DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0182
1 78 EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
paper. The first who dicl this as a trade or pro-
fession was Baccio Baldini, who, about 1467, em-
ployed several painters, particularly Sandro Botti-
celli and Filippino Lippi, to make designs for him
to engrave. Andrea Mantegna caught up the idea
with a kind of enthusiasm: he made the first ex-
periment when about sixty, and, according to Lanzi,
he engraved, during the sixteen remaining years of
his life, not less than fifty plates: of these about
thirty are now known to collectors, and considered
genuine. Among them are his own designs for the
Triumph of Julius Ceesar (the fifth, sixth, and
seventh compartments only).
Familiar as we now are with all kinds of copper-
plate and wood-engraving, there are persons who do
not understand clearly the difference between them.
Independent of the difference of the material on
which they are executed, the grand distinction be-
tween the two arts is this—that the copper-plate
engraver cuts out the lines by which the impression
is produced, which are thus left hollow, and after -
wards filled up with ink; the impression is produced
by laying a piece of wet paper on the plate, and
passing them together under a heavy and perfectly
even roller. The method of the engraver on wood
is precisely the reverse. He cuts away all the sur-
rounding surface of the block of wood, and leaves
the lines which are to produce the impression pro-
minent ; they are afterwards blackened with ink
paper. The first who dicl this as a trade or pro-
fession was Baccio Baldini, who, about 1467, em-
ployed several painters, particularly Sandro Botti-
celli and Filippino Lippi, to make designs for him
to engrave. Andrea Mantegna caught up the idea
with a kind of enthusiasm: he made the first ex-
periment when about sixty, and, according to Lanzi,
he engraved, during the sixteen remaining years of
his life, not less than fifty plates: of these about
thirty are now known to collectors, and considered
genuine. Among them are his own designs for the
Triumph of Julius Ceesar (the fifth, sixth, and
seventh compartments only).
Familiar as we now are with all kinds of copper-
plate and wood-engraving, there are persons who do
not understand clearly the difference between them.
Independent of the difference of the material on
which they are executed, the grand distinction be-
tween the two arts is this—that the copper-plate
engraver cuts out the lines by which the impression
is produced, which are thus left hollow, and after -
wards filled up with ink; the impression is produced
by laying a piece of wet paper on the plate, and
passing them together under a heavy and perfectly
even roller. The method of the engraver on wood
is precisely the reverse. He cuts away all the sur-
rounding surface of the block of wood, and leaves
the lines which are to produce the impression pro-
minent ; they are afterwards blackened with ink