he endeavoured to display all his Art in this Performance, and the
Drawing of _Rembrandt’s_ Stile is intirely preserved in this Print;
it is dedicated to Mr. _Smith_, who generously gave the Prints to
all Gentlemen who came to _Venice_ at that time in order to
recommend the Talents of a Man whose Industry might please the
curious, and at least be of some Use to procure him Encouragement to
proceed in other Works of that Kind.
Encouragement soon came. Smith interested two of his friends, Charles
Frederick and Smart Lethieullier, and the three proposed in 1739 the
undertaking of a grand project in chiaroscuro, the reproduction of 17
huge paintings by Venetian masters. This was to be financed by
subscription, says the _Enquiry_ (p. 46):
the Proposals in _French_, and the Conditions expressed therein,
were drawn up as they thought proper, without consulting the
Difficulties that must attend an Enterprize that required some years
to accomplish.
Their own subscriptions were no doubt generous but Jackson found that
his total income from this form of financing, together with possible
future sales, would hardly cover his expenses. Other hazards made his
situation even worse. War broke out in Europe before he was halfway
through, and many English gentlemen, his potential subscribers, left the
country. This exodus meant financial disaster, but Jackson kept at his
task. He should, he said, have gone to England for his own best
interests but felt that he couldn’t disappoint his distinguished
patrons.
The first print completed was after Titian’s _St. Peter Martyr_ at the
Dominican Church of Sts. Giovanni and Paolo. In coloring it is similar
to the Rembrandt print, with gray-green sky, yellow lights, and cool
brown shadows. While attractive and forceful, it is not as effective as
the Rembrandt because Titian, with his greater range of color, presented
a more complex problem. Most of the prints thereafter leaned to
monochromes in either browns or greens. The _St. Peter_ was finished in
1739 and in the same year five more prints were brought to completion.
In 1740 he produced the three sheets which made up Tintoretto’s
_Crucifixion_ in the Scuola di San Rocco.[29] These were intended to be
joined, if desired, to form one long print measuring about 22 × 50
inches.
[Footnote 29: Jackson mentioned that he was seen drawing the
blocks in the presence of Sir Roger Newdigate, Sir Bouchier Wrey
“and other gentlemen of distinction.” The reason for such
reference was probably some comment that he might have traced his
outlines from Agostino Carracci’s 1582 engraving of the same
subject in three large sheets (B. 23), each of which joins the
others at precisely the same places as Jackson’s sheets. I am
indebted to Dr. Jakob Rosenberg of the Fogg Museum for pointing
out these similarities.]
Of the ten remaining subjects, the last, Jacopo Bassano’s _Dives and
Lazarus_, was finished at the end of 1743, and the set of 24 plates
(some paintings, as noted, were reproduced in three sheets and some in
two) was published as a bound volume by J. B. Pasquali in Venice, 1745,
under the title _Titiani Vecelii, Pauli Caliarii, Jacobi Robusti et
Jacobi de Ponte; opera selectiora a Joanne Baptista Jackson, Anglo,
ligno coelata et coloribus adumbrata_.
The Venetian prints were not merely an extension of chiaroscuro, they
represented a daring effort to go beyond line engraving for reproducing
paintings. Justification for this attempt is given in the _Essay_
(p. 6):
... and though those delicate Finishings, and minute Strokes, which
make up great Part of the Merit of engraving on Copper, are not to
be found in those cut on Wood in _Chiaro Oscuro_; yet there is a
masterly and free Drawing, a boldness of Engraving and Relief, which
pleases a true Taste more than all the little Exactness found in the
Engravings on Copper Plates ... and indeed has an Effect which the
best Judges very often prefer to any Prints from Engravings, done
with all that Exactness, minute Strokes of the Graver, and Neatness
of Work, which is sure to captivate the Minds of those whose Taste
is formed upon the little Considerations of delicately handling the
Tools, and not upon the Freedom, Life and Spirit of the separate
Figures, and indeed the whole Composition.
