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Transcriber's note:
A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
single character following the carat is superscripted
(example: cccc^o).
The original page numbers are enclosed by curly brackets
and embedded in the text to facilitate the use of the
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[Illustration: HENRY VIII. IN COUNCIL
(_From Holinshed's 'Chronicles of England,'_ 1577)
_Page 100_]
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM ITS INVENTION
by
JOSEPH CUNDALL
Author of 'Holbein and His Works' etc.
London
Sampson Low, Marston, & Company
Limited
St. Dunstan's House
Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.
1895
{vii}
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
On Pictures of Saints--The print of _The Virgin with the
Holy Child in her Lap_ in the Bibliothèque Royale de
Belgique--On the print of _St. Christopher_ in the Spencer
Library at Manchester--The _Annunciation_ and the _St.
Bridget_ of Sweden 1
CHAPTER II
On the Block Books of the Fifteenth Century--Biblia Pauperum;
Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis, &c. 11
CHAPTER III
The Block Books of the Fifteenth Century--Ars Moriendi--
_Temptacio Diaboli_--Canticum Canticorum, and others 20
CHAPTER IV
Block Book--Speculum Humanae Salvationis--_Casus
Luciferi_--The Mentz Psalter of 1459--Book of Fables--The
Cologne Bible--Nürnberg Chronicle--Breydenbach's
Travels 28
CHAPTER V
On Wood-Engraving in Italy in the Fifteenth Century--The
Venice _Kalendario_ of 1476--The _Triumph of Petrarch_--The
_Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_--Aldo Manuzio--Portrait
of Aldus 40
{viii}
CHAPTER VI
On Wood-Engraving in France in the Fifteenth Century--
Engraving on Metal Blocks--'Books of Hours'--Famous
French Publishers: Pierre Le Rouge, Simon Vostre,
Antoine Verard, Thielman Kerver, Guyot Marchant,
Philippe Pigouchet, Jean Dupré, and others 51
CHAPTER VII
Wood-Engraving in England in the Fifteenth Century--William
Caxton, _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_--_Dictes
and Sayings of Philosophers_--_Game and Playe of
the Chesse_, &c.--Wynkyn de Worde--Richard Pynson 61
CHAPTER VIII
Wood-Engraving in Germany in the Sixteenth Century--Albrecht
Dürer--_Coronation of the Virgin_--The Apocalypse--The
Little Passion--His Engravings on Copper--The
Triumphs of Maximilian--The _Triumphal Arch_--The
_Triumphal Car_--The _Triumphal Procession_ 69
CHAPTER IX
Hans Holbein--_Dance of Death_--Bible Cuts--Hans
Lützelburger--_Dance of Death Alphabet_--The Little
Masters--Altdorfer--Beham--Brosamer--Aldegrever--Cranach 81
CHAPTER X
Wood-Engraving in Italy and France in the Sixteenth
Century--Giuseppe Porta of Venice--Geoffroy Tory and
Robert Estienne of Paris--Borluyt's _Figures from the
New Testament_--Christophe Plantin of Antwerp 89
{ix}
CHAPTER XI
Wood-Engraving in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
in Italy and England--Printing in Chiaro-oscuro in
Venice--Printing in Colour in Germany--_Habiti Antichi
e Moderni_ by Vecellio--Wood-Engraving in England--Foxe's
_Acts and Monuments_--Holinshed's _Chronicles_--_A
Booke of Christian Prayers_--Dr. Cuningham's _Cosmographical
Glasse_--_Æsop's Fables_--The French engraver
Papillon 99
CHAPTER XII
Thomas Bewick and his Pupils--_Select Fables_--_History of
Quadrupeds_--_History of British Birds_--_Æsop's Fables_--
Prices at which these books were published--Death of
Bewick 108
CHAPTER XIII
Bewick's Successors--John Bewick (his Brother)--_Looking-glass
for the Mind_--_Goldsmith's Poems_--_Somerville's
Chase_--Robert Johnson--Charlton Nesbit--Robert Elliot
R. Bewick--_History of Fishes_--Luke Clennell--William
Harvey--George Bonner--W. H. Powis--John Jackson--Ebenezer
Landells--Robert Branston--F. W. Branston--John
Thompson--J. Orrin Smith--John and Mary Byfield--Samuel
Williams--W. T. Green--O. Jewitt--C. Gray--S.
Slader--J. Greenaway--W. J. Palmer--German Engravers--Modern
English Engravers 116
INDEX 129
{x}
[Illustration: THE WOOD-ENGRAVER
_By Jost Amman_ (1568)]
{1}
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF
WOOD-ENGRAVING
------
CHAPTER I
_ON THE EARLY PICTURES OF SAINTS_
Many volumes have been written on the subject of Wood-Engraving, especially
in Germany, Holland, and Belgium, where the art first flourished; as well
as in Italy, France, and England; and some of the best of these books have
been published during the present century.
