Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/740

* WOOD-ENGBAVING. 632 WOOD-ENGRAVING. cuts were common in Southern Germany, and perhaps in the Netherlands. They are the merest rude outlines, intended to be colored, and rep- resent saints and similar subjects (whence the name llelgen), which Avere distributed by the clergj- for purposes ot religious instruction. The eai>l'iest dated example is the well-known print of "Saint Christopher" (1423); the date as- signed to the far finer "iladonna with the Child and Angels" (1413. Brussels Library) not being certain. Although playing cards were printed at this and even at an "earlier date, there is not sufficient reason to find in them, as has been done, the origin of wood-engraving. Both Uelcfen and playing cards antedated con- siderably tile 'block books,' in which illustra- tions, with an appropriate printed text, were cut upon the same block of wood, before the in- vention of movable type. The origin of block books is a matter of dispute, being variously assigned to the Netherlands and to Germany. Among the oldest surviving example the .l;)oc- alypse is ot German origin, probably from Cologne. Other celebrated works are the Can- ticum Canticorum, the Biblia Paiiperum (q.v. ), which survives in the most numerous examples, and the Ars Moriendi — all from the Nether- lands, where, indeed, the most beautiful block books were made. The invention of printing from movable types, which was perfected in 1454, gave a new impetus to wood-engraving. Illustrations were required for the books Avhich now became common, and the printing press furnished a better means of taking an impression than the former process of rub- bing or printing from a roller. The first printed book from movable types with woodcut illus- trations was a book " of fables, Liher Simili- tudinis, printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1461; a very superior artistic stage is represented in illustrations of the Speculum Huinanw Vitw, a Netherlandish work often erroneously consid- ered a block book. The centres of the art shifted to the cities of Germany, where printing presses were established — like Cologne. Nuremberg. .Vugs- burg, and Basel. Very widely circulated and imitated were the illustrations of the Cntnqne liiblc (147.5), remarkable for their vigor and realism, and of the Augsburg Bible (1475). Of great importance, too, were the different city chronicles, the best of which was Sehedel's Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg. 1403). Its illustrations, designed by Wohlgemuth and Pley- denwurff. the Nuremberg artists, were remark- able as being the first in which the mere out- lines were reiilaced liy a system of light and shade. From Basel and Nuremberg wood-ongrav- ing was introduceil into Lyons, where the first engravings date from 1470. Somewhat later it was practiced in Paris, which city soon be- came famoiis for the lAi^res des heures of its celelirated printers, executed with great elegance in imitation of the illuminated manuscripts of the day. The manirrr. c-ribUe (q.v.), in which we find a number of French fourteenth-century prints, was prolialdy not a wood, but a metal process; a similar ])rocess of wood-engraving ja now used for astronomical illustrations. Wood-engraving was introduced into Italy by German printers, the earliest illustrated book being printed at Rome in 1407; but the centre of the art was Venice. Italian wood-engraving speedily differentiated itself from the Ger- man, by a superior skill in the arts of design. Simplicity of line and idealism of form and conception are the chief characteri^-tics; its spirit is manifest in such works as -Esop's Fables (Verona, 1481), and in the charming Epistles of Saint Jerome (Ferrara, 1497). The delightful Uypnerotomachia Puliphili (Venice, 149'J) embodies, as does no other illustrated work, the Joyous youthful spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Though variouslj' assigned to Bel- lini, Raphael, and others, it is probably the work of Benedetto lloutagna. Din-ing the fifteenth century woodcttts had been, for the most part, outline drawings, rely- ing upon tinting for the final effect. They were cut with an instrument not unlike a penknife from the designs drawn upon blocks of apple or pear wood sawed lengthwise. In the very earliest engravings designer and engraver were xisually the same person; but as the art progressed ar- tists ot importance designed for woodcuts. Wood- engraving was an essentially democratic art. It occupied, in the early sixteenth centur.v, a- posi- tion analogous to that of the half-tone process in the nineteenth. For this reason its products are of highest interest as embod.ving the thoughts of the teachers and entertainers of the common people. Sixteenth Centuby. The last years of the fifteenth and the first half of the six- teenth century saw wood-engraving attain its highest development in Germany, where the motive for its practice, the need for popular re- ligious instruction, was most intense, .lbrecht Diirer, the greatest master of ancient woodcut, transformed the art. By the skillful introduc- tion of light and dark he replaced the old out- lines with some of the efTect of color, putting an end to the need of tinting, while his narrative power and the grandeur of his design excelled an.vthing hitherto done. According to the best re- search he did not himself use the knife : but he was intimately associated with a number ot highly trained engravers, whose work he minute- l,v directed, chief among whom was Hierony- n'lus Andrea?. His Apocalypse (1408), Life of the Virgin ( 1504-05), Greater Passion ( 1510-11 ) , and Lesser Passion (1509-10) were all epoch- making in the art. An important factor in the development of wood-engraving was the commissions given by the Emperor ^laxi- niilian: the Triumphal Arch, nearly ten feet in height and breadth, composed of 93 plates by Diirer and his pupils: tlic Triumphal Procession and 'Weisskunig, by Hans Burckmair of Augsburg; and the Adventures of Sir Theucrd<rnk hy Hans SchiiufTelein. Second onl.v to Diirer as a designer for woodcuts, Holbein reveals his master,y of woodcut in the celebrated Dance of Death, and to some extent in his liihlc. both published at Lyons (1538). though designed earlier. He had the good fortune to liave as an engraver Hans Liitzelburger. whose w(u-k represents the highest possible effects with the knife. The third great representative Ger- man designer for woodcut, Lucas Cranaeh (1472- 1553), though inferior to the others in desiuTi. is important as the chief champion of the Refor- mation. The "Little blasters," who followed Diirer, were so called because of the small size of their designs. -Among the best were .lbrecht