A novel device, embossing, was employed to give added strength to the
prints. This development had been foreshadowed by earlier prints and
pages of text which showed a slight indentation where the dampened paper
received the impression. Embossing had probably first been used
systematically by Elisha Kirkall in 1722-24, and by Arthur Pond in his
chiaroscuros, made in 1732-36 in conjunction with George Knapton, after
drawings by old masters. Jackson admired Pond’s work even though it
combined etched outlines with two tone blocks printed from wood.[30]
Pond’s embossing was delicate and applied sparely only in certain forms,
such as ruined columns, but Jackson’s sunken areas were heavier and
franker, consciously intended to give an all-over effect. Since the
paper could not be pressed out without weakening the embossing, it often
took on the scarred and buckled look that characterizes the Venetian
chiaroscuros.
[Footnote 30: _Enquiry_, p. 35. The Japanese began to use
embossing about 1730. See Reichel, 1926, p. 48.]
The set had occupied him for 4½ years, during which he had planned, cut,
and proofed 94 blocks.
No sooner was that ended, and a little Breathing required after that
immense Fatigue, in the Year 1744 he attempted to print in Colours,
and published six Landskips in Imitation of Painting in Acquarello.
[Illustration:
Title page for _Gajo Suetonio tranquillo, le vite de’dodici
Cesari_, Piacentini, Venice, 1738.]
This new set, dedicated to Robert d’Arcy, British Ambassador to the
Republic of Venice, was based on gouache paintings by Marco Ricci,
probably done on goatskin or leather in his usual manner. For Jackson to
make these color prints was a logical step, since his work had tended
toward the full chromatic range even in the chiaroscuros, which
“adumbrated” color. His new prints were all color-- clear, sensitive,
and tonally just. It is not surprising that he seized upon Ricci’s
opaque watercolors. The paintings of the Venetian masters had darkened
in ill-lit churches, the shadows had become murky, there were too many
figures. But the Ricci paintings were small and clearly patterned, the
color sparkled.
The original gouaches have not been located, but from other examples in
the same manner, in Buckingham Palace and in the Uffizi, it is plain
that Jackson took certain liberties. Ricci’s rather sharp colors were
considerably modified and mellowed when they weren’t changed entirely:
witness the two sets in different harmonies in the British Museum. Peter
A. Wick (1955) believes it most likely that Jackson did not copy
specific paintings, and suggests that details from Ricci’s etchings and
gouaches were combined and freely amended to create Ricci-like designs.
Having determined his color scheme Jackson cut seven to ten blocks, each
designed to bear an individual color which was to combine with others
when necessary to form new colors. No outline block was used. To obtain
variations from light to dark in each pigment Jackson scraped down the
blocks with a knife; he thus lowered the surfaces slightly and created
porous textures which would introduce the white paper or the underlying
color. Examination of the prints clearly shows granular textures in the
light areas. Scraping to lighten impressions was a common procedure in
black-and-white printmaking, and was described by both Papillon and
Bewick. In addition Jackson no doubt used underlays, that is, small
pieces of paper pasted in layers of diminishing size on the backs of the
blocks where the color was most intense. The pressure was therefore
greatest in the deepest notes and lightest in the scraped parts. The
copper plate press enabled Jackson to get good register without making
marks on the blocks. The paper was dampened and fastened to the chase at
one end. After each impression the next inked block was slid into the
chase and printed wet into wet. Problems of register were eliminated
because the sheets were held in place at all times, the blocks fitting
the same form. No doubt the paper was sprinkled with water on the
reverse side after each impression to eliminate shrinking and to keep it
soft for printing. This method would explain Jackson’s transparent
effects.
Although the Ricci prints were certainly the most ambitious and
complexly planned prints of the century, the cutting is crisp and
decisive and the effect fresh and unlabored. As in the Venetian set
embossing is consciously applied. Most likely Jackson impressed the
finished prints, specially redampened for the purpose, with one or two
of the uninked blocks. Jackson interpreted Ricci’s qualities with great
spirit, and in doing so he liberated the color woodcut from its old
conventions. The “true”-color prints he produced in the medium preceded
the Japanese, if not the Chinese.[31] In Japan, it must be remembered,
simple color printing in rose and green supplanted hand coloring in
about 1741, and rudimentary polychrome prints can be dated as early as
1745, but, as Binyon[32] puts it, “it was not until 1764 that the first
rather tentative _nishiki-ye_, or complete colour-prints were produced
in Yedo, and the long reign of the Primitives came to an end.”
[Footnote 31: Altdorfer’s _Beautiful Virgin of Ratisbon_, about
1520, (B. 51, vol. 8, p. 78) made use of five colors in some
impressions (Lippmann describes one with seven colors) but these
were used primarily for decorative, not naturalistic purposes.]
