were formed-not only to see distinctly how antient criticism | should have a nice perception of the moral distinction be was merely a product of antient art-but also to perceive tween the characters of either sex, and of the modifications how that art itself had grown out of, and drew its vital ener-which age produces in that of each individual. In fine, he gies from, the peculiar spirit of the artist's age and country. should possess that pervading insight into all the elements Thus it is that in order to give vitality to any modern imi- of character and all their combinations-that Shakspearian tation of the Grecian tragedy for instance, the Greek instinct-which can feel, not only for, but with, every mythology itself must first be established in the belief of variety of human nature and human condition. the auditory. Until the poet can first accomplish this, the noblest grace of conception, the highest beauty of language cannot render his work a living and breathing crea tion. The fundamental contrast between the religious principles of the antients and those of the moderns is found, on attentive examination, to be the leading source of the essential difference between the spirit of antient and that of modern art, especially of dramatic art. The more directly and exclusively any species of human composition is addressed to the feelings and imagination of a people, the more it must necessarily be influenced by the predominant character of that people's religious system, which, of all things whatever, has upon those feelings and that imagination the most uniform and the deepest operation. Now, among the primary characteristics of the Grecian system, those which especially demand our attention in relation to the present subject are these two-the absolute overruling power of fate, to which we have already had occasion to allude, and the absence of any clear notion or anticipation of a desirable future state. Were it more immediately to the present purpose, we might here show how thoroughly these two leading principles pervaded the philosophy as well as the poetry of the Greeks-how Stoicism, which we may call the art of endurance, was but a matured fruit of the former conviction, as Epicureanism, the economy of enjoyment, was of the latter-and that it is pretty clear that the most intelligent individuals of either profession united in their conduct these two great branches of practical wisdom. But Christianity reversed this order of ideas. It substituted for the impassive omnipotence of fate an almighty will, thus making passive fortitude give place to hope and fear; and further, to give to these two grand springs of imagination and enthusiasm, as well as action, the highest exaltation and most unlimited scope, many of those who expounded the Christian doctrines made the happiness of this life an object of contempt rather than of solicitude, representing its very miseries as conducive to the attainment of everlasting bliss. It was a necessary result of the exclusive rigour with which these notions were so long inculcated that the sciences which illumine life and the arts which refine it rapidly expired. Both knowledge and taste might well cease to be cultivated, when their very neglect was held up to mankind in the light in which so many fanatics have represented it, as one means of securing eternal happiness. And when the strictness with which these principles were interpreted for so many ages began to relax, and men began to think that some effort to ameliorate their worldly state was not inconsistent with the profession or practice of Christianity, the boundless dominion of hope and fear still gave that predominant hue to their imaginations and their passions which they have ever since retained. The fierceness of fanaticism has indeed subsided, but the firmness of philosophy has not succeeded it. Vain, then, is the attempt to exhibit on a modern stage the unconquerable will' of a Grecian tragic hero. The antique spirit animated the Grecian spectator as well as the Grecian poet. But the modern poet has a romantic audience, and cannot have any other an audience that sympathises not with the triumph of will over passion, but with that of passion over will. Well did Shakspeare know this when achieving his grandest tragic successes in Lear, Macbeth, Othello, &c., wherein we see, not the triumph of the hero over fortune and over passion, but that of malignant fortune and conflicting passions over the hero. In short, an intimate acquaintance with the pervading spirit of that public of his own time from whom his audience must be supplied, is the primary condition of all successful dramatic writing. It is indeed necessarily included in the perfect possession of that highest dramatic faculty which is essential to form a dramatist of the first order; for he inust know, or have the sagacity to discover, the habits, mental as well as physical, of all classes and degrees of men, whether the distinctions be marked by difference of race, of country, of rank, of profession, or occupation. He Supposing that a writer could now arise, possessing the natural powers of a Shakspeare,-what are the principles by which he should be guided in cultivating those powers so as to give them the greatest effectiveness in the present day? We should answer,-Study, on the one hand, living man and his history; on the other hand, study