The most important of them are, Dr. Dibdin's celebrated bibliographical
works; 'A Treatise on Wood-Engraving,' by W. A. Chatto, of which a new
edition has lately been issued; 'Wood-Engraving in Italy in the 15th
Century,' by Dr. Lippmann; and, above all, 'The Masters of Wood-Engraving,'
a magnificent folio volume written by Mr. W. J. Linton--himself a
Master--who, besides giving us the benefit of his technical knowledge
obtained by the practice of the art for fifty years, presents us with
copies, from blocks engraved by himself, of the most celebrated woodcuts of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Many writers have asserted that the first wood-engravings are to be found
on playing-cards; others maintain that {2} the very rough prints on the
playing-cards of the early fifteenth century were taken from
stencil-plates. It is impossible to decide the point, nor is it of much
importance; there is no evidence whatever as to the method of their
production. They appeared in Europe about the year 1350: they came from the
East, but their positive history, according to Dr. Willshire, begins in the
year 1392.[1] It has been asserted that many prints of Images of Saints
produced by means of wood-engraving preceded even playing-cards.
The first undoubted fact that we can arrive at in the history of
wood-engraving is that early in the fifteenth century there were to be
found, in many of the monasteries and convents in various parts of Europe,
prints of the Virgin with the Holy Infant, the most popular Saints, and
Subjects from the Bible, which were certainly taken from engravings on
wood; and we have now to describe some typical examples of primitive
devotional pictures, printed by the xylographic process. The earliest of
these woodcuts may date from 1380, and there are many which are assigned to
the first half of the fifteenth century; they were all intended to be
coloured by hand, and are therefore simply in outline, without shading. The
designs are usually good, but the execution is not always so meritorious.
In the Royal Library at Brussels there is a coloured print of _The Virgin
with the Holy Child in her lap_, surrounded by four Saints in an inclosed
garden. On the Virgin's right hand sits St. Catherine, with a royal crown
on her head, the sword in her left hand, and, leaning against her feet, a
broken wheel. Beneath is St. Dorothea crowned with roses, with a branch of
a rose-tree in her right hand and the handle of a basket of apples in her
left; on the other side are St. Barbara holding her tower, and, under her,
St. Margaret with a book in her left hand; her right hand clasps a laidly
dragon, and a cross leans upon her arm. {3}
[Illustration: THE VIRGIN WITH FOUR SAINTS
_In the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique_]
{4} Outside the palings a rabbit is feeding; a bird sits on the rail behind
St. Catherine, two others are flying, and, above all, three angels are
offering chaplets of roses to the Virgin; a palm-tree is growing on each
side of her. But the most important part of the print is the very solid
three-barred gate at the entrance to the garden, for on the uppermost of
the bars we distinctly read m: cccc^o xviii^o. The print itself measures
14½ inches in height by 9 inches in width, without reckoning the border
lines. It was found pasted at the bottom of an old coffer in the possession
of an innkeeper at Malines in 1844 by a well-known architect, M. de Noter,
who, recognising its great importance, offered it to the Royal Library at
Brussels. It has been reproduced in scrupulously exact facsimile and fully
described in the work entitled 'Documents iconographiques et typographiques
de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique,' published by MM. Muquardt of
Brussels. The small letters ^o are supposed to represent nails in the gate.
M. Georges Duplessis tells us that he has examined the print minutely
several times, and that he does not believe this date has been tampered
with in any way. Some collectors and would-be critics maintain that the
drawing of the figures and the folds of the garments are of a later date
than 1418; if they were to examine the works of Hubert and Jan van Eyck,
and the paintings of Meister Stephan Lochner of Cologne, Rogier van der
Weyden, and other artists who lived about this time, they would be
sufficiently answered. Mr. Linton is of opinion (and there can be no better
judge) that the _style_ of the engraving does not compel him to attribute
it to a later date than 1418, yet both he and Mr. Chatto express their
doubts as to its authenticity--it appears to us, without sufficient reason.
About the middle of the eighteenth century Herr Heinecken, a German
collector of engravings, discovered, pasted {5} inside the binding of a
manuscript in the library of the convent of Buxheim in Suabia, a folio
print brightly coloured of _St. Christopher bearing the Infant Christ_.
The outlines are printed in black ink, not by any kind of press, but in
much the same way as that used by wood-engravers of the present day in
taking their proofs, who first ink the engraved surface with a printer's
ball, then lay the paper carefully over the cut, waxed at the edges to hold
the paper firmly, and rub the back of the paper with a burnisher. In the
fifteenth century a roller called a _frotton_ was used, as being more
expeditious.
Our illustration gives an idea of the original, which is still in the cover
of the book in which it was discovered, and now in the Spencer Library at
Manchester. The cut measures 11½ inches in height by 8½ inches in width,
and is coloured after the manner of the time; that is, the Saint's robe is
tinted with red and the lining with yellow ochre, the nimbuses are of the
same kind of yellow; the robes of Christ and the monk are light blue, of
the same tint as the water; the grass and foliage are bright green; the
faces, hands, and legs are in a pale flesh-tint; there are but five or six
colours used, and they may have been either washed in by hand or brushed in
through a stencil-plate. As hand colouring would be quicker and less
troublesome, one does not see the advantage of the stencil. The inscription
beneath the cut reads thus:--
Cristofori faciem die quacumque tueris Millesimo cccc^o
Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris xx^o tercio
which may be rendered:
On whatever day the face of Christopher thou shalt see,
On that day no evil form of death shall visit thee.
