DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0190
JDivision B.—Dotted Prints.
165
knife or graver. We have seen, however, that in the “ dotted ” style
itself the dots are accidental, whereas the essence of the style is that
the design is in white npon a black gronnd, and this is often carried
out in white line without tlie use of dots. It is this that constitutes
the really important difference between these prints and the French
metal-cuts, in which the design, as in the early woodcuts, is carried out
in blaek line. The French work is identical in principle with the
earlier and contemporary work on wood: it merely carried one branch
of that work, applied exclusively to the decoration of books, to a
higher degree of refinement by using a material which allowed of
more delicacy in the workmanship. The “ dotted ” prints, on the
other hand, differed altogether in principle from wood-engraving, as
it was then understood. They were, as Mr. Koehler has so elearly
explained, a premature experiment in tint-engraving, a process which
has only in the xix century attained its full development in those
minute and accomplished engravings on wood, produced especially in
America, the purpose of which is to imitate painting, not drawing.
The experiment was premature, because in the xv century there
was no demand for the imitation of painting. Outline alone was
required, and this was produced naturally as black line, whether in
the form of line-engravings or of woodcuts. The engravers of that
time had no idea of “ colour,” as the term is understood by a modern
tint-engraver. Colour, in the most literal sense of the word, was
applied to the finished print with a paint brush. Even the engravers
of these white line relief prints, who did achieve " colour ” by the
clumsy means at their command, were either blind to it themselves
or compelled to yield to the taste of their public, and let their prints
be finished by the Illuminist, whose business it was to “ paint the lily.”
When a demand at length arose for the imitation of painting, it was
satisfied,in the first instance, by the invention of the chiaroscuro process,
in which either washed drawings in several shades of the same tint,
or drawings in black, heightened with white, upon a coloured ground,
were reproduced by the aid of several wood-blocks, each of which
contributed its own colour to the general effect. German wood-
engravers scarcely attempted, even in the xvi century, to pass
beyond this to the reproduction of frescoes or oil-paintings. This
was left to the wood-engravers of the school of Titian in Italy and
the school of Eubens in Flanders, and they in their turn succumbed
to the competition of etchers and engravers.
The “ dotted ” prints are not quite so scarce as they were once Barity of tlie
thought to be. Willshire, in 1877, estimated the number of known <lottLd
specimens at about 300. Schreiber has described about 600, and
165
knife or graver. We have seen, however, that in the “ dotted ” style
itself the dots are accidental, whereas the essence of the style is that
the design is in white npon a black gronnd, and this is often carried
out in white line without tlie use of dots. It is this that constitutes
the really important difference between these prints and the French
metal-cuts, in which the design, as in the early woodcuts, is carried out
in blaek line. The French work is identical in principle with the
earlier and contemporary work on wood: it merely carried one branch
of that work, applied exclusively to the decoration of books, to a
higher degree of refinement by using a material which allowed of
more delicacy in the workmanship. The “ dotted ” prints, on the
other hand, differed altogether in principle from wood-engraving, as
it was then understood. They were, as Mr. Koehler has so elearly
explained, a premature experiment in tint-engraving, a process which
has only in the xix century attained its full development in those
minute and accomplished engravings on wood, produced especially in
America, the purpose of which is to imitate painting, not drawing.
The experiment was premature, because in the xv century there
was no demand for the imitation of painting. Outline alone was
required, and this was produced naturally as black line, whether in
the form of line-engravings or of woodcuts. The engravers of that
time had no idea of “ colour,” as the term is understood by a modern
tint-engraver. Colour, in the most literal sense of the word, was
applied to the finished print with a paint brush. Even the engravers
of these white line relief prints, who did achieve " colour ” by the
clumsy means at their command, were either blind to it themselves
or compelled to yield to the taste of their public, and let their prints
be finished by the Illuminist, whose business it was to “ paint the lily.”
When a demand at length arose for the imitation of painting, it was
satisfied,in the first instance, by the invention of the chiaroscuro process,
in which either washed drawings in several shades of the same tint,
or drawings in black, heightened with white, upon a coloured ground,
were reproduced by the aid of several wood-blocks, each of which
contributed its own colour to the general effect. German wood-
engravers scarcely attempted, even in the xvi century, to pass
beyond this to the reproduction of frescoes or oil-paintings. This
was left to the wood-engravers of the school of Titian in Italy and
the school of Eubens in Flanders, and they in their turn succumbed
to the competition of etchers and engravers.
The “ dotted ” prints are not quite so scarce as they were once Barity of tlie
thought to be. Willshire, in 1877, estimated the number of known <lottLd
specimens at about 300. Schreiber has described about 600, and