WE proceed to the fourth and last of the principal branches of the FINE ARTS, of which we expressed our intention to give our readers a concise history. It is an art of the highest value; for, as has been justly observed by a very ingenious professor of it, in a series of lectures, from which we shall take the liberty of borrowing largely on the present occasion, "a print is the translation of a picture, legible to every eye, and current in every country; distributing the admirable productions of art into the hands of thousands who, but for engraving, must have lived and died in ignorance of their worth, because unacquainted with their merits."

Engraved inscriptions, principally on stone, are probably co-eval with the invention of letters, or even of hieroglyphics, Herodotus speaks also of the delineation of maps on tablets of brass, as one of the most antient purposes to which engraving was applied. From that inferior office it probably proceeded to the representation of figures; first in simple outlines, afterwards with slight shadows. In fact, examples of this kind, from which impressions forming rude prints might actually be taken, are frequently met with on antient tombs..

The discovery of printing from plates of metal (for the preceding invention of letter-press printing had been accompanied by wood-cuts, which are a species of prints) was reserved for Thomas Finiguera, a goldsmith, at Florence, about the middle of the fifteenth century. This ingenious man, having finished some ornamental work wherein engraving was employed, and having filled the strokes with a black substance to give it conspicuous effect, was examining what he had done, when some wax from the taper he held in his hand accidentally dropped on the cold metal and hardened. On

being chipped off, the interior surface of the wax presented a transcript of that part of the engraving on which it had fallen; and suggested to Finiguera the idea that some method might be found to take the same kind of impression on paper; an idea which he afterwards successfully realized. Finiguera's engravings, which are of course rare, are chiefly in imitation of drawings with pen and ink; and in that respect he was followed by Andrea Mantegna, a painter of high and deserved repute at that period, who appeared to copy his own drawings with the most minute precision, blots and all. One of the first instances of a book receiving the embellishment of copper-plate prints is an edition of the works of Dante, with head-pieces to some of the cantos by Baldini, and Botticelli.

But the earliest great name, which we meet with in the records of the art of engraving in Italy, is that of Marc Antonio. This original artist, like many of his predecessors, was a goldsmith; which occupation he quitted for the profession of an engraver. His first efforts were copies from the productions of Albert Durer (who flourished at the same time in Germany) but his talents soon attracted the attention of Raphael, on whose inestimable performances he was ever afterwards employed. The chief excellence of Marc Antonio lay in his outline, which is absolute perfection. His extremities are marked with the truest precision ; and the character of his head denotes the accomplished master. Of light and shadow he has little to boast. Indeed, he seems to have thought all the qualities of art, which did not come under the denomination of form and character, unworthy of his consideration. Marc Antonio was immediately followed by George Ghisi Mantuanus, another fine engraver of the same description, who

transferred to his coffer the sweeping contour of Michael Angelo, in ali its tremendous sublimity. Subsequently the art of engraving rather declined in Italy. It is true that the Italian engravers slowly improved in mechanical execution, but what they gained in that respect they lost in their original distinction -fine drawing;—until at length, in the beginning of the last century, Jacomo Frey united in his works something like an equal knowledge of outline and of finishing. Since that time the Italian engravers have been unceasingly improving in all that can contribute to give excellence to their profession; and at the present moment enjoy a very high reputation.

The oldest German engravers, whose names have been transmitted to us, are Martin Schoon and Israel Van Mech. They drew in the gothic style of the ancient painters of their country, and their drapery has the appearance of having been studied from paper. Yet, even in that infant state of the art, the German school began to disclose something of the ingenuity in mechanical skill, which it afterwards so fully developed. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Marc Antonio flourished in Italy, the leading artist of Germany was Albert Durer, a man of extensive abilities but narrow education. He had great command of the graver, and carried finishing much farther than his Italian contemporaries; but his ignorance of the antique left him far behind them in every more important particular. Engraving gradually improved in Germany until the beginning of the seventeenth century, at which time Goltzius, Muller, Spranger, &c. having acquired extraordinary freedom of hand, and divested their drawing of much of its gothic stiffness, brought the art to a height to which it had never before attained; although it must be allowed, that, in their pursuit of spirit and sublimity, they frequently ran into the wildest extremes of extravagance and bombast. After their era, engraving rose no higher in Germany, and it has now sunk into insignificance.

