WOOD, Engraving on, is commonly executed on box; and in many cases, engravings of this kind are used with advantage instead of copperplates. The art of cutting or engraving on wood is of very high antiquity; for Chinese printing is a specimen of it. Even in Europe, if credit be due to Papillon, this art was practised at a very remote period; for he mentions eight engravings on wood, entitled, "A representation of the warlike actions of the great and magnanimous Macedonian king, the bold and valiant Alexander; dedicated, presented, and humbly offered, to the most holy father, Pope Honorius IV. by us Alexander Alberic Cunio Chevalier, and Isabella Cunio, &c." This anecdote, if true, carries the art of cutting in wood back to 1284 or 1285; for Honorius occupied the papal throne only during these two years. But this is not the remotest period to which some have carried the art in Europe; for the use of seals or signets being of very high antiquity, they
imagine that the invention of wood-cuts must be coeval with them. The supposition is certainly plausible, but it is not supported by proof. The earliest impression of a wooden-cut, of which there is any certain account, is that of St Christopher carrying an infant Jesus through the sea, in which a hermit is seen holding up a lantern to shew him the way; and a peasant, with a sack on his back, climbing a hill, is exhibited in the background. The date of this impression is 1423. In the year 1430 was printed at Haarlem, "The history of St John the evangelist and his revelation, represented in 48 figures in wood, by Lowrent Janfon Coster;" and, in 1438, Jörg Schappf of Augburg cut in wood the history of the Apocalypse, and what was called The poor man's bible.
A folio chronicle, published 1493 by Schedal, was adorned with a great number of wooden-cuts by William Piydenwuff and Michael Wolgemut, whose engravings were greatly superior to any thing of the kind which had appeared before them. The latter was the preceptor of Albert Durer, whose admirable performances in this department of art are justly held in the highest esteem even at the present day.
About this period it became the practice of almost all the German engravers on copper to engrave likewise on wood; and many of their wood cuts surpass in beauty the impressions of their copperplates. Such are the wood-cuts of Albert Aldtorfer, Hissel Pen, Virgil Soles, Lucas Van Cranach, and Lucas Van Leyden, the friend and imitator of Albert Durer, with several others.
The Germans carried this art to a great degree of perfection. Hans or John Holbein, who flourished in 1500, engraved the Dance of Death, in a series of wooden-cuts, which, for the freedom and delicacy of execution, have scarcely been equalled, and never surpassed. Italy, France, and Holland, have produced capital artists of this kind. Joan Tornesum printed a bible at Leyden, in 1554, with wooden-cuts of excellent workmanship. Christopher Jegher of Antwerp, from his eminence in the art, was employed by Rubens to work under his inspection, and he executed several pieces which are held in much estimation; they are particularly distinguished for boldness and spirit.
The next attempt at improvement in this art was by Hugo da Carpi, to whom is attributed the invention of the chiaro scuro. Carpi was an Italian, and of the 16th century; but the Germans claim the invention also, and produce in evidence several engravings by Mair, a disciple of Martin Schoen, of date 1499. His mode of performing this was very simple. He first engraved the subject upon copper, and finished it as much as the artists of his time usually did. He then prepared a block of wood, upon which he cut out the extreme lights, and then impressed it upon the print; by which means a faint tint was added to all the rest of the piece, excepting only in those parts where the lights were meant to predominate, which appear on the specimens extant to be coloured with white paint. The drawings for this species of engraving were made on tinted paper with a pen, and the lights were drawn upon the paper with white paint.
But there is a material difference between the chiaro scuro of the old German masters and that of the Italians. Mair and Cranach engraved the outlines and deep
Wood. deep shadows upon copper. The impression taken in this state was tinted over by means of a single block of wood, with those parts hollowed out which were designed to be left white upon the print. On the contrary, the mode of engraving by Hugo da Carpi was, to cut the outline on one block of wood, the dark shadows upon a second, and the light shadows, or half-tint, upon a third. The first being impressed upon the paper, the outlines only appeared: this block being taken away, the second was put in its place, and being also impressed on the paper, the dark shadows were added to the outlines; and the third block being put in the same place upon the removal of the second, and also impressed upon the paper, made the dim tints, when the print was completed. In some instances, the number of blocks was increased, but the operation was still the same, the print receiving an impression from every block.
In 1698, John Baptist Michel Papillon practised engraving on wood with much success, particularly in ornamental foliage and flowers, shells, &c. In the opinion, however, of some of the most eminent artists, his performances are stiff and cramped. From that period the art of engraving on wood gradually degenerated, and may be said to have been wholly lost, when it was lately re-invented by Mr Bewick of Newcastle. This eminent artist was apprentice to Mr Bielby, a respectable engraver on metal. Mr Bielby, who was accustomed to employ his apprentices in engraving on wood, was much gratified with the performance of Thomas Bewick, and therefore advised him to prosecute engraving in that line. The advice was followed; and young Bewick inventing tools, even making them with his own hands, and sawing the wood on which he was to work into the requisite thickness, proceeded to improve upon his own discoveries, without assistance or instruction of any kind. When his apprenticeship expired, he went to London, where the obscure wood-engravers of the time wished to avail themselves of his abilities, while they were determined to give him no insight into their art. During his apprenticeship, he received from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. a premium of considerable value for the best engraving in wood. The cut which obtained the premium was one of a series for an edition of Gay's Fables. Having remained some years in London, he returned to Newcastle, and entered into copartnership with his old master; and established his reputation as an artist by the publication of his admirable History of Quadrupeds. This was followed by his History of Birds, in 2 vols. The greater part of the volume on Quadrupeds, and the whole of the first volume of the work on Birds, was composed by Mr Bielby.
