DOI chapter:
Chapter I
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62095#0034
Eighteenth-Century Colour-Prints 5
The death of this beautiful and learned young lady was followed by that of her lover,
and also by that of her mother, who could not survive the loss of her beloved children.
This quaint and typical narrative has too much in it recommending it to credence
for it to be lightly dismissed. It is charming to see the twin brother and sister, the one so
valorous the other so cultured, assisting each other in perpetuating these deeds of bravery ;
but one suspects that Isabella did most of the work, whilst, with aching heart and anxious
thoughts, in imagination she followed her brother to the seat of war. Alessandro may
have only assisted her in the placing of the men, in the outlines of the arms and helmets.
It is not unlikely that his was the slower wit, that he neither invented nor executed with
his sister’s facility, but only stood by, in picturesque costume, with his wounded arm in a
sling, suggesting alterations, commenting, and criticising. It was expressive of her amiable
character to give him half the credit ; but who shall say whether it was due to him ? He
was chivalrous and brave ; it was a fine thought of his to go first to his own mother,
unhappy and deserted lady, to relate to her the story of his exploits : but I fancy the
pictures awaited him on his return to Ravenna, that Isabella had executed them for his
surprise and pleasure, and that only later, when the confinement consequent on his
wounds became irksome, the idea of transferring them to wood and from wood to paper,
and presenting the impressions to their friends, was suggested by her to wile the weary
time away. It is possible he may have executed the drawings from the pictures, and she
may have cut the blocks during his next absence. It was during his third and last
sojourn at home that they transferred the impression laboriously, after inking the blocks,
by rubbing with their hands the back of the paper. I see the two eager heads bending
over the paper, full of enthusiasm and excitement over the new game, as unconscious
that they are making history as two children playing in the nursery. To believe that
the whole pretty story is a figment of Papillon’s imagination is absurd ; such a possibility
seems to me much more inherently incredible than the story itself.
Although, as I have said, it is no part of my purpose to follow the history of
engraving through the thirteenth or the fifteenth century in its various stages of evolution
and development, to sift evidence or collate example, it has interested me to look for the
germ of the seed, of which the charming flowers are my Eighteenth-Century Colour-Prints.
And to me at least, since I read the story, that germ has always been in the rough wood-
blocks of the two Cunios. I like to think of that fair Italian maiden fashioning with her
delicate hands the first faint phantom of the colour-print, and her fragrant memory hovers
over my collection and lends it additional charm.
Then having paid Isabella my tribute, two other figures detach themselves from the
misty past and seem to take form and substance about my portfolios. The first Stipple-
Engraver and the first Chiaroscuro-Engraver—they are both Italians: there were no
Germans, no Dutch amongst those ghosts of the portfolio until Johannes “ Speculatie ” from
Nymegen won his place in Rome, and kept it in Holland. The first Stipple-Engraver was
Giulio Campagnola, sculptor and scholar, artist and musician, noble inheritor of Isabella’s
inspiration, himself another and yet more prodigious prodigy : a lad of such brave parts that
before he is fourteen Titian welcomes him in his studio, Matteo Bosso exhausts panegyric
in writing of his achievements, and almost ere he has reached manhood Hercules I. bids
him to that marvellous Court of Ferrara, where all the arts are encouraged and all
The death of this beautiful and learned young lady was followed by that of her lover,
and also by that of her mother, who could not survive the loss of her beloved children.
This quaint and typical narrative has too much in it recommending it to credence
for it to be lightly dismissed. It is charming to see the twin brother and sister, the one so
valorous the other so cultured, assisting each other in perpetuating these deeds of bravery ;
but one suspects that Isabella did most of the work, whilst, with aching heart and anxious
thoughts, in imagination she followed her brother to the seat of war. Alessandro may
have only assisted her in the placing of the men, in the outlines of the arms and helmets.
It is not unlikely that his was the slower wit, that he neither invented nor executed with
his sister’s facility, but only stood by, in picturesque costume, with his wounded arm in a
sling, suggesting alterations, commenting, and criticising. It was expressive of her amiable
character to give him half the credit ; but who shall say whether it was due to him ? He
was chivalrous and brave ; it was a fine thought of his to go first to his own mother,
unhappy and deserted lady, to relate to her the story of his exploits : but I fancy the
pictures awaited him on his return to Ravenna, that Isabella had executed them for his
surprise and pleasure, and that only later, when the confinement consequent on his
wounds became irksome, the idea of transferring them to wood and from wood to paper,
and presenting the impressions to their friends, was suggested by her to wile the weary
time away. It is possible he may have executed the drawings from the pictures, and she
may have cut the blocks during his next absence. It was during his third and last
sojourn at home that they transferred the impression laboriously, after inking the blocks,
by rubbing with their hands the back of the paper. I see the two eager heads bending
over the paper, full of enthusiasm and excitement over the new game, as unconscious
that they are making history as two children playing in the nursery. To believe that
the whole pretty story is a figment of Papillon’s imagination is absurd ; such a possibility
seems to me much more inherently incredible than the story itself.
Although, as I have said, it is no part of my purpose to follow the history of
engraving through the thirteenth or the fifteenth century in its various stages of evolution
and development, to sift evidence or collate example, it has interested me to look for the
germ of the seed, of which the charming flowers are my Eighteenth-Century Colour-Prints.
And to me at least, since I read the story, that germ has always been in the rough wood-
blocks of the two Cunios. I like to think of that fair Italian maiden fashioning with her
delicate hands the first faint phantom of the colour-print, and her fragrant memory hovers
over my collection and lends it additional charm.
Then having paid Isabella my tribute, two other figures detach themselves from the
misty past and seem to take form and substance about my portfolios. The first Stipple-
Engraver and the first Chiaroscuro-Engraver—they are both Italians: there were no
Germans, no Dutch amongst those ghosts of the portfolio until Johannes “ Speculatie ” from
Nymegen won his place in Rome, and kept it in Holland. The first Stipple-Engraver was
Giulio Campagnola, sculptor and scholar, artist and musician, noble inheritor of Isabella’s
inspiration, himself another and yet more prodigious prodigy : a lad of such brave parts that
before he is fourteen Titian welcomes him in his studio, Matteo Bosso exhausts panegyric
in writing of his achievements, and almost ere he has reached manhood Hercules I. bids
him to that marvellous Court of Ferrara, where all the arts are encouraged and all