[Footnote 32: Laurence Binyon, _A Catalogue of Japanese & Chinese
Woodcuts in the British Museum_, London, 1916, p. xx,
introduction.]
In making his Ricci prints Jackson sought a method of color printing
that would overcome the deficiencies of Jacob Christoph Le Blon’s
three-color mezzotint process. Le Blon, a Frenchman born in Germany, had
begun experimenting with color printing as early as 1705. His idea was
to split the chromatic components of a picture into three basic hues--
blue, red, and yellow-- in gradations of intensity so that varying
amounts of color, each on a separate copper plate, could be printed in
superimposition to reconstitute the original picture. This was based
upon a simplification of Newton’s seven primaries. Later, Le Blon added
a fourth, black plate. Incredibly, this is the principle of modern
commercial color printing, the only difference being that Le Blon did
not have a camera, color filters, and the halftone screen at his
disposal and had to make the separations by hand. Le Blon came to London
in 1719, produced an enormous number of color prints, published his
_Coloritto, or the Harmony of Colouring in Painting_ in a very small
edition about 1722 (it is undated), and shortly thereafter failed
disastrously. About 1733 he returned to Paris, where he attracted a few
followers. Most of his prints have disappeared, only about fifty being
known at present.
[Illustration:
Trial proof of the key block of center sheet of _The Crucifixion_,
after Tintoretto. National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection).]
[Illustration:
TRIAL PROOF of the key block of _Christ on the Mount of Olives_,
after Bassano. National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection).]
The idea of full-color printing, then, was in the air, although later,
in the _Enquiry_, Jackson took pains to state that he had not been
following in the footsteps of the Frenchman, who, he claimed, had made
serious mistakes.
The Curious may think that this Tentamine was taken from the
celebrated Mr. _le Blond_; I must here take the Liberty to explain
the Difference.... Numbers are convinced already, that the printing
Copper-plates done with _Fumo_ or _Mezzotinto_, are the most subject
to wear out the soonest of any sort of Engraving on that Metal. Had
this one Article been properly considered, _le Blond_, must have
seen the impossibility of printing any Quantity from his repeated
Impressions of Blue, Red, and Yellow Plates, so as to produce only
Twenty of these printed Pictures to be alike. This is obvious to
every one who has any Knowledge, or has seen the cleaning of
Copper-plates after the Colour was laid on; the delicate finishing
of the Flesh must infallibly wear out every time the Plate is
cleaned, and all the tender light Shadowing of any Colour must soon
become white in proportion as the Plate wears. The Nature of
Impression being overlooked at first, was the principal Cause that
Undertaking came to nothing, notwithstanding the immense Expence the
Proprietors were at to have a few imperfect Proofs at best, since it
is evident they could be no other. The new invented Method of
printing in Colours by Mr. _Jackson_ is under no Apprehension of
being wore out so soon.... Whatever has been done by our _English_
Artist, was all printed with Wood Blocks with a strong Relievo, and
in Substance sufficient to draw off almost any number that may be
required.
What Jackson neglected to mention was the difficulty of repeating
transparent color effects with large planks of wood. Few existing
impressions match each other and some prints are off register. What
saved him was his fine color sense, his brilliance as a woodcutter, and
his disinclination to make literal color reproductions.
The work that Jackson left behind became a part of the cultural heritage
of Venice, valued on its own account as well as for its connection with
the city. Zanetti[33] describes the Venetian set and Zanotto,[34] in his
_Guida_ of 1856, urges a visit to the Chiesa Abaziale della
Misericordia, which evidently had on permanent exhibition a “perfectly
unique collection of woodcuts in various colors by Jackson, quite
unmatched.”
[Footnote 33: Zanetti, 1792, pp. 689, 716.]
[Footnote 34: Zanotto, 1856, p. 320, note 3.]
Gallo[35] says that some of Jackson’s blocks found their way to the
printing house of the Remondini and were used to strike off new
impressions, after which they became the property of the Typografia
Pozzato in Bassano. This might explain some of the inferior examples of
the Venetian set which could hardly have come from the presses of
Jackson or Pasquali.
[Footnote 35: Gallo, 1941, pp. 23-23. Jackson’s blocks are not
listed in the Remondini catalog of 1817.]
