TECHNICAL AND ART A.D. 1844. Doubts of A. Durer's engraving all his works. British Museum, in which the figure is placed between pilasters. Many writers on Art (Mr. Ottley among the most recent) have concluded that Albert Durer, Holbein, and others not only drew their own designs on wood, but were also the actual engravers of them. We have Albert Durer's own words that he was accustomed to draw himself on wood. "Item hab dem von Rogendorff sein Wappen auf Holz gerissen dafur hat er mir geschenkt vii. Eln Sammet." (See Von Murr.) But it is not easy to believe that he was his own wood engraver. The chief ground for believing him to be, seems to rest upon the assumption that in the fifteenth century, no competent workmen could be found to execute engravings so excellent and containing such especial difficulties of "cross hatching." The merits of the woodcuts of Albert Durer and other early artists, certainly do not consist in the engraving, but in other quite distinct qualities. And those who praise them as engravings, do not sufficiently discriminate between these qualities and the mechanical translation of them. Early wood-cuts are generally very inferior as engravings, and certainly contain no difficulties beyond the accomplishment of ordinary skill. As for the execution of "cross hatchings," it was less difficult in Albert Durer's time, when they were cut on the side of the grain of the wood, than at present, cut on the end of the grain; the process is more a labour of carefulness and patience than of skill; apprentices of our own time cut much clearer cross hatchings than any to be found in old wood-cuts. It is taking a very narrow view of art, to suppose that workmen could not be found to engrave Albert Durer's or Holbein's wood-cuts in an age quite equal if not surpassing our own in the execution of the most delicate ornamental work. Was sculpture on wood (it is not necessary to look beyond St. George's Chapel at Windsor) inferior to that of our own times? And if we are to be sceptical about the capacity of wood-engravers, how shall we account for the skill which executed the exquisite chasings and engravings in jewellery, armour, &c.; engraving of monumental brasses; ornamental tools for bookbinding; and, above all, the delicate workmanship of the seals, which every noble or citizen appended to his charter or chirograph; and in all of which we are PROCESSES MANUFAC Part II. Several enthe "Small gravers of Passion." now trying to imitate the fifteenth century? But in addition to TECHNICAL these general reasons, and others which might be brought forward AND ART against assuming that Albert Durer was his own wood-engraver, TURES. the works themselves furnish conclusive evidence, which seems to A.D. 1844. have escaped Mr. Ottley. Let any one compare the correspond- Selections. ing engravings of the same subject executed on wood and copper: we know the latter to be the work of Albert Durer himself. The copper-engravings exhibit the exquisite sensitiveness of the artist to the expression of important parts, carried sometimes to an affected exaggeration, besides the most delicate and charming finish. In the wood-cuts, on the contrary, there is oftentimes an unnecessary coarseness, with a feebleness and misunderstanding of the lines, especially in the extremities (e. g. the left hand of Adam in the Fall of Man in the present work), which prove them to be the works of bungling and ignorant awkwardness. It is impossible not to see that it was not the same hand designing and engraving. But the question is placed beyond all doubt by an examination of the cuts themselves. They show that they must have been engraved by not less than four different persons. Mr. John Thompson, by universal concurrence, the most skilful engraver which the art has yet witnessed, and therefore the best authority on all its technicalities, has examined the blocks especially with reference to this question; and he has pointed out those varieties of mechanical execution, as apparent as the varieties of different handwritings, which conclusively prove the fact contended for. The following subjects may be instanced as exhibiting the workmanship of four different artists: 1. The Scourging. 2. Jesus nailed to the Cross. 3. Jesus appearing to his Mother after his Resurrection. 4. Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalen. And the curious may refer to the blocks themselves, and be convinced, as the Editor is, that although Albert Durer designed and drew these wood-blocks, he never engraved them. ART MANU- SUMMERLY'S ART MANUFACTURES. THE HE system of producing Art-Manufactures may be said to have arisen out of the prizes offered by the Society of Arts, and the Exhibitions which began in 1846 and were continued in 1847-1848. The TEA SERVICE which obtained the Silver Medal of the I find the following Memorandum in the handwriting of Mr. S. Davenport, the zealous accountant and main support of the Society from 1843, which describes this Tea Service. "To accompany Specimens of Earthenware marked F. S. "Model of a plain and cheap Earthenware Tea Service in one Colour, consisting of Tea-pot, Basin, Milk Jug, Cup and Saucer, Plate, and Sugar Basin. "These articles have been modelled expressly for the present purpose. They could be manufactured at a very cheap rate, as cheaply as the blue articles which accompany them, marked Z. "The white earthenware set would be even cheaper. These blue articles are sent in order to demonstrate that elegant forms may be made not to cost more than inelegant ones. Of course it must be borne in mind that all forms, where the beauty depends on the ' Mr. Davenport died in 1876. |