Of the Dutch engravers few have been occupied on sublime and clasEur. Mag. Feb. 1823.

sical subjects, and still fewer with any success. But in the domestic scenes of low life their works are replete with national character, and are marked with all the fidelity of their painters. The Dutch engravers were also among the first who distinguished themselves in landscape; and for portrait they possessed, in Houbraken, an artist who, except in the French school, never was excelled. The Flemish school of engraving manifested a higher rank of merit in the works of Vosterman, Pontius, Bolswert, and others, who, in the superior departments of the art, exhibited the same style, the same principles, and almost the same power, as Rubens and his disciples displayed on the canvas. This is conspicuously the case with Bols-> wert, who, in executing the noble compositions of Rubens, seems to have been animated by a congenial spirit.

In France, engraving attained to a degree of excellence, far surpassing the expectations of its most zealous encouragers in that country. The hard, dry, mechanical manner of the former schools gave way,in the hands of the French engravers, to softness and richness. The most exquisite execution was diversified with every possible variety of texture and surface. Drawing, character, and expression, combined either with the utmost boldness and vigour, or with unparalleled delicacy and neatness, for a long time set all competition at defiance. Mason and Drevet carried finishing to the highest point it ever reached. In portrait, Nantueil and Edelinck atchieved wonders that no nation' can ever hope to exceed. Historical engraving received all its due interest and importance from Poilly, Bloemart, and the Audrans ; especially Gerard Audran, who, led by his own hold feelings, and despising the frivolity of applying immoderate neatness and elaborate finishing to works of grandeur and sublimity, shook off every shackle, and produced those master-pieces of art, where drawing and character, expression and sentiment, energy and animation, conspire to astonish and delight every beholder. During the whole of the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth century, the engrav

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ers of France held undisputed, superiority over the rest of Europe. French genius seemed then, however, to lose its vigour, and to fall into decay. Ballechon and Wille have, since that period, been the chief champions for its reputation.

We now come to the consideration of the progress of engraving in our native land. The early English engravers were of a very inferior description. Little merit in that art appeared before the seventeenth century, towards the middle of which, Hollar, Faithorne, Marshall, and some others put engraving on a more respectable footing. The force and freedom of Hollar's etchings reflect on him the highest credit as an artist, and give proof of abilities that would have been an ornament to any country, in any age. His vast powers were, however, often wasted on subjects unworthy of them. History, portraits, landscape, beasts, birds, buildings, and ornaments, all were executed with equal attention, and all evinced the hand of a master. But the national troubles of those times soon disturbed the repose of the arts, and at length frightened them quite away. After that, a tasteless court influenced a tasteless people. Genius was discouraged; and the tide of art sunk to a lower ebb than ever. Such was the depressed condition of engraving that, early in the last century, a work being projected, consisting of fine protraits of all the great men whose talents had been an honour to this nation, no Englishman could be found capable of engraving the plates; and it became necessary to send them into Holland, where they were admirably executed by Houbraken. It is consoling to add, that, before the end of the same century, the Dutch sent pupils into this country to learn the same art from the English, with the view of retrieving it for the sake of its commercial advantages.

From the period just mentioned, we may date the gradual rise of English engraving. Vertue engraved the portraits of the English monarchs, of the same size, and apparently with a view to rival Houbraken, to whom, however, he was inferior, although certainly entitled to claim a rank above mediocrity. Dorigny engraved the Cartoons,

taking Gerard Audran for his mo.. del; whom he also by no means equalled in drawing, and in giving the style of the master. Nevertheless, Dorigny possessed considerable merit,which was rewarded with knighthood: it being the first instance of an engraver receiving that distinction at the English court. These were succeeded by Vandergucht, Ravenet, Baron, and that glory of his country, Hogarth, whose exquisite compositions of characteristic humour, both on the canvas and on the copper, place him at the head of that department of the arts, without even the approach of a rival. A little before the middle of the last century, books began to receive the embellishment of genuine art from the hands of Grignion, who may be justly considered the father of all the splendid decoration, that has of late distinguished the literary productions of this

country.

Soon after the middle of the last century, a memorable revolution, (as we have observed in our former historical sketches on these subjects) took place in the state of the English arts; and in none more unequivocally than in Engraving.Three of the most distinguished of the artists, who, by their admirable talents, contributed to give that su periority to English prints, of which they have ever since retained undisturbed possession, deserve particu lar notice.

The first is Sir Robert Strange, who, had his knowledge of drawing been equal to his knowledge of engraying, would have left no room for improvement in the art. His eye for colour, the richness of his flesh, both in tone and texture, and the firmness and freedom of his graver, produced all the effect of the highest finishing. The next is Woollet, whose transcendent abilities origi nally discovered themselves in his landcapes, in which line he far surpassed all that the world had then seen. His modesty led him, in the first instance, to conceive himself inadequate to the task of en-, graving figures. At length he ventured to undertake an historical, plate; and excited the admiration of all Europe by the production of that noble performance, the Death

of General Wolfe; a work surpassed only by his subsequent and inimitable plate of the battle of La Hogue. For variety of surface, boldness of contrast, force of effect, accuracy of execution, and richness of texture, Woollet never had an equal. The last member of this distinguished triumvirate is that mighty master of his art, Bartolozzi, whose high example, during his long residence in this country contributed above all things to the improvement of British engraving; and whose best works being executed in England, and therefore considered as English prints, in -no small degree enhanced the reputation of British art through all the rest of Europe. His incomparable productions are beyond all controversy the finest specimens of grace, taste, and beauty that the world has ever beheld.

Among our living engravers are many individuals of the highest talents; a fact abundantly manifest in the Exhibition in Soho Square, noticed in the last number of the European Magazine. In execution,

the English engravers equal, if they do not excel, all their competitors; and as to the true system of chiaro-scuro, to harmony of colour, and to brilliancy of effect, by English engravers alone have those qualities been introduced into the art, practised, and brought to perfection. English engravers have produced, and still continue to produce, historical prints which, take them for all in all, form more complete works of art than any other country has or ever had to boast of; portraits, that France alone in her brightest day has been able to equal; and landscapes, that leave no question of their superiority to every thing of the kind ever seen. Indeed, whether we search the portfolios and cabinets of the curious, survey the decorated walls of the splendid mansion, or inspect the embellished libraries of the literati, we must be convinced that engraving has acquired in Great Britain an elevation and distinction unparalleled in the annals of the art.

The eighteenth Annual Exhibition of the works of British artists, placed in the gallery of the British Institution, is now opened. It consists of 336 works of art, contributed by no fewer than 181 artists! As usual, many of these works have been already before the public at Somerset House; but there is a suthcient infusion of novelty to render the Exhibition very agreeable and interesting.

We are by no means sure that it is a fact discreditable to the English nation, but, whether it be so or not, it is a fact which cannot be concealed, that a warm and unaffected love for what may be termed the epic in art is entertained but by few; and that the artists whose original bent of mind, whose studies and whose means enable them to gratify that refined passion, are still fewer: yet no country, in ancient or modern times, has afforded more frequent examples in action of the truly heroic, moral and physical, than Great Britain. The infrequency therefore of this

aptitude for the highest walks of art does not arise from any deficiency in the power of estimating extraordinary mental dignity, or extraordinary bodily atchievement. Nor is it universal. Sometimes we meet with an artist, and sometimes with a judge, the one capable of executing, the other capable of appreciating the most elevated conceptions of the imagination. Such splendid exceptions, however, are scarce. They only prove the correctness of our general remark, that the present taste of the country is of a more bland and domestic nature; and, as our readers know, de gustibus non;—but “the proverb is rather musty."

Into these reflections we were unavoidably led by the first glance which we cast round the walls, on entering the British Gallery. Works of high pretension, we speak as to subject, are rare; and it is with pain we are compelled, by an adherence to truth, to add, that the value of the assemblage would not have been diminished had they been

more so; but this absence of the exalted and severe in art is, in a great measure, we dare not say entirely, atoned for by a multitude of admirable productions of less elevated rank, but which irresistibly appeal to the more social and amiable feel ings. Affecting, elegant, familiar, and ludicrous scenes in real life, are represented with a pathos, a taste, and a gaiety of pencil, which evince an intimate knowledge of the workings of human nature, and a singular skill in their developement and expression. The beauties of English landscape, whether half veiled in the modest grey of morning light, or glowing in the gorgeous hues cast on them by the beams of the setting sun,-whether reposing in

delicious and uninterrupted tranquillity, or partially disturbed by the awful agitations of the tempest,-are exhibited in all their variety with a truth, a delicacy, and a vigour, which may fearlessly challenge the competition of the world; and even the minor departments of animal painting and still-life can boast of several delightful specimens of character and finishing.

The limits to which, in a Miscellany like ours, every particular subject must be confined, prevent us at present from going into any details; but we intend, in our next Number, to make a few observations on those works in the collection which appear to us to be the most entitled to regard.

A.R. A.-Associate of the Royal Academy.