Shakspeare; but study him on a juster and more liberal principle than has hitherto been followed; study him, above all things, to find how he studied human nature and human life;-to discover which thoroughly, his age, as well as himself, must be diligently and patiently examined; for the true use of Shakspeare to the artist of the present day is, by viewing his works in relation to his time, to divine, if possible, how Shakspeare would have written for an audience of the nineteenth century. We have neither the space nor the presumption to indicate how he would have done this; only we assert with the fullest confidence that such, and such only, is the mode of studying him calculated to aid the progress and elevate the standard of contemporary dramatic art. This observation, it will be seen, applies more espe cially to his selection and construction of character and plot, and to the general tone of manners. As regards the amazing force, delicacy, variety, and flexibility of his expression, it is plain that they are much less liable to be studied in an erroneous sense. Happy the writer that should succeed in transfusing their essence into his own diction! But if a dramatic artist have not this all-comprehensive faculty, which seems given to few, it is, in the next place, important that he should be aware of his deficiency, and should perceive distinctly the nature and limits of the field which his powers really do embrace. Next, in short, to well understanding his public, the dramatist should, if possible, correctly appreciate himself; then, at least, if he do not reach greatness in performance, he will escape absurdity in failure. Among those orders of dramatic power that fall short of that highest capability which we have endeavoured to cha racterize, the infinitely numerous and various degrees of deficiency are for the most part assignable to two principal causes: first, to the absence of a lively and delicate sensibility, in some individuals to the serious, in others to the comic, elements of character and plot; secondly, to a limited acquaintance with the diversities of human character and fortune in general. The former deficiency seems in all ages to have been scarcely less prevalent than the latter; and among the early Greeks, as well as among the modern Europeans, was a most influential cause of the two grand dramatic circumscriptions of tragedy and comedy. It is also the defect which it is of the first and most urgent importance that the writer in whom it exists should be thoroughly aware of; since, of all failures in dramatic productions, the exhibition of false wit, and, above all, of false pathos, is the most sastrous. The next great danger to be shunned by the dramatist is that of attempting the delineation of a character, with the features of which, individual, professional, national, &c., he is not completely and accurately acquainted. The judicious selection or contrivance of a plot, which shall be neither languid on the one hand nor improbable on the other, neither too bare of incident nor too crowded with it, and at the same time shall have, if possible, some feature of decided novelty, is next to be attended to. The character and incident of any meditated piece being once clearly determined in the author's mind, the dialogue (supposing him to have the requisite command of diction) will then be a natural, and, as it were, spontaneous result of the series of circumstances under which his personages are brought into contact; and if the latter be really conceived with truth and distinctness, it may indeed be more or less flexible and harmonious, according as the author's mastery of expression is more or less complete, but it cannot fail to be varied and interesting. Such are the conditions fundamentally requisite for succeeding in any department of dramatic composition. The next class of qualifications arises from an exact and thorough knowledge of the restrictions imposed upon the writer, both as to the literary extent of his composition and the mode of handling his subject, by the very nature of theatrical representation in general. In this respect, it is unquestionable that the peculiar fortune of Shakspeare in being so long a manager as well as a dramatist, contributed materially to that remarkable theatrical fitness and completeness of effect which are found in all his mature productions. And finally, to pass for a moment from the business of dramatic writing to that of acting, let us observe that the theatrical manager, simply as such, ought, no less than the dramatic writer, to be a genuine artist, though in an inferior walk. If true taste and knowledge be wanting in the manager, the best efforts of the dramatist's genius will be marred on the one hand; and on the other, histrionic excellence will neither be brought forward, cultivated, nor encouraged. ENGRAVING, the art of executing designs by incision upon plates of copper, steel, or other substance, for the purpose of obtaining therefrom impressions or prints upon paper. Although, in this sense of the term, the art is only coeval with that of printing, it has been practised with a more limited object from the earliest periods on record, in a similar manner and with similar instruments to those used at the present time. That an art so abundantly capable of diffusing all kinds of knowledge should have been extensively practised from the most