DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0185
160
Early German and Flemish Woodcuts.—Part I.
dots of uniform size regularly distributed, as soon as the use of a
punch became general. In the second group of prints, the use of
small irregular dots in very large numbers was continued, but the
background was filled in with some kind of ornament, instead of being
cut away. A good instance of tliis is Schr. 2498 ('see reproduction), in
whicli dots are once more used on the faces. This print is by the
engraver who used a shield with two clubs saltire as his mark. Three
other prints similarly signed (Schr. 2191, 2341, 2596) also have their
backgrounds filled in, but the fifth, the Duel of Man and Wife (Schr.
2763) in the British Museum, has all the background at the top cut
away in the primitive manner, a circumstance which testifies to the
early date of this engraver, wliose activity may be assigned to tlie
years 1460-1470. It will be remarked in several of these early
prints that ornaments occur very similar to the simpler kind of those
which, at a later time, were produced abundantly by means of stamps
—a ring, a star, a diamond with a blaek dot in the centre, even the
indented curve which does duty for a petal (this is usedin Schr. 2590
for the leaves of a tree). But all these ornaments are so variable in
size, and inexact in outline, that it is evident that they were
separately engraved, not produced mechanically with a stamp. Tlre
next step in advance was the introduction of these stamps, each
producing its own little detail of ornament with mechanical regularity,
and the use of punches to give precision and uniformity to the round
dots. Tlie tendency henceforth was to use large and regular dots and
a number of ornaments, of course with the object of saving time and
trouble. With the same object a softer metal seems to have been
used, and as a consequence of this a great deal of the work was done
witli tlie knife instead of the graver. The fine cross-hatching in white
line with the graver, which came in at a very early stage—it is found
in a rudimentary form in Schr. 2569 and 2590, but quite developed
in Schr. 2333—wTas abandoned towards the end, and some of the later
relief-plates were cut entirely with tlie knife. We can trace in the
later prints a gradual substitution of realistic clouds for the conven-
tional frills (in Schr. 2625 both were used together). In some of the
best of the prints produced about 1470-1480, when all varieties of
the technique were fully developed and judiciously combined, the
faces are expressive, and the general effect fairly good, though
always marred by some bad faults in drawing.1
1 Sclir. 2G46 (see reproduction), 2382, 2625, 2639, 2689 and 2695, and 2604, a
St. Christoplier at Berlin, reproduced in Lippmann’s “Eugraviugs and Woodcuts” ii, 31,
may be mentioned, among many others as characteristic specimens, in various ways, of
the hetter class of “ dotted prints.”
Early German and Flemish Woodcuts.—Part I.
dots of uniform size regularly distributed, as soon as the use of a
punch became general. In the second group of prints, the use of
small irregular dots in very large numbers was continued, but the
background was filled in with some kind of ornament, instead of being
cut away. A good instance of tliis is Schr. 2498 ('see reproduction), in
whicli dots are once more used on the faces. This print is by the
engraver who used a shield with two clubs saltire as his mark. Three
other prints similarly signed (Schr. 2191, 2341, 2596) also have their
backgrounds filled in, but the fifth, the Duel of Man and Wife (Schr.
2763) in the British Museum, has all the background at the top cut
away in the primitive manner, a circumstance which testifies to the
early date of this engraver, wliose activity may be assigned to tlie
years 1460-1470. It will be remarked in several of these early
prints that ornaments occur very similar to the simpler kind of those
which, at a later time, were produced abundantly by means of stamps
—a ring, a star, a diamond with a blaek dot in the centre, even the
indented curve which does duty for a petal (this is usedin Schr. 2590
for the leaves of a tree). But all these ornaments are so variable in
size, and inexact in outline, that it is evident that they were
separately engraved, not produced mechanically with a stamp. Tlre
next step in advance was the introduction of these stamps, each
producing its own little detail of ornament with mechanical regularity,
and the use of punches to give precision and uniformity to the round
dots. Tlie tendency henceforth was to use large and regular dots and
a number of ornaments, of course with the object of saving time and
trouble. With the same object a softer metal seems to have been
used, and as a consequence of this a great deal of the work was done
witli tlie knife instead of the graver. The fine cross-hatching in white
line with the graver, which came in at a very early stage—it is found
in a rudimentary form in Schr. 2569 and 2590, but quite developed
in Schr. 2333—wTas abandoned towards the end, and some of the later
relief-plates were cut entirely with tlie knife. We can trace in the
later prints a gradual substitution of realistic clouds for the conven-
tional frills (in Schr. 2625 both were used together). In some of the
best of the prints produced about 1470-1480, when all varieties of
the technique were fully developed and judiciously combined, the
faces are expressive, and the general effect fairly good, though
always marred by some bad faults in drawing.1
1 Sclir. 2G46 (see reproduction), 2382, 2625, 2639, 2689 and 2695, and 2604, a
St. Christoplier at Berlin, reproduced in Lippmann’s “Eugraviugs and Woodcuts” ii, 31,
may be mentioned, among many others as characteristic specimens, in various ways, of
the hetter class of “ dotted prints.”