Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/330

* LINE-ENGRA VIN G. 294 LINEN. deeessor and piubablc teacher, Diirer, his life being short, but lie is knuwu as the maker of the finest burin engraving existing if technical quali- ties are considered, and one equal to any similar artistic work of the kind, viz. portraiture, in loftier expressional qualities. This astonishing print is the portrait of tlie Kmperor Charles V. in his youth, the plate being dated 1531. Marc- antonio Uaimoiidi (q.v.) has been the most re- puted and admired of burin engravers, but this largely because of the tnulitional dependence of his art upon the tcacliings of Raphael, and the fact that he reproduced many of Raphael's drawings, now lost — these re|)roductions being not necessarily close, though having much of the original significance. In a curious way Marc- antonio links together the earliest and the laler schools of line-engraving: for he has a reliiic- ment of outline in no way supported by his system of liglit and shade, in which he resembles t'he earliest men, while his delil>era(e ])reference of a life of eopving to the caieer of an original designer in black and white makes him in a way the founder of that unfortunate later school which looked ujion line-engraving as a techni- cality, to be used only for the rendering, usually inadequate, of important pictures. Agostino Carracci (q.v.) worked during the second half of the sixteenth century, producing original designs as well as co]ii<'s, and in France the able work- men Abraham l?nsse and Israel Silvestre car- ried the traditions of originality and native force far into the seventeenth century. Poetical inspiration was denied them, but they have left an admirable record of their time in designs of complete individuality. During the reign of Louis XIV. France was at the head of Europe in the art of engraving and was represented by Robert Nanteuil (q.v.), GOrard Edelinck, a Fleming, who had migrated to Paris, and Antoine Masson, who worked after paintings by the great artists of the day, but without a minute adherence to the original. Nanteuil was indeed the inventor of those de- vices, those combinations of lines and dots and that excess of cross-hatching, which were so abused by his successors; but his own work is of almost uniform good taste and dignity — formal, indeed, in the spirit of the time, but re- taining a force and iire rather characteristic of the original work than (jf the copyist. Jean Pesne engraved the paintings of Poussin with a similar boldness, transferring the artist's com- position from the canvas to the smaller study in black and white. Gerard Audran (d. 1703) was able to give power to huge prints, rather closely studied from the paintings of his con- temporaries. Mignard and Poussin, as well as to reproductions of Raphael's wall pieces. In the eighteenth century line-engraving is delicate and refined and the portraits of the time are of singular interest, but it is devoted to a more feeble system of design and largely used for book illuMration. The celebrated Livrcs d rigneltes. illustrated by Charles Eisen, Charles Nicolas Cochin, Pierre Philippe ChofTard, and Nicolas De Launay. as the most celebrated of a large school of engravers, form a separate branch of art study, the number of the works being very great and their merit singularly uniform. In still later times, Volpato (d. 1803) and Raphael Morghen (d. 1833) carried over the assumed grand style of the earlier workmen into the nine- teenth century; and with their works closes tho history of line-engraving of the traditional .school. Everything since the Napoleonic wars has been in a way tentative. Here and there powerful and self-centred artists like Frangois Forsler (d. 18!)2) and Henriquel-Dupont (d. 18'J2) followed a resolute course, working in tlie spirit of such a period or such a master of the past as their personal cliaracteristies made easy, and producing valued prints. Since 1850 line-engraving has been kejjt alive mainly by the (jovernment institution La chaleographie de Louvre, there being only one or two very ex- ceptional artists to glorify the second half of the nineteenth century. The chief of these, Fer- dinand Gaillard, is one of the greatest artists in black and white of our time. LINEN (AS. linen, from llti, llax, from Lat. liniini, llax). The term linen is usually applied to fabrics woven from the fil)re of tlax (q.v.), although materials made from hemj) or even jute are sometinu'S called liy this name. Linen is one of the oldest of all textile manufactures, at least it is one of the earliest mentioned in litera- ture. The cerecloth, in which the most ancient mummies were wrapped, proves its early and very extensive use among the Egyptians, and it is said that the very finest linen of the present day looks coarse beside that from the Egyptian looms in the days of the Pharaohs. It formed also parts of the'garmeiits of the llclirew as well as the Egyptian priests. The wonderful dura- bility of linen is evidenced by its existence on munimics, and by the remarkaJ)le fact mentioned by the German writer Seetzen, and referred to by Blumenbach, that he had found several nap- kins within the folds of the covering of a mum- my which he unwrapped, and that he had them waslied several times without injury. Linen was made in England at an early date, the garments of the ancient Anglo-Saxons being linen and woolen. The Bayeux tapestry is a linen cloth, embroidered in wool. Although the weaving of linen had been conducted as a house- hold industry for many centuries, it was tirst manufactured in England on a large scale by Flemish weavers under the protection of Henry 111., in 1253; it was not until eighty years after that a colony of Scots planted themselves in the northeast part of Ireland and established there the linen manufacture which has since become a national industry. In Continental Europe linen was extensively made throughout mediirval times. Charlemagne is said to have worn linen under- elotliing, after the fashion of the Franks. The floors of Spain were renowned for their beautiful linen and other te.Ktiles, which were exported to Oriental countries. In the fifteenth century Seville had 16,000 looms. As early as the eleventh century Flanders. Brabant, and many French and German towns became famous for fine linens. The soil of the Netherlands and of F^ranee seems peculiarly adapted to the produc- tion of flax of a superior quality, and here the manufacture of linen reached its greatest per- fection. The stimulus to produce fine yarns (see Spinning; also L.ce) for the lacemakers gave rise to such care and attention in the cultivation and preparation of flax that in point of fineness of fibre they have been unequnled. Consequently the linens lif France, Belgium, and Holland have long enjoyed a well-deserved reputation, and in the manufacture of lawn and cambric, which are