Lucas Jacobs, best knovin by the name of Lucas van Leyden, was the father of the Dutch and Flemish schools, and the contem porary and friend of Albert Darer. After Van Leyden the art Was maintained in the Low Cotintries by the Wierinxes, the Sadelers, whose works are multifarious, and embrace every class of subject; the elder and younger Jode, Cornelius, Theodore and Philip Gallo, Abraham and Cornelius Bloemart, Goltzius, Sprangher, Muller, Lucas Killian, Matham, Saenredam, and the two brothers Bolswert. Many of these introduced improvements in the art. To mention the artists of this school from whose hands we have etchings, would be to name nearly all the most eminent painters belonging to it Rembrandt, Berghem, Cuyp, Karel dti Jardin, Paul Potter, Ruysdael, Ostade, Waterldo, Adrian Vandervelde, with many others.
In France engraving has been practised with pre-eminent success in the departments of history and portraiture. The celebrity of the school dates from tho time of Louis XIV. The family of the Aitdrans produced six emi nent engravers ; but of those the most distin guished was Gerard Audran, who was the first engraver who successfully united, to any ex tent, the use of the graver and the etching point. Gerard Edelinck, although born at Antwerp, may be fairly considered of the French school, and was an engrttker of the highest order. In portrait Nanteuil is no less celebrated than his contemporaries. The brevets, John Louis Roulett, Le Clerc, Si moneau, Chereau, Cochin, Dupuis, Beauvais, Balechou, Le Bas, John George Ville, and among the best of the French engravers.
The English school of engraving dates only from about the middle of the eighteenth cen tury, previous to which those who practised the art in England were chiefly foreigners.
Hogarth engraved many of his own deSigns. Francis Vivares introduced the favottrite art of landscape etching; he, Woollet, and Browne, produced some of the finest landscape en gravings extant. Sir Robert Strange excelled in portrait engrairing. Mezzotinto engraving, although not strictly born among ue, has been in no other country practised with a degree of success at all approaching that attained by M'Ardell, Earlom, Smith, Valentine Green, and others. Bartolozzi, Ryland, Sharpe, Paul Sandby, Middiman, Fitler, and Raira ' bach, are among the most eminent of deceased engravers.
A modern engraving is usually the result of two processes, namely, of direct incision with the graver or the dry point, and of etch ing by corrosion.' The principal instrument is the graver, or burin, which is usually of the form of a quadrangular prism, fitted into a short handle. The square graver is used in cutting broad lines, and the lozenge-shaped for more delicate ones. In making the inci sion, it is pushed forward in the direction of the line required, being held by the handle at an angle very slightly inclined to the plane of the copper. An instrument called a scraper is required to scrape of the barb or burr which is formed by the action of the graver and dry point. A roll of cloth dipped in oil,
called the rubber, is also used to make the surface smooth. The burnisher is used to polish the plate and to erase any scratches which it may accidentally receive, and also to make lighter any part of the work which may have been made too dark. Etching-points, or needles, are nearly similar in appearance to sewing-needles, but fixed into handles fonr or five inches long ; some are made of an oval form, to produce broader lines. The dry point does not, like the graver, cut the copper clean out, but throws it up on each side of the line produced by its progresS through the metal.
Etching is the superaddition of the chemical process of corrosion to drawing, when per formed on a plate of copper over which a sub. stance called etching-ground is laid. This etching-ground is a substance composed of wax, asphaltum, gum mastic, resin, &c., incor porated by melting over a fire, and capable of resisting the action of aquafortis; it is applied by the aid of heat, so as to lie in a thin stratum on the copper. To transfer the design to the copper, an outline is made with a black lead pencil on a piece of paper, and laid with the face downwards on the etching-ground ; the whole is then passed through a rolling-press, the effect of which is to transfer an impression of the outline on to the prepared ground. After this the design is completed with the etching-needles, which remove the ground from the copper wherever they pass, and ex pose it to the action of the acid during the process of biting-in. The aquafortis con tinues on the plate until the fainter parts are supposed to be corroded sufficiently deep ; after which it is poured off, the plate washed with water, and left to dry. The parts which are bitten-in enough are now to be covered with what is called stopping-ground, which is a mixture of lamp-black and 'Venice turpentine ; this is applied with a camel-hair pencil, and allowed to dry. After this the acid is again poured on, and this process of stopping-out and biting-in is repeated till the darkest parts are sufficiently corroded.
Engraving in stipple is performed with the graver, which is so managed as to produce the tints by small dots, rather than by lines, as in the ordinary method.
Engraving and etching on steel are performed in the same manner as on copper, for which steel has of late years been often substituted on account of its yielding a greater number of perfect impressions, owing to its superior hardness.
ifedallic engraving is a species of etching introduced by M. Collas and Mr. Bate. By this mode very beautiful representations are obtained of medals, 8 c., by means of a ma chine of peculiar construction.
Etching on glass is performed by laying on the glass a ground of bees' wax, and drawing the designs thereon with the needle, as in etching upon copper. Sulphuric acid is then poured on, and fluor spar, or fluoric acid, sprinkled on it. After four or five hours it is taken off, and the work cleaned with oil of turpentine.