remote antiquity without its applicability to printing having been discovered, is so curious a subject of reflection, that it would be improper to omit giving in this place a slight sketch of its early history. On referring to sacred history we find in the writings of Moses rather detailed accounts of the character of the engraved works executed in his time, and of the substances whereon they were wrought; nor are we left in ignorance even of the names of the practising_artists among the Israelites. Thus from the book of Exodus we learn that when Moses had liberated the Jews from Egyptian bondage, he was commanded to make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord.' He was also commanded to take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel according to their birth, with the work of an engraver on stone, like the engravings of a signet.' Both these passages distinctly imply the practice of gem and seal engraving, and also of engraving on metal plates, a knowledge of which, among other arts, was, without doubt, acquired by the Israelites during their captivity in Egypt; and specimens of the art as practised in that nation, perhaps at as early a period as that now under notice, still exist. In the book of Exodus also honourable mention is made of one Bezaleel, who appears to have united the callings of the engraver, the jeweller, and the lapidary; and it is said that he was filled with wisdom of heart to work all manner of work with the graver, as well as to devise cunning works; to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones to set them. And it was put into his heart that both he and Aholiab might teach them that were filled with wisdom to work all manner of work of the engraver.' These few are selected from numerous other passages in Scripture as sufficiently attesting the practice of several branches of engraving at this early period: from the same source indeed we learn that some of them, as, for example, the engraving of signets, was practised at a time anterior to that of Moses. From Herodotus (v. 49) we learn that one of the earliest uses to which engraving was applied among the Greeks was the delineation of maps on metal plates. He says that 'Aristagoras appeared before the king of Sparta with a tablet of brass in his hand, on which was inscribed every part of the habitable world, the seas, and the rivers; and to this he pointed as he spoke of the several countries between the Ionian Sea and Susa.' The date of this event was 500 B.C. The hieroglyphics and other remains of Egyptian engraving are among the most antient relics now extant, and our own British Museum is particularly rich in specimens of them. Some of these are engraved on metal, and have been chiefly found in the chests or coffins of mummies. Mr. Strutt, in his Dictionary of Engravers, describes one of them very minutely. These engravings of hieroglyphics on metal, as well as those on the antient sarcophagi, are evidently executed with similar instruments to those now in use; some of the lines narrowing downwards have clearly been cut with the lozenge-shaped graver now chiefly used; but other lines being of the same width through their whole depth, must have been produced with that species of graver called a scooper, still used for effecting broad inci sions. There is, it must be confessed, some difficulty in determining of what substance the instruments were made with which they engraved on porphyry and jasper, no mode of tempering steel being now known by which it can be rendered sufficiently hard, and at the same time tough enough, to penetrate those substances. Mr. Landseer is of opinion nevertheless that the incisions were produced by patient perseverance with steel gravers impelled by blows with a mallet, and that the work was afterwards rendered smooth by friction with some hard substance pulverized (such as the powder of the corundum stone) and applied with lead. But it is believed that some of the relics of Etruscan art in the British Museum are of as high antiquity as any existing specimens of engraving. Mr. Strutt gives a description of two of these, the one a parazonium or dagger sheath, on which is represented a story from Homer; the other is supposed to be a patera or instrument used by the priests in their sacrificial ceremonies. This latter is rather a specimen of sculpture than engraving, being embossed in high relief; but portions of the drapery and hair on the figures are evidently executed with the graver. Mr. Strutt is of opinion that the subject is the combat between Hercules and Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons, whose girdle he was enjoined by Eurystheus to unloose and take from her.' Others have supposed that it represents Minerva leaning on the head of Hercules and urging him forward in the paths of glory. It is apparently of brass, seven inches in diameter and about half an inch thick, and is declared by Mons. D'Hancarville to be, without contradiction, the richest and most remarkable remnant of antiquity, and of all the Etruscan bronzes the best exe cuted and most happily preserved.' The circumstance of the inscription running from the right hand towards the left furnishes additional testimony of its great antiquity. The dagger-sheath is thus described by Srutt-It is more than three inches and three quarters wide at the top, and decreases gradually to an