite page of the folio in which it is preserved: “The Presepe is a plain proof that printing in chiaro-scuro was known before the time of Ugo da Carpi, who is erroneously reputed the inventor of this art at the beginning of the sixteenth century.” The print in question is certainly not a proof of the art of engraving in chiaro-scuro; and Mr. Ottley has added the following correction in pencil: “But the white here is put on with a pencil, and not left in printing, as it would have been if the tint had been added by a wooden block after the copper-plate had been printed.”]

[Footnote V-3: Bartsch describes this print in his Peintre-Graveur, tom. vi. p. 364, No. 4; but he takes no notice of Joseph holding a candle, nor of its wanting a light.]

Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century,[V-4] a practice was introduced by the German wood engravers of dotting the dark parts of their subjects with white, more especially in cuts where the figures were intended to appear light upon a dark ground; and about the beginning of the sixteenth, this mode of “killing the black,” as it is technically termed, was very generally prevalent among the French wood engravers, who, as well as the Germans and Dutch, continued to practise it till about 1520, when it was almost wholly superseded by cross-hatching; a mode of producing shade which had been much practised by the German engravers who worked from the drawings of Durer, Cranach, and Burgmair, and which about that time seems to have been generally adopted in all countries where the art had made any progress. The two following cuts, which are from an edition of “Heures à l’Usaige de Chartres,” printed at Paris by Simon Vostre, about 1502, are examples of this mode of diminishing the effects of a ground which would otherwise be entirely black. Books printed in France between 1500 and 1520 afford the most numerous instances of dark backgrounds dotted with white. In many cuts executed about the latter period the dots are of larger size and more numerous in proportion to the black, and they evidently have been produced by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, in imitation of cross-hatching.

[Footnote V-4: Some single cuts executed in this manner are supposed to be at least as old as the year 1450. The earliest that I have noticed in a book occur in a Life of Christ printed at Cologne about 1485.]

The greatest promoter of the art of wood engraving, towards the close of the fifteenth and in the early part of the sixteenth century, was unquestionably Albert Durer; not however, as is generally supposed, from having himself engraved the numerous wood-cuts which bear his mark, but from his having thought so well of the art as to have most of his greatest works engraved on wood from drawings made on the block by himself. Until within the last thirty years, most writers who have written on the subject of art, have spoken of Albert Durer as a wood engraver; and before proceeding to give any account of his life, or specimens of some of the principal wood engravings which bear his mark, it appears necessary to examine the grounds of this opinion.

There are about two hundred subjects engraved on wood which are marked with the initials of Albert Durer’s name; and the greater part of them, though evidently designed by the hand of a master, are engraved in a manner which certainly denotes no very great excellence. Of the remainder, which are better engraved, it would be difficult to point out one which displays execution so decidedly superior as to enable any person to say positively that it must have been cut by Albert Durer himself. The earliest engravings on wood with Durer’s mark are sixteen cuts illustrative of the Apocalypse, first published in 1498; and between that period and 1528, the year of his death, it is likely that nearly all the others were executed. The cuts of the Apocalypse generally are much superior to all wood engravings that had previously appeared, both in design and execution; but if they be carefully examined by any person conversant with the practice of the art, it will be perceived that their superiority is not owing to any delicacy in the lines which would render them difficult to engrave, but from the ability of the person by whom they were drawn, and from his knowledge of the capabilities of the art. Looking at the state of wood engraving at the period when those cuts were published, I cannot think that the artist who made the drawings would experience any difficulty in finding persons capable of engraving them. In most of the wood-cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer we find cross-hatching freely introduced; the readiest mode of producing effect to an artist drawing on wood with a pen or a black-lead pencil, but which to the wood engraver is attended with considerable labour. Had Albert Durer engraved his own designs, I am inclined to think that he would not have introduced cross-hatching so frequently, but would have endeavoured to attain his object by means which were easier of execution. What is termed “cross-hatching” in wood engraving is nothing more than black lines crossing each other, for the most part diagonally; and in _drawing_ on wood it is easier to produce a shade by this means, than by thickening the lines; but in _engraving_ on wood it is precisely the reverse; for it is easier to leave a thick line than to cut out the interstices of lines crossing each other. Nothing is more common than for persons who know little of the history of wood engraving, and still less of the practice, to refer to the frequent cross-hatching in the cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer as a proof of their excellence: as if the talent of the artist were chiefly displayed in such parts of the cuts as are in reality least worthy of him, and which a mere workman might execute as well. In opposition to this vulgar error I venture to assert, that there is not a wood engraver in London of the least repute who cannot produce _apprentices_ to cut fac-similes of any cross-hatching that is to be found, not only in the wood engravings supposed to have been executed by Albert Durer, but in those of any other master. The execution of cross-hatching requires time, but very little talent; and a moderately clever lad, with a steady hand and a lozenge-pointed tool, will cut in a year a _square yard_ of such cross-hatching as is generally found in the largest of the cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer. In the works of Bewick, scarcely more than one trifling instance of cross-hatching is to be found; and in the productions of all other modern wood engravers who have made their own drawings, we find cross-hatching sparingly introduced; while in almost every one of the cuts designed by Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and others who are known to have been painters of eminence in their day, it is of frequent occurrence. Had these masters engraved their own designs on wood, as has been very generally supposed, they probably would have introduced much less cross-hatching into their subjects; but as there is every reason to believe that they only made the drawing on the wood, the engravings which are ascribed to them abound in lines which are readily made with a pen or a pencil, but which require considerable time to cut with a graver.