_England Again: The Wallpaper Venture_
Jackson was married in Venice-- whether to an Italian we do not know--
and when he left the city in 1745 to return to England he took a family
along. He mentions “an impoverish’d Family” in the _Essay_, but beyond
this we know nothing of his personal life.
As soon as he arrived in England he was invited to work in a calico
establishment, where he remained about six years. But making drawings to
be printed on cloth failed to give him the scope he required. At the
back of his mind was the passion to work with woodblocks in color. This
led him to take a bold and hazardous step-- to leave his position and
attempt, obviously with little capital, the manufacture of wallpaper,
not to please an established taste but to educate the public to a new
type of product.
Wallpaper had come into popular use in England in the late 17th century,
having been obtained from China by the East India Company. These
hand-painted wall hangings, imported at great cost and in small
quantities, were correspondingly expensive. The subjects were gay and
fanciful-- birds, fans, Chinese kiosks, pagodas, and flowers. Highly
desired because they offered an escape from the heavy grandeur of the
Baroque style, they were subsequently imitated by assembly-line methods.
They fitted naturally into the developing _rocaille_ style (corrupted
into Rococo outside of France), and it is not surprising that they were
also produced extensively in Paris. In England these imitations, which
formed a substitute for expensive velvet and damask hangings, completely
dominated the wallpaper field.
The first notice of Jackson’s venture appeared in the _Gentleman’s
Magazine_ of February 1752.[36] A letter signed “Y. D.” praised the
editor “Sylvanus Urban” for attempting to revive the art of cutting on
wood. It mentioned that this art was in decline for more than a century,
but noted that--
Two of our countrymen, _E. Kirkall_ and _J. B. Jackson_, ought to be
exempted from this general charge; the former having a few years ago
introduced the _Chiaro Oscuro_ of _Hugo de Carpi_ into England,
though he met with no extraordinary encouragement for his ingenuity;
and the art had died with him had not the latter attempted to revive
it, but with less encouragement than his predecessor. _Mr. Jackson_,
however, has lately invented a new method of printing paper hangings
from blocks, which is very ornamental, and exceeds the common method
of paper-staining (as it is termed) by the delicacy of his drawings,
the novelty of his designs, and the masterly arrangement of his
principal figures.
[Footnote 36: Vol. 22, pp. 77-79.]
The next notice appeared in the _London Evening Post_ of April 30-May 2,
1752:
New invented PAPER HANGINGS, printed in Oyl, which prevents the
fading or changing of the Colours; as also Landscapes printed in
Colours, by J. B. Jackson, Reviver of the Art of printing in Chiaro
Oscuro, are to be had at Dunbar’s Warehouse in Aldermanbury, London;
or Mr. Gibson’s, Bookseller, opposite the St. Alban’s Tavern in
Charles-street near St. James’s-Square, and no where else.
Several months afterwards, in the September 1752 issue of _Gentleman’s
Magazine_, publication of the _Enquiry into the Origins of Printing in
Europe_ was announced.
The _Enquiry_ is an odd book. It combines rewritten versions of two
Jackson manuscripts, a study of the origins of printing in Europe and an
autobiographical journal covering, we suppose, the years from about 1725
on. The writer, in his introduction, says that he had been attracted by
the two notices mentioned and went to see Jackson, whom he already knew
by reputation. As a “Lover of Art” he considered it his duty to acquaint
the public with Jackson’s ideas concerning the origins of printing.
These ideas, he felt, were an important contribution. After devoting
half the little book to a rambling account of this subject, including a
short history of woodcutting from Dürer onward, the author suddenly
shifts to the journal. It is regrettable that he condensed it because we
do not know what was left out. It is possible that much autobiographical
information was excluded, as well as a picture of woodcutters and
woodcutting of the time. The book concludes with the statement that
Jackson intended to print in October of that year (1752) a paper hanging
in two sheets after an original painting “by _F. Simonnetta_ of
_Parma_”[37] representing the battle fought near that city in 1738.
[Footnote 37: There is little doubt that Jackson meant Francesco
Simonini (1686-1753), a painter of battle subjects who was born in
Parma and lived in Venice in the 1740’s.]
