Page:Chats on old prints (IA chatsonoldprints00haydiala).pdf/46

 We give two pages of enlargements of portions of wood engravings. The first is of a portion not larger than a postage stamp from a woodcut by Lützelburger after Holbein. The woodcut in its entirety is reproduced (opposite p. 82). The enlargement below is from a woodcut after Dürer's Samson Slaying the Lion, an illustration of which appears (opposite p. 80). It should be mentioned that these are of the old school of woodcutters, who used a knife and not a graver. Both illustrations are remarkable for their extraordinary strength, but the former is especially noteworthy on account of the few lines employed to produce the result. As in that particular style of wood engraving this reduced the labours of the wood cutter, its excellence in this respect will be appreciated by the student on learning more concerning the theory of the technique of wood engraving.

The other two illustrations of wood engraving fall within the nineteenth century. The first, a portion of the head of a Dervise, from an illustration in Dalziel's "Arabian Nights," which is given (opposite p. 104), shows the methods of the facsimile wood engravers of the nineteenth century in the sixties in engraving a design on the wood block. The graver has given place to the knife, and a careful examination will show that certain of the lines are not black but white. For instance, the eyebrows, and portions of the hair and beard are in white line. The beginner may readily come to the conclusion that whenever he sees white lines under his magnifying glass he is looking at a wood engraving. In