DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31843#0023
I
THE LINE-ENGRAVINGS
The art of line-engraving, in Blakejs time as now, was
associated with laborious imitation in black and white o p §
made. Diirer's masterpieces on copper were known and admired b^
no one since the sixteenth century had thought of Z reoroductive
as an instrument of original design. Even now, w en though
uses of line-engraving have been killed by photograp 1C has^been all
there is a vigorous revival of engraving on wood, t e C0PP «< high
but neglected. Yet what a beautiful medium this is ! No*^hat
finishing " is neither expected nor desired, it is ra e P
more artists do not explore its possibilities. hpvinnings
For those whose lot it has been to study m detad
of this art, it will always be an enchanting memo y in2enuous
when the fresh pages of the primitive masters isc ose charming
efforts, their growing confidence, their first e ici ie . even
playing-cards and ornamental designs of the ear y cima . fanciful
more Ihan their Biblical prints and Saints, match the pby of fancitul
invention with the liveliest grace of printed line. n . ^ guc^
Schongauer, adorable artist, whose graver cuts t e c P brilliance,
force and sweetness that it yields impressions o as on which is
yet retains a kind of virginal aspect in the forms o e . of
soon to be lost in the massive power and overmastering fJurn
Diirer. For Diirer, greatest of all original line-engravers, ,ecessors
to the simpler vision and less complex met o s o jn
impossible. After him, it was almost inevitable a
rivalling the effects of painting, should become whose
In Italy a parallel transformation was produced y followers,
later prints are all renderings of the designs of Rap ae an art ^
and who led the way to the complete subservience o t e a
painter and draughtsman. The imaginative mvenUons thought out
directly on the copper, the decorative fancies of those mi ghtful
craftsmen of Flore^nce and Northern Italy who have left such^ dehghtful
—though alas ! so excessively rare—records of their. esigns » nlates ♦
energy with which Mantegna engraved his thoughts m a ew ancj
the delicate originality of a Giulio Campagnola; these were go ,
none cared to emulate them. and
The current was turned to reproduction ; for masters 1 e >
3
THE LINE-ENGRAVINGS
The art of line-engraving, in Blakejs time as now, was
associated with laborious imitation in black and white o p §
made. Diirer's masterpieces on copper were known and admired b^
no one since the sixteenth century had thought of Z reoroductive
as an instrument of original design. Even now, w en though
uses of line-engraving have been killed by photograp 1C has^been all
there is a vigorous revival of engraving on wood, t e C0PP «< high
but neglected. Yet what a beautiful medium this is ! No*^hat
finishing " is neither expected nor desired, it is ra e P
more artists do not explore its possibilities. hpvinnings
For those whose lot it has been to study m detad
of this art, it will always be an enchanting memo y in2enuous
when the fresh pages of the primitive masters isc ose charming
efforts, their growing confidence, their first e ici ie . even
playing-cards and ornamental designs of the ear y cima . fanciful
more Ihan their Biblical prints and Saints, match the pby of fancitul
invention with the liveliest grace of printed line. n . ^ guc^
Schongauer, adorable artist, whose graver cuts t e c P brilliance,
force and sweetness that it yields impressions o as on which is
yet retains a kind of virginal aspect in the forms o e . of
soon to be lost in the massive power and overmastering fJurn
Diirer. For Diirer, greatest of all original line-engravers, ,ecessors
to the simpler vision and less complex met o s o jn
impossible. After him, it was almost inevitable a
rivalling the effects of painting, should become whose
In Italy a parallel transformation was produced y followers,
later prints are all renderings of the designs of Rap ae an art ^
and who led the way to the complete subservience o t e a
painter and draughtsman. The imaginative mvenUons thought out
directly on the copper, the decorative fancies of those mi ghtful
craftsmen of Flore^nce and Northern Italy who have left such^ dehghtful
—though alas ! so excessively rare—records of their. esigns » nlates ♦
energy with which Mantegna engraved his thoughts m a ew ancj
the delicate originality of a Giulio Campagnola; these were go ,
none cared to emulate them. and
The current was turned to reproduction ; for masters 1 e >
3