inch and a quarter at the bottom. Its present length is eight inches and a half. The story engraved upon it appears to be taken from Homer, The trophy at the bottom is symbolical of war. Above the trophy two warriors are delineated with a woman, who seems to accompany them with great reluctance; which I conceive may represent Paris, with his accomplice, conducting Helen to the ship, in order to make their escape to Troy; and at the top, the messenger, a servant of Mene laus, is relating to his lord the ungrateful behaviour of his Trojan guest. The figures are exceedingly rude, and seem to indicate the very infancy of the art of engraving, for they are executed with the graver only upon a flat surface, and need only to be filled with ink and run through a printingpress (provided the plate could bear the operation) to produce a fair and perfect impression. The print so produced, says Mons. D'Hancarville, would certainly be the most an tient of all that are preserved in the collections of the curious, and demonstrate to us how near the antients approached to this admirable art, which in the present day forms so considerable a branch of commerce. We may indeed say, that they did discover it, for it is evident from the valuable relic before us that they only wanted the idea of multiplying representations of the same engraving. After having conquered every principal difficulty, a stop was put to their progress by an obstacle which, in appearance, a child might have surmounted. Prints which indeed we have ourselves seen, taken with ink from Etruscan specula, of which there are several in the Museum, sufficiently prove the capacity of these early engravings to deliver impres sions. But while the world was so slow to discover a mode of taking impressions from engraved works, on substances offering natural facilities for such an object, the art of impressing more obdurate substances appears to have been understood and practised at a very early period in most parts of the civilized globe. This is evidenced in the piactice of numismatic engraving, or the art of sinking dies. from which coins are impressed, which is of very antient although uncertain origin. The mode of impressing the plates, so frequently found in our churches upon the torb metal was by the stroke of a hammer, the die or engraving stones. Their economy, as compared with the carved im being cut on a sort of punch; and it is remarkable that which preceded their introduction, probably brought the the operation of coining is performed in the same manner into such general use that very few churches in this coun at the present time, in such parts of the globe as are are without them. They are executed entirely with the backward in improvement. The first Greek coins were graver, and in precisely the same manner that a cor per struck, according to some authors, at Ægina, by Pheidon, plate is now engraved that is intended to be printed from king of Argos, about eight centuries before the Christian but as they were commonly exposed to the feet of the con æra. But this is a much less remote antiquity than what gregation, the strokes were cut deep, that they might endur is ascribed to other antient coins. Mr. Landseer describes the longer, and consequently very neat workmanship is not a gold coin in the collection belonging to the East India to be expected. Some of them, however, bear evidence Company, to which the Hindoos ascribed an antiquity of considerable ability in the workmen by whom they were exe 4000 years, and paid it superstitious homage. It is under-cuted; but who these workmen were is quite unknown. I stood to have been dug up near the royal palace of Mysore, has been conjectured even, that they were not produced in and was found among the treasures of Tippoo Sultan. In England at all, but executed by foreigners, who took British Rome, a mint every way commensurate with the greatness produce in exchange for their labours. However this may of the empire was established in the reign of the emperor be, certainly no churches more abound with them than Augustus. The extravagant fondness of the Roman those of this country; but we have never met with more matrons for engraved gems was satirised by Juvenal, and than one, even with a monogram, and that is insufficient to gave rise to the remark of Pliny, that they loaded their lead to a knowledge of the artist, who was not improbably, fingers with princely fortunes. This profusion gradually in this and in most other cases, an ecclesiastic. extended itself to the wearing apparel of both sexes; and among the opulent classes almost every article of use or dress glittered with engraved gems. In the peninsula of India, also, the art of engraving on plates of copper appears to have been practised long before the Christian æra. It would appear that it was there customary to ratify grants of land by deeds of transfer actually engraven on plates of copper, as we now write them on skins of parchment. A copy of one of these very interesting relics is given with an English translation by Mr. Wilkins, in the first volume of the Asiatic Researches, page 123. It is in the Sanscrit language, and bears date twenty years before the birth of Christ. The engraving of signets, although considered by many to be rather a mode of sculpture than of engraving, is sufficiently allied to it to claim a slight notice in this place; the