With the advent of Albrecht Diirer (1471 1528), of Nuremberg, wood engraving reached its highest attainment. First of all he was a great designer with a far-reaching and power ful imagination and a mind full of the new learning and spirit of the coming Reformation He was the first fully to realize the great possi bilities of wood engraving, and by his influ ence it was raised to the dignity 01 a tine art, He is known chiefly by four great works. The first of them the la large drawings illustrating the Apocalypse of Saint John (1498). Others are the 'Larger Passion of Our Lord' (1509 11), 12 cuts, 'The Life of the Virgin,' 20 cuts, and the 'Smaller Passion of Our Lord,' 36 cuts. Among I)urer's other famous works are the 'Car and Gate of Triumph' made for the Emperor Maximilian. Another great work celebrating the emperor's fame was by Hans Burgkmair (Augsburg. 1472-1531) the magnifi cent 'Triumphal Procession,' etc_ The colossal work entitled 'The Triumph of Maximilian' was made by command of that emperor and consisted of three sets of designs: eThe Tri umphal Procession,' 'The Triumphal Arch,' and 'The Triumphal Car.' Its size is enor mous, the 'arch,' composed of 92 blocks, v.•hen displayed in their correct relative position, is 101J feet high by 91; feet wide. While the de signs were by (hirer and Burgkmair the exe cution of the work was by highly talented and enthusiastic wood engravers with Jerome of Nuremberg and lost de Negker or Dienecker at the b• -ad of the list activity in u,.‘<1 engraving gays to a school ts-me of the members were pupils) of decorative designers of great talent who put their conceptions into enexav ings, forming them into sets, books, etc_ these artists arc known as the •Little Masters.' and their fine work created a general renaissance in the arts of decoration; the jeweler, the potter, the cabinet-maker, all artisans incor porated in their work beautiful decoration taken (torn the popular designs published and widely circulated all over Europe in these engravings. The best known of these 'little masters' are Beham, Baldung, Aldegrever, Amman, Virgil Sobs, etc.
Hans Holbein (1497-1543) ranks among the really great artists and wood engraving O•rell to him a still further advance. Holbein indeed might be well called the father of modern illus tration. Among the first books he illustrated were the 'Utopia' of Sir Thomas Moore and the biblical translations of Luther. He is best known, however, for his remarkable series of designs known as the 'Dance of Death' (1538). a popular subject of mediaeval times. In each of the 41 designs is a scene from common daily life expressed with a grim dramatic power and truth of drawing that are remarkable in a very high degree. Death spares neither the king nor the peasant, the praying nun nor the priest in the pulpit. Much of their success was due to the wonderfully accurate wood engraving of Hans Liitzelburger, for in the hands of a less skilful engraver the originals would have lost much of their power. Holbein's 96 designs for the Old Testament, generally known as 'Hot bein's Bible Cuts,' were also remarkable in many aspects, but they were more conventioeial in conception.. After Holbein, wood engraving
as an art steadily declined.
Early in the 16th century either Jost de Neg ker, German, or Ugo de Carpi, Italian t dis puted claims) invented the so-called scum* process by which color effects are earned by using a series of wood blocks each im pressed over the other, a separate color being produced by each successive addition. Carpi reproduced several of Raphael's designs by this method, and in Germany were reproduced sheets from the designs of J. Wechdin, Burgh mair, Cranach. Baldung and others.
A revival, in a modern sense, began with the work of Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) in land. To him we owe the great principle white line which did away with much of the old drudgery and gave the engravers more freedom in handling. In the old way, where black lines crossed, the little white lozenges between had to be laboriously cut away, Bewick simply gouged out with his graver a line and by varying the width and number obtained his gradation of light and shade. He was the first also to use boxwood and the burin. Bewick is best known by the drawings and engravings in his 'British Quadrupeds' and 'History of British Birds' He was the founder of the modern British school which held for many years a distin guished place in modern illustrative art Re nick's pupils, Charlton Nesbit and Luke Clem nell ; Robert Branston, John Thompson, the Dal rels, William Harvey and W. J Linton ea graved the work of many distinguished Eighth artists. In France and Germany wood engrav ing has maintained a distinct place in spite of process vs rk and some of it has been and still is of a very high order of merit. In Fraser a pupil of genides. Charles Thalmann. intro.
duced and brought together a school of wood engravers using the refinements of the English master. In Germany, where the art of wood engraving was in an expiring condition from the middle of the 18th century, new life was developed early in the 19th century by the two Ungers and recent methods of treatment aided the reputations of Gubitz in Berlin and Blasius Mel in Vienna. Adolf Menzel trained for the reproductions of his illustrations the engravers Unzelmann, A. and 0. Vogel, H. Muller and Kretzchmar. In France the leading names of wood engravers include Leloir, Regnier, Laccate, Breviere, Porret, Count Laborde, Gerard, Ber nard, Breval, Chauchoin, Lepere, Pannemaker (son). Baude, Thiriat, Huyot, Grenier, etc.
It is to America, however, that we must look for the Freatest achievement in wood engraving. Our artists have carried it to a degree of per fection unparalleled anywhere else in the world. They have taken it out of the domain of a largely mechanical handicraft and given it al most the individuality that belongs to creative art. The first American wood engraver of dis tinction, Dr. Alexander Anderson, was a fol lower of Bewick. His work appears in many early American hooks. Joseph Alexander Adams was another early American wood en graver whose work was even more worthy of study. The notable wood engravings made for the Harper Bible published in 1843 were done under his supervision.