John Bewick, brother to Thomas, learned the art of him, and practised it for several years in London with great applause. His abilities, however, though respectable, were not, by the best judges, deemed so brilliant as his brother's; and owing to bad health, and the nature of his connection with the booksellers and others, he seems not to have advanced the art beyond the stage at which he received it. He died, some years ago, at Newcastle.
Mr Neibit, who executed the admirable cuts from designs by Thornton, for an edition of Hudibras, as well as the cuts for editions of Shakespeare and Thomson's Seasons, and Mr Anderson, whose beautiful cuts
VOL. XX. Part II.
adorning the poem entitled Grove Hill, have been the most successful of Thomas Bewick's pupils, who have appeared before the public as artists. It appears, that the method practised by the ancient engravers on wood, whose works are still admired, must have been different from that of Bewick and his pupils. What that method was seems to be altogether unknown. Papillon, who writes the best history extant of the art, guesses indeed in what manner the old engravers proceeded so as to give to their works the spirit and freedom for which they are famed; but that his guesses are erroneous seems evident from the stiffness of his own works. The principal characteristic in the mechanical department of the productions of the ancient masters is the crossing of the black lines, which Papillon has attempted with the greatest awkwardness, though it seems to have been accomplished by them with so much ease, that they introduced it at random, even where it could add nothing to the beauty of the piece. In Bewick's method of working, this cross hatching is so difficult and unnatural, that it may be considered as impracticable. Mr Neibit has indeed introduced something of it into two or three of his pieces; but so great was the labour, and so little the advantage of this improvement, if such it can be called, that probably it will not be attempted again.
The engravers of Bewick's school work on the end of the wood, which is cut across the trunk of the tree, in pieces of the proper thickness. As wood-cuts are generally employed in the printer's press amidst a form of types, this thickness must be regulated by the height of the types with which they are to be used. The tools employed are nearly the same with those used in copper-plate engraving, being only a little more deep, or lozenge, as engravers call it. They must have points of various degrees of fineness for the different purposes to which they are applied, some of them being so much rounded off at the bottom as to approach to the nature of a goodge, whilst others are in fact little chisels of various sizes. These chisels and goodges, to which every artist gives the shape which he deems most convenient, are held in the hand in a manner somewhat different from the tool of the engraver on copper, it being necessary to have the power of lifting the chips upwards with ease. To attempt a description of this in writing would be in vain; but it is easily acquired, we are told, by practice.
The pupils of the school of Bewick consider it as quite improper to speak of his invention as a revival of the ancient art. Some old prints, it is true, have the appearance of being executed in the same way with his; but others have certainly been done by a method very different. It is therefore not fair to appreciate the present art by what has been done, but by what may be done; and that remains yet to be shewn. The art is in its infancy; and those who are disposed to compare it with the art of engraving on copper, ought to look back to the period when copperplate engraving was of as recent invention as Bewick's method of engraving on wood. Marc Antonio, who engraved under the direction of the great painter Raphael, thought it no mean proof of his proficiency in his art, that he was able to imitate on copperplates the wood-cuts of Albert Durer; and Papillon is highly indignant that there should have been persons so very blind as to mistake the copies for the originals. If copper has its ad-
5 A
vantages over wood in point of delicacy and minuteness, wood has, in its turn, advantages not inferior in regard to strength and richness. Those prints which were executed under the auspices of Titian and Rubens, will always remain a monument of the spirit and vigour natural to wood-engraving; and if there be not found in them all the attention to chiaro scuro, which the present age demands, it must not be attributed either to defect in the art, or to want of abilities in the artists, but to the taste of the times when chiaro scuro was little understood. It remains for some enterprising artist to shew that the vigour of the ancient art may be attained by the present one, and at the same time to add to that vigour those gradations of shade which are so much admired in good copperplates. As there seems to be a more perfect, or at least a more pleasant black produced by wood than by copperplate printing, and certainly a more perfect white (A), who will say that any intermediate shade whatever may not be produced by wood-cuts? To attempt this on a small scale would indeed be vain, because the slightest variation, produced by a little more or less ink, or a harder pressure in printing, bears such a proportion to a very short line, as must necessarily render the attempt abortive.
Wood-engraving, therefore, must always appear to disadvantage while it is confined to small subjects, and will never reach its station as a fine art, till those who are engaged in its cultivation improve upon the discoveries of one another, and apply to subjects to which it is properly adapted. As an economical art for illustrating mechanics, various branches of natural history, and other subjects of science, it is too little employed even in its present state.
The works of Bewick and his pupils, which have hitherto been published, are not numerous. Besides his quadrupeds and birds, the Hudibras, and the cuts for some editions of Shakespeare and Thomson's Seasons, by Nesbit, and the Grove Hill by Anderson, already noticed, there are also some others of less note.—Goldsmith's Traveller and Deserted Village with elegant plates, are all executed by Thomas Bewick, except one or two which were executed by John Somerville's Chace by the same artists, executed in a style of elegance which perhaps has never been surpassed; a View of St Nicholas's Church, Newcastle, 15 inches long, by Mr Nesbit, who received for it a silver medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts.