The art of engraving on plates of metal, for taking impressions on paper, seems first to have been practised by the German goldsmiths, whose profession was at that time intimately connected With the arts of painting and sculpture. The earliest specimens which we have with dates, are those mentioned by Professor Christ, (Diction afre des Monogrammes,) one 1465, others 1466, and 1467. These are all without names, and the works of the se veral artists being only distinguished from each other by monograms, and logogriphes or enigmatical symbols, (which has occasioned obscurity and confusion,) their names are totally unknown to us; but there are many other prints without either date or monogram, which, both from their design and execution, prove the existence of the art at a much earlier period.
The first artist whose name we are acquainted with, is Martin Schoen, a painter, engraver, and goldsmith. He was horn at Culmbach in the year 1420, and died at Col mar 1486. His plates were executed between the years 1460 and 1486. They are very numerous, and making the necessary allowance for the age and country in which he lived, and the disadvantages he laboured un der, he must be allowed to be a man of strong mind and fertile imagination; though his figures have all the mea gre taste and bad drawing of that time, his heads are well conceived, and the xvhola is executed with much mechanical skill. The taste of his design shews the in fancy of that branch of the art ; yet the beauty of his ex ecution displays a more advanced state in the mechani cal part of the art of engraving. He is said to have been a pupil of Stohzhirs, (an artist of whom we have no well authenticated work ;) according to others, of Fran cis Stoss, to whose style that of Schoen bears a great re semblance, though it must be allowed it is greatly in v. proved.
If we admit that Schoen's preceptor, whoever he was, practised the art ten years before him, it places its ori gin as far back as the year 1450, ten years before the time fixed by Vasari for its Italian origin.
On the authority' of Vasari, the Italians ascribe the in vention to Maso, or Thomas° Finiguerra, about the ear 1460; and this may be correct with regard to Italy: for it is very possible, that the art or engraving might have been practised long in Germany without the Ita lians being acquainted with it, as, except between Ve nice and Antwerp, there was at that time little inter course between the two countries. It is, however, re
markable, that no sufficiently authenticated of Fi niguerra has ever been produced, although Marlette of Paris, and others, have made diligent enquiry on the subject. It is, however, probable, that, amongst the old anonymous scraps of foliage and grotesque orna ments, undoubtedly the work of Italian goldsmiths, there may be sonic productions of this artist. There likewise remain two small pieces of this sort marked with a mo nogram, consisting of the letters M. F. somewhat simi lar to one of those ed by Marc Antonio Raimondi, but the execution of tar plate is in a vet)/ different style. This has been by same presumed to signify Maso Fini guerra; but it must be considered only as conjecture.
It is remat kable, that the first book printed at Rome, which also contained the first engravings executed there, (which were only maps,) was begun by Sweynheym, and on his death finished by Buckink, both Germans, as the dedication to Pope Scxtus IV. indicates: Magister Con radus Sweynheynz, Germanus, a quo formandomm Rome librorum ars primum prcfeeta est, — mathematicis adhi bitis viris, quemadmodum tabulis iienis imprimerentur edo cult ;" and that on his death, " ?rnoldus Buckink, e Ger mania—ad perfectum opus succedens —perfecit." h is work is dated 1478, but it appears that it had been begun as early as 1472. The plates are executed with great labour, and the letters are struck with punches by the blows of a hammer. From this it appears, that if Finiguerra did invent the art of engraving in 1460, it was kept a profound secret for eighteen years after wards.
The next book that appeared in Italy with plates, was a copy of Dante's Inferno, published at Florence by Nicollo Lorenzo della Magna, in 1481, embellished with thirteen engravings by Baccio Baldini, from the designs of Alessandro Boticelli. Fac similes of two of these will be found in M. Heineken's work; and although the design of the figures is more pure and simple than that of their German cotempo•aries, and the draperies cast with tolerable ease, yet the style of execution is puerile and awkward, without any of the delicate finishing which characterises the works of the Germans, even of that early period, and is another strong presumption of justice ustice of the claims of the latter to the invention of the art.