{6}
[Illustration: ST. CHRISTOPHER
_The original (11½ in. by 8½ in.) is pasted inside the cover of an old
manuscript book in the Spencer Library now at Manchester._]
{7} Mr. Linton is enthusiastic in praise of this cut. 'I am well content,'
he says, 'to give some words of unstinted praise to our St. Christopher for
the design. I mind not the disproportionate space he occupies in the
picture. Is not he famous as a giant? The perspective also is good enough
for me, as doubtless it was to those in whose interest the print was
issued. It is certain he is crossing a stream; we see a fish beneath the
waves. He supports his colossal frame and helps his steady course with a
full-grown fruit-bearing palm-tree--fit staff for saintly son of Anak; no
heathen he; the nimbus is round his head. As on his shoulders he bears the
Lord of the World, can we fail to remark his upturned glance, inquiring why
he is thus bowed down by a little child? The blessing hand of the Blessed
plainly gives reply. Look again, and see on one side of the stream the
merely secular life; is it not all expressed by the mill and the miller and
his ass, and far up the steep road (what need for diminishing distance?)
the peasant with the sack of flour toiling towards his humble home. And on
the other side is the spiritual life--the hermit, by his windowless hut,
the warning bell above; he kneels in front, with his lantern of faith
lifted high in his hand, a beacon for whatever wayfarer the ferryman may
bring. Rank grasses and the fearless rabbit mark the quiet solitude in
which the hermit dwells. I can forgive all shortcomings. These old-century
men were in earnest.'
In the Spencer collection are two other prints which may be attributed to
the same period as the St. Christopher. One is a picture of _The
Annunciation_, which was found pasted on the end cover of the book (_Laus
Virginis_) in which the St. Christopher was discovered. It is of similar
size, and is printed with a dark-coloured pigment, probably by means of a
_frotton_. The Angel Gabriel is kneeling before the Virgin, who also is
kneeling; she holds a book in her hand, and is represented in a kind of
Gothic chapel; a vase with flowers in it stands under one of the
diamond-paned windows. The Holy Dove is descending in a flood of rays;
unfortunately the figure of the Almighty has been torn from the top
left-hand corner of the print. On one of the pillars of the chapel is a
small scroll with the legend
Ave gracia plena dominus tecum.
{8}
[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION
_The original (11½ in. by 8½ in.) is pasted inside the cover of an old
manuscript book in the Spencer Library._]
{9} The wood-engraver may produce his design in two ways, either by means
of black lines on a white ground, or by white designs on a black ground.
The two methods are here united, while in the St. Christopher one only (the
first) is used. Notice the discreet use of masses of black to give force to
the design, and to contrast with the lightness of the other part of the
picture. The Annunciation belongs to quite a different school to the St.
Christopher.
The other print is of St. Bridget of Sweden (who died in 1373). She is
seated at a sloping desk, writing with a stylus in a book. The motto above
her head is o brigita bit got für uns ('O Bridget, pray to God for us'). In
the left upper corner is a small representation of the Virgin with the Holy
Infant in her arms, opposite is a shield with the letters S.P.Q.R. on it,
referring to her journey to Rome. In the lower corners are, on the left,
the palm and crown of martyrdom; and on the right is a shield with the
_Lion rampant_ of Sweden. A pilgrim's hat and scrip hang on a staff behind
the Virgin's seat. The print is roughly coloured, evidently by hand.
Many other woodcuts of the same character have been discovered, which are
believed to have been engraved in the first half of the fifteenth century.
In the Imperial Library at Vienna there is a print of _St. Sebastian_,
bearing the date 1437, which was found in the monastery of St. Blaise in
the Black Forest. 'Having visited,' says Herr Heinecken, 'in my last tour a
great many convents in Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, and in the Austrian
States, I everywhere discovered in their libraries many of these kinds of
figures engraved on wood. They were usually pasted either at the beginning
or the end of old volumes of the fifteenth century. These facts have
confirmed me in my opinion that the next step of the {10} engraver on wood,
after playing-cards, was to engrave figures of Saints, which, being
distributed and lost among the laity, were in part preserved by the monks,
who pasted them into the earliest printed books with which their libraries
were furnished.' Herr Heinecken possessed more than a hundred of these
pictures of Saints. There can be little doubt they were produced in the
monasteries and convents, and distributed to the people, especially in the
processions of the Church, as aids to devotion. Among the thousands of
monks who lived in the fifteenth century there must have been many men who,
like Fra Angelico, were gifted with sufficient artistic taste to enable
them to draw and engrave such a picture as the St. Christopher.
* * * * *
{11}