more so, as being of higher antiquity even than die-sinking. Mention is made of the use of signets in the sacred writings as early as the time of the patriarchs. They were then probably engraved on metal, and appear to have been used at this time, and at all subsequent periods, as instruments of ratification. When through the dark ages the knowledge of the Roman sealing substance was lost, recourse was had to lead, as a substitute for wax, to receive the impressions. The emperor Charlemagne wore his signet in the pummel of his sword; and it was in allusion to this as an instrument af ratification that he was accustomed to say, 'With the point I will maintain that which I have engaged with the hilt.' The state of engraving in our own country previous to the Conquest must not be entirely overlooked. Our knowledge of it is principally derived from such ornaments of dress as buckles, clasps, rings, and military accoutrements, sometimes found in antient tumuli. These frequently bear the marks of the graver: but if other proofs were wanting their coins would sufficiently attest their knowledge of the art; for although exceedingly rude, they are evidently impressed from engravings cut upon iron or steel. Under the protection of that good and excellent monarch Alfred the Great (says Strutt), the arts began to manifest themselves in a superior degree, notwithstanding the load of intestine troubles which destroyed the nation. The works of the Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths, who were the principal engravers of that day, were held in the highest estimation; and there is yet preserved in the museum at Oxford a very valuable jewel made by command of Alfred, and which was indeed one of the few treasures which he took with him when he retreated to the Isle of Athelney, where it was found. It is of gold, richly adorned with a kind of filigree work, in the midst of which is the half figure of a man, supposed to be St. Cuthbert. The back of this jewel is ornamented with foliage, and is pronounced to be very skilfully engraved, on the authority of Mr. Strutt, who has given a faithful representation of it in the second volume of the Chronicles of England. Soon after the Conquest,' (according to the authority Just quoted, but we ourselves have never met with a specimen of earlier date than A.D. 1284,) a new species of engraving was introduced into England, much more perfect in itself than any which had preceded it, and in every respect distinct from the work of the carver or chaser. The author alludes to the engraving of the sepulchral brass rags We now approach the period when the invention of printing gave to engraving a new direction, and produced an effect on the civilization of the world as astonishing as it is incalculable. The chief obstacle to printing had already been removed by the manufacture of paper from linen which had become generally known in Europe at the latter end of the fourteenth century. It must be remembered, as giving additional interest to this subject, that it is to a cer tain class of engravers that we are immediately indebted for the first printed books, which were actually impressed from engraved wooden tablets-a method which was afterwards improved by substituting movable metal types; and tas the arts of engraving and printing, at the same time that they constitute the sole means by which all kinds of know ledge may be extensively diffused, have placed it within the power of us all to possess the best thoughts of the best men in literature, science, and art. The first prints, as we have already intimated, were obtained from engraved wood blocks. This might naturally be expected, because the process of printing from such works is so simple and obvious, not requiring even a press, that persons of reflection are astonished, not that printing was invented so soon, but that it had not been discovered sooner. To obtain impressions from the incised hollows of an engraved metal plate, on the contrary, is a much less obvious process, requiring the aid of a somewhat complicated machine, called a rolling-press. We need not wonder, therefore, that its discovery should have been later; then indeed, the two processes are so very different, that when one was discovered it did not lead necessarily to the other. The earliest print with a date attached to it is one known as the St. Christopher, which is from a wood block, and dated 1423; but no impression from an engraved plate has been found with a date anterior to 1461. The art of engraving on metal plates for taking impressions on paper was, according to Vasari, first practised by Maso or Thomaso Finneguerra, a Florentine goldsmith, about the year 1460; and although many writers have advocated the claims of Germany to the honour of the invention, it seems now to be conceded by nearly universal consent to Italy. The arguments of the Abate Luigi Lanzi, in his work on the history of painting in Italy, appear to us to be quite con clusive in confirmation of Vasari's opinion. However this may be, there has never existed a doubt that the art had its origin in the workshops of the goldsmiths about the middle of the fifteenth century. Many of these goldsmiths were niellatori, or workers in niello-a mode of ornamental engraving usually performed on silver plates-the design engraved on which was afterwards filled in with a black composition, said to