This print was to be in full color, 3 feet 6 inches long by 2 feet high,
and was to serve as a specimen for a series of four of the same size,
the others being “History, Pictures and Landscapes.” They were to be
done by subscription:
No Money will be required of the Subscribers till the Prints are
finished, and only at the Delivery. It is to be hoped the Curious
and the Public will encourage this Undertaking, by a Man who has
spent the greatest Part of his Life in searching after and improving
an Art, believed by all to be lost, and has restored it to the
Condition we now see it in his Works.
The only known copy of this battle picture, made from about seven
blocks, is in the Print Room of the British Museum. It is a magnificent
piece. Probably nothing with this breadth of handling had ever been done
in woodcut before. The color is grave and beautifully harmonized,
although the paper has deteriorated and the colors have darkened
somewhat. The blocks were cut with ardor, almost fury; everything is
brought to life with masterly assurance. Martin Hardie, who made the
only previous comment on this print, which he could only surmise was
Jackson’s, says:[38] “Jackson’s supreme achievement is a large battle
scene, with wonderful masses of rich colour superbly blended,
reminiscent of Velasquez in breadth, in dignity, and in glory of tone.”
[Footnote 38: Hardie, 1906, p. 23.]
There were competitors in London, among them Matthias Darley, who
produced papers in the Chinese style; Thomas Bromwich, who was
patronized by Walpole; and Robert Dunbar, Jr., of Aldermanbury, who in
addition sold Jackson’s papers. They lacked both Jackson’s gifts and his
unreasonable standards but they produced more generally acceptable
wallpaper with greater facility. These competitors did not work in oil
colors, like Jackson. Transparent tints were too difficult to control,
especially when applied with inking balls (composition rollers did not
come into use until well after 1800), and effects were too heavy. They
used distemper-- powdered color mixed with glue and water, with chalk
added to give body. This was sometimes applied with woodblock or stencil
but most often it was simply painted in by hand over a blockprinted
outline. Often the painting was done directly on the wall after the
paper was hung. These wallpapers were weak when examined critically, but
nobody worried as long as a light bright pastel effect was obtained.
Jackson’s vigorous drawing and woodcutting were out of place in this
field. They were, like his tonal exactitude that made holes in the wall,
a distraction and an offense against interior decoration.
Jackson’s business, therefore, did not prosper. In a last effort to stir
up public interest he published, in 1754, his well-known little book,
_An Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro Oscuro_,
illustrated with eight prints in “proper colours.” It sold for two
shillings and sixpence. The style was rather florid but his arguments
were presented with such vigor that it is easy to see why critics have
found it difficult to refrain from quoting at length. The main body of
text is only eight pages long, with an additional eight pages of
subsidiary descriptive material attached to the pictures.
On the title page appeared his favorite passage from Pascal, used
previously on the title page of the _Enquiry_: “Ceux qui sont capables
d’inventer sont rares: ceux qui n’inventent point sont en plus grand
nombre, et par conséquent les plus forts.” The first few pages of the
_Essay_ enlarge on this theme:
It has been too generally the Fate of those who set themselves to
the Inventing any Thing that requires Talents in the Discovery, to
apply all their Faculties, exhaust their Fortune, and waste their
whole Time in bringing that to Perfection, which when obtained, Age,
Death, or Want of sufficient Supplies, obliges them to relinquish,
and to yield all the Advantages which their Hopes had flattered them
with, and which had supported their Spirits during their Fatigues
and Difficulties, to others; and thus leave behind them an
impoverish’d Family incapable to carry on their Parent’s Design, and
too often complaining of the projecting Genius of that Father who
has ruin’d them, tho’ he has enriched the Nation to which he
belonged, and to which of Consequence he was a laudable Benefactor.
He proceeds in this bitter vein for a time, then brings into the open
the main purpose of the book:
Another Reason perhaps is, that the Artist being totally engaged in
the Pursuit of his Discovery, has but little Time to apply to the
Lovers and Encouragers of Art for their Patronage, Protection, and
Supplies necessary for the carrying on such a Design, or he has not
Powers to set the Advantage which would result from it in a true
Light; nor communicate in Words what he clearly conceived in Idea:
for certainly there are Men enough, who from the mere Desire of
increasing their Wealth, would give him that Assistance, which, like
the artificial Heat of a Greenhouse, would bring that Art to a
Ripeness, which would otherwise languish and die under the Coldness
of the first Designer, and which in this Union of Riches and
Invention would yield mutual Advantage to both.