DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52444#0058
INTRODUCTION.
The change in the consistency and the color of the ink led, however,
to still other results. The effect produced was much more delicate, not
only because the ink was more delicate, but also because the lines were
apt to be somewhat more wiped out. And as, very probably, the two
kinds of printing were used simultaneously, and a plate was printed
sometimes in the old style and sometimes in the new, the existence
of impressions, quite different in effect from the same plate, is easily
explained: an impression printed in the old style, with strong black
ink, produces a black, heavier effect, another printed in a softer ink
produces what is usually called a “ silvery ” effect. It is not at all an
assured fact, therefore, that the “silvery” impressions are the earlier and
the black ones the later; it may be said, indeed, that the reverse is more
likely to be true. This is evidently so, for instance, in the case of im-
pressions Nos. 2/a and 2/b, “The Lady and the Lansquenet.” The first
is a very fine dark impression in pure black ink, the second is much
more delicate and silvery, but the fact that it shows slight and even
tinting in the saddle-cloth and on the ground to the left betrays it
as a later impression. It can be noticed also that in many cases the
lines in the black impressions have a rougher appearance than the
“silvery” ones. There is such an impression of No. 86, “The Virgin
on the Crescent, with Crown of Stars and Scepter,” in the Gray Col-
lection, Boston: If the darker effect produced by it were due to the
reworking of the lines with the graver, the edges of the lines ought to be
sharper and cleaner than those of the lines in the silvery impressions,
whereas the contrary holds true.
The stages of development in the art of printing engraved plates, as
practised by Differ and his printers, may now be summarized as follows:
I. Clean wiping, with intensely black, strong ink; 2. Attempts to obtain
tinting with such ink, caused by accidents which the printers tried to
bring under control; 3. The substitution of softer and warmer inks,
which not only produced a softer effect, but allowed also of tinting on
parts or over the whole surface of the plate, thus giving rise to “ artifi-
xl
The change in the consistency and the color of the ink led, however,
to still other results. The effect produced was much more delicate, not
only because the ink was more delicate, but also because the lines were
apt to be somewhat more wiped out. And as, very probably, the two
kinds of printing were used simultaneously, and a plate was printed
sometimes in the old style and sometimes in the new, the existence
of impressions, quite different in effect from the same plate, is easily
explained: an impression printed in the old style, with strong black
ink, produces a black, heavier effect, another printed in a softer ink
produces what is usually called a “ silvery ” effect. It is not at all an
assured fact, therefore, that the “silvery” impressions are the earlier and
the black ones the later; it may be said, indeed, that the reverse is more
likely to be true. This is evidently so, for instance, in the case of im-
pressions Nos. 2/a and 2/b, “The Lady and the Lansquenet.” The first
is a very fine dark impression in pure black ink, the second is much
more delicate and silvery, but the fact that it shows slight and even
tinting in the saddle-cloth and on the ground to the left betrays it
as a later impression. It can be noticed also that in many cases the
lines in the black impressions have a rougher appearance than the
“silvery” ones. There is such an impression of No. 86, “The Virgin
on the Crescent, with Crown of Stars and Scepter,” in the Gray Col-
lection, Boston: If the darker effect produced by it were due to the
reworking of the lines with the graver, the edges of the lines ought to be
sharper and cleaner than those of the lines in the silvery impressions,
whereas the contrary holds true.
The stages of development in the art of printing engraved plates, as
practised by Differ and his printers, may now be summarized as follows:
I. Clean wiping, with intensely black, strong ink; 2. Attempts to obtain
tinting with such ink, caused by accidents which the printers tried to
bring under control; 3. The substitution of softer and warmer inks,
which not only produced a softer effect, but allowed also of tinting on
parts or over the whole surface of the plate, thus giving rise to “ artifi-
xl