The discovery of the art of engraving in mezzotint° has been a subject of some controversy. The account commonly given of its discovery is, that Prince Rupert observed one morning a soldier engaged in cleaning from his musket the rust which the night-dew had occasioned, and perceiving upon it, as he thought, some resemblance to a figure, it occurred to him whether or not, by corroding or grounding a plate all over in a manner resembling the rust, he might not after wards scrape away a design upon it, from which impressions might be obtained. He tried, it is said, and succeeded, and thus became the inventor of mezzotint() engraving. The merit of the discovery was claimed in the 'Parentalia,' p. 214, for Sir Christopher Wren, on the ground of a communication which he made to the Royal Society in 1662, the Journals of which society for October in that year record that " Doctor Wren presented some cuts, done by himself in a new way, whereby he could adman as soon do a subject upon a plate of tease or copper as another could draw it with a crayon upon paper." This claim is however disposed of by the fact that the principal mezzo tints' by Prince Rupert, the' Decollation of St.. John the Baptist,' after a design by Slagnoletto, bears date 1853, which Is four years earlier than Sir Christopher Wren's communication to the Royal Society; whilst Evelyn'e • Sealpture' (Svo,1662), In which Itupert's " Invention" is described and illustrated by an engraving executed by the prince, was presented to the Royal Society at the meeting of the 11th of June, or four menthe prior to Wren's communication. (Weld, ' llist of Royal Soc.,' I. 118.) But while it is time clear that the pretensions of Prince Rupert completely supersede those of Sir Christopher Wren, it is certain that those of Prince Rupert himself are invalid.
The real inventor of this art appears to have been Louis von Slegen (born 1609), a licutenmt-colonel in the service of the Landgrave of Hesse Camel • and according to Baron lieneiken (' Iti6e OduSrale dune C;aniplkte d'Estalupes; 1771), Prince Rupert learnt the artfrom Von Siegen, whose first specimen made public was a portrait of the Princess Amelia-Elizabeth of Hesse. Proofs of this engraving of the first state bear the date 1642; of what is called the second state— of which there Is a fine Impressien in the Print Room of the British Museum—the date is 1643, which left/teen years anterior to the earliest of Prince Rupert's dates. In the same collection there are other prints by Von Siegen, one of which, if the external evidence were insufficient, would, we think, place the question beyond dispute ; for, although without a date, it bears conclusive internal evidence of having been produced in the very Infancy of the art, since it exhibits a total mis conception or misapplication of its peculiar local powers, which, as we have said, are especially calculated for large 'names of shadow of an indefinite character, such as a plain background to a portrait. The work to which we allude, which is a portrait of the Princess of Orange, the eldest daughter of Charles 1., is a mixture of line-engraving and mezzotint°, and in it the background (which, if the mixed style be used, would be best effected by the mezzotint ground) is performed wholly in cross-Latches by the old process ; while the flesh and even the hair, in which line-engraving might have been applied with advan tage, arc produced wholly by the new process of mezzotints'. Von
Siegen's known mezzotint's plates are, we believe, in all only seven in number. There are also works by Theodore Caspar Fiirstenburg, who probably learnt the art from Von Siegeu, which bear date 1656, being earlier than anything by Prince Rupert. ; but the works both of Fiirstenburg and I'rince Rupert are engraved entirely by the newly discovered process of mezzotinto, and evince a more matured knowledge of its powers than those of its inventor Von Siegen. We will only further add the remarkable fact, that ,Von Siegen frequently attached the word " inventor " to his works, of which we subjoin an instance in the inscription to a Holy Family,' engraved by him after Carracci, and one of his latest performances " Erninentiasimo Principi Domino D. Julio Mazzarini, S.1 t. E., Cardinali, &c., nevi hujus Sculpture modi primate innmtor Ludovicue h Siegen humiliseime otfert, dicat ct conacerat. A° 1657." It is not improbable, however, that Prince Rupert, by himself or with the a/slat-Ince of Wallerant Vaillaint, an artist whom he retained in his suite, may have improved the mechanical mode of laying the mezzotinto ground ; and It should also be stated that there is by Sir Christopher Wren a bowl of a blackamoor, which is thought to have been done by a process differing from that Of Mince Rupert. But these observations relate not to the principle of the art, but merely to the tool with which the smote' in produced. The more perfect instrument at present used (that hi, the cradle) is said by Bartsch to have been Invented by IllootelIng, a very skilful engraver In mezzotint°, who produced many of his vi•orks about 1672.
It is in our own country that mezzotinto engraving has been carried to the greatest perfection, and it attained excellence early In the last century. It was the favourite mode of Sir Joshua Reynold', for whose style its painter-like breadth was singularly well fitted, and his patronage called forth a school of engravers who at once exhibited the full capa bilities of the method. Nothing finer In their way can be desired than the long series of prints after Iteynolds by J1111001 1PArdell, Fisher, Lkkinas n, Richard Houston, Valentine Green, and the Watson (Thomas, James, and Caroline); while, in a somewhat different way, Richard Earlom contributed more perhaps to the improvement and extemion of this art than any one else, and whose works, embracing almost every class of subject (history, portrait, still life, &c.), are in almost every collection of importance in the country. The superiority thus samlred by the English mezzotint° engravers has been well maintained down to the present day, when, in Mr. Cummins, and others of soareso4 leas celebrity, we possess artists without equals among foreigners in this branch of art.