have been composed of silver and lead, which from its dark colour was called by the antients nigellum, a word curtailed by the Italians into niello. This being incorporated with the silver, that is, run into the engraved lines, produced the effect of shadow, and had very much the appearance of a print. These nielli, saf Lanzi, were used as silver ornaments to articles of furni ture, sacred vessels, such as holy cups and vases, to missals and other devotional books, and to reliquaries; as to profane purposes, as adorning the hilts of swords, table utensils, and many kinds of female ornaments.' Now Maso Finneguerra was a worker in niello, and, according as well to Vasari, his discovery of the art of printing from engraved plates was the result of accident. It was usual with the artists who worked in this style to rub a mixture of charcoal and oil into the design engraved on the silver plate, that they might ascertain what would be the effect of the work previous to inlaying with the nigellum or mixture of silver and lead. It is said that on one occasion Finneguerra, having rubbed in the charcoal and oil, by way of thus proving his work, accidentally let fall upon it some melted sulphur, which upon removal brought with it the ink out of the hollows, and exhibited the exact impression of his work. It occurred to him to try if the same result would follow on a piece of moistened paper if laid over the design thus filled with ink, and pressed by a roller. The experiment succeeded; and the consequence was the gradual improvement of the new art both in his hands and those of Baccio Baldini, Sandro Botticelli, Antonio Pollajuoli, and Andrea Mantegna, to whom he communicated the process. Other accounts, however, make the discovery of chalcography much less the result of accident. According to these, Finneguerra, as well as other workers in niello of his time, were in the habit of proving their works by means of sulphur casts previous to the ultimate inlaying. For this purpose the engraved plate was pressed with earth or clay, upon the top of which some melted sulphur was then thrown, which on removal presented a fac-simile of the work on silver; into the lines of this sulphur cast something black was then rubbed, and the artist was thus enabled to form a correct opinion of the progress and perfection of his work. These facts are now placed beyond all doubt by the discovery of some sulphur casts from the nielli of Finneguerra, although there is no fully-authenticated impression upon paper from any plate engraved by him. Thus it would appear that the workers in niello were long advancing on the verge of this invention. Engraving was henceforth to constitute a distinct and honourable profession, or to have those energies further developed by the greatest masters of design which had hitherto only manifested a feeble existence in the workshop of the goldsmith. Our limits will not allow us to dwell on the merits or performances of those early masters, contemporaries of Finneguerra, to whose exertions we are nevertheless much indebted for the rapid approaches of the art towards excellence. Of these Baldini, Botticelli, and Andrea Mantegna, have already been named among the Italians; and while we disallow the claims of the Germans to the discovery of copperplate engraving, we willingly admit that it was very early and very greatly improved in that country by Martin Schoen, Israel Van Mecheln, Leydenwurf, and Wolgemut. This is not surprising when we reflect that wood engraving had been first practised there, forty years earlier, and consequently that they had anticipated the Italians in a knowledge of printing-ink and the press; nay, it is remarkable that the first book printed at Rome (an edition of Ptolemy's Geography) was also illustrated by the first plate engravings, twenty-seven in number, which were maps, and were execused there by two Germans, Sweynheym and Buckink; the latter completing what the former left unfinished at his death. This work is dated 1478, but was commenced in 1472. One of the first books illustrated with designs on engraved plates was indeed the production of Italian artists; this was an edition of Dante's Inferno,' published at Florence in 1481, and embellished with engravings by Baccio Baldini, after the designs of Botticelli. It is worthy of remark that these plates were not printed on the same paper as the letter-press, but blank spaces were left at the head of each canto, over which the prints were pasted. As we believe the greatest number of embellishments ever found in a copy of this work does not exceed nineteen, it is to be presumed that the intended series of illustrations was never completed. Omitting farther notice of those early masters who flourished at the end of the fifteenth, we shall pass on to the sixteenth century, at the commencement of which the art was carried to a very high degree of excellence; in Italy by Marc Antonio Raimondi, and simultaneously by Albert Dürer in Germany, and Lucas Van Leyden in Holland: a constellation of talent, the appearance of which marks the most memorable epoch in the history of engraving. of the works of his master, and afterwards imitated those of Andrea Mantegna and Albert Dürer. He finally perfected himself in design under Raphael d'Urbino, who appreciated his talents so highly as to lend him every assistance; he even permitted his own grinder