ENGRAVING, HISTORY or. Engraving, as far as regards the representation of figures or characters on metal, stone, or wood, was one of the first arts on which human ingenuity was exercised. Moses speaks of the art of en graving, as no new invention. The tables which God delivered to Moses are said to be the work of God, and the writing was the wri ting of God engraved upon the tables. The first engravings of human workmanship men tioned in the Scriptures, were executed by Aholiab and Bezaleel, for the decoration of the tabernacle and the ornaments for the dress of Aaron. It is also said that the tables of Seth contained the astronomical discoveries of that patriarch and his sons. In process of time we find that the clasps, buckles, rings, and other ornamental parts of dress, as also the cups and other household furniture, together with the arms of military chieftains, were probably en riched with the first specimens of engraving. The shields of the Carians, as described by Herodotus, were ornamented with rude pop traitures, as were also those of the ancient Celtic nations; but the hieroglyphic figures of the Egyptians afford the best and earliest spe cimens of engraving properly so called. The Phmnicians probably learned this art from the Egyptians ; and their coins, which are looked upon to be among the most ancient extant, prove, as Mr. Sault observes, that they were by no means indifferent artists. It is, however, generally supposed, that there are no remains in antiquity, either in sculpture, or engraving, prior to those of Etruscan ongi naL Some of those which are preserved in the British Museum are exceedingly rude, and evidently executed with the graver only upon a flat surface, and if filled with ink and rim through a printing press, provided the plate would endure the operation, might produce a fair and perfect impression.
The art of engraving on their shields was practised by the Saxons, in common with the other northern tribes. Alfred the Great en couraged this among the other arts, and the works of the Saxon artists, as their shrines and caskets, rose by his encouragement and that of his successors, considerably in estima tion not only in England, but on the continent Strutt mentions a curious remnant of antiquity in the Museum at Oxford, namely, a very valuable jewel, made of gold, • and richly ...adorned with a kind of work resembling fila gree, in the midst of which is seen the half figure of a man, supposed to be Saint Cuthbert. The back of this jewel, which was engraved by command of Alfred, is ornamented with foliage very skilfully executed. Saint Dunstan, the celebrated archbishop of Canterbury, who died' A. n. 988, is also noted for his skill in the arts. Osborn, his biographer, enumerates among his other endowments that he could scalpello im primere ex auro, argento, are, at ferro.' After the conquest, it appears that engraving, which had hitherto been mostly followed in conjunction with the sister arts of carving and chasing, was now followed as a distinct art, and carried to a higher state of perfection, as may be learned from the brass plates so fre endy to be met with in the churches or on the tombstones in the fourteenth and following centuries. These are usually ornamented with
the effigies of the person to whose memory they are dedicated, and are evidently executed by the graver only ; the outlines being first made, then the shadows are expressed by strokes strengthened in proportion as they required more force, and occasionally creased with other strokes a second or third time, precisely in the same manner as copperplate is at present en graved for printing. Thus we see that the art of engraving was for a long time practised be fore it was made to answer the noble purpose of perpetuating the labours of the painter. That. libranc of the art of engraving which consists in taking impressions on paper was aceonhng to Giorgio Vasari, first practised by the Italians, and took its rise from an accident One Maso Finiguerra, an ingenious goldsmith and sculptor of Florence in the fifteenth cen tury, used to design and emboss figures on gold and other metals, and before he inlaid them he used to fill the engraving with earth, and cast melted sulphur on it, whkh gave it a sort of olive colour, after which, pressing a piece of p paper on it with a smooth wooden roller, encrraving on the metal remained imprinted .n the paper, lost as if it had been = with a pen, in consequence of which Mantegna set about making regular prints from his engravings. The correctness of this story, however, as far as regards the priority of the discoverer, is disputed by Struts and others.
It should seem that impressions from en gravings on wood bad been taken in Germany prior to this, and that the brief males, or the makers of playing cards, practised the art of cardmaking about the fifteenth century, and from the making of cards were led to the ex ecution of other figures of a devout nature, so as to form a kind of books containinga history of the Old and New Testament, which was printed only on one side of the paper. In this manner the engraving both in wood and brass continued to be followed by the same artists, and in their bands made great advances to perfection. Martin &hoe°,. of Culmbach„ was one of the first who him self in this art. Israel von M of Me chelen, was the rival of Schoen • the style of which latter artist was followed by Albert Darer. After this arose a succession of dig tiii.raished engravers in Fiance, England, and Holland.
Engraving in chiaroscuro is justly as cribed to the Germans, and was first practised by Muir. At what time etching was intro duced is not known. One of the most early specimens of a print, by Albert Darer, is known by the name of the Cannon, dated 1518.
Engraving with dots was of Italian inven tion, and was first practised by Agostin' o de Mimi& The method of engraving in mezzo tint° was commenced about the middle of the seventeenth century. Engraving in aquatinta is a recent invention.