At the period that Durer published his illustrations of the Apocalypse, few wood-cuts of much merit either in design or execution had appeared in printed books; and the wood engravers of that age seem generally to have been mere workmen, who only understood the mechanical branch of their art, but who were utterly devoid of all knowledge of composition or correct drawing; and there is also reason to believe that wood-cuts at that period, and even for some time after, were not unfrequently engraved by women.[V-5] As the names of those persons were probably not known beyond the town in which they resided, it cannot be a matter of surprise that neither their marks nor initials should be found on the cuts which they engraved from the drawings of such artists as Albert Durer.

[Footnote V-5: In a folio of Albert Durer’s drawings in the Print Room at the British Museum there is a portrait of “_Fronica, Formschneiderin_,” with the date 1525. In 1433 we find a woman at Nuremberg described as a card-maker: “_Eli. Kartenmacherin_.” It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that the earliest German wood engravers were card-makers.--See chapter II. p. 41.]

It perhaps may be objected, that as Albert Durer’s copper-plate engravings contain only his mark, in the same manner as the wood engravings, it might with equal reason be questioned if they were really executed by himself. Notwithstanding the identity of the marks, there is, however, a wide difference between the two cases. In the age of Albert Durer most of the artists who engraved on copper were also painters; and most of the copper-plate engravings which bear his mark are such as none but an artist of great talent could execute. It would require the abilities of a first-rate copper-plate engraver of the present day to produce a fac-simile of his best copper-plates; while a wood engraver of but moderate skill would be able to cut a fac-simile of one of his best wood engravings after the subject was drawn for him on the block. The best of Albert Durer’s copper-plates could only have been engraved by a master; while the best of his wood-cuts might be engraved by a working Formschneider who had acquired a practical knowledge of his art by engraving, under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and William Pleydenwurff, the wood-cuts for the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Von Murr, who was of opinion that Albert Durer engraved his own designs on wood, gives a letter of Durer’s in the ninth volume of his Journal which he thinks is decisive of the fact. The letter, which relates to a wood engraving of a shield of arms, was written in 1511, and is to the following effect: “Dear Michael Beheim, I return you the arms, and beg that you will let it remain as it is. No one will make it better, as I have done it according to art and with great care, as those who see it and understand the matter will tell you. If the labels were thrown back above the helmet, the volet would be covered.”[V-6] This letter, however, is by no means decisive, for it is impossible to determine whether the “arms” which the artist returned were a finished engraving or merely a drawing on wood.[V-7] From one or two expressions it seems most likely to have been a drawing only; for in a finished cut alterations cannot very well be introduced; and it seems most probable that Michael Beheim’s objections would be made to the drawing of the arms before they were engraved, and not to the finished cut. But even supposing it to have been the engraved block which Durer returned, this is by no means a proof of his having engraved it himself, for he might have engravers employed in his house in order that the designs which he drew on the blocks might be executed under his own superintendence. The Baron Derschau indeed told Dr. Dibdin that he was once in possession of the _journal_ or day-book of Albert Durer, from which “it appeared that he was in the habit of drawing upon the blocks, and that his men performed the remaining operation of cutting away the wood.”[V-8] This information, had it been communicated by a person whose veracity might be depended on, would be decisive of the question; but the book unfortunately “perished in the flames of a house in the neighbourhood of one of the battles fought between Bonaparte and the Prussians;” and from a little anecdote recorded by Dr. Dibdin the Baron appears to have been a person whose word was not to be implicitly relied on.[V-9]

[Footnote V-6: The following is Bartsch’s French version of this letter, which is given in the original German in Von Murr’s Journal, 9^er. Theil, S. 53. “Cher Michel Beheim. Je vous envoie les armoiries, en vous priant de les laisser comme elles sont. Personne d’ailleurs ne les corrigeroit en mieux, car je les ai faites exprès et avec art; c’est pourquoi ceux qui s’y connoissent et qui les verront vous en rendront bonne raison. Si l’on haussoit les lambrequins du heaume, ils couvriroient le volet.”--Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 27.]

[Footnote V-7: In Durer’s Journal of his visit to the Netherlands in 1520 there is the following passage: “Item hab dem von Rogendorff sein Wappen auf Holz gerissen, dafür hat er mir geschenckt vii. Ein Sammet.”--“Also I have drawn for Von Rogendorff his arms on wood, for which he has presented me with seven yards of velvet.”--Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 7^er. Theil, S. 76.]

[Footnote V-8: Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 442, second edition.]

[Footnote V-9: The Baron was the collector of the wood-cuts published with Becker’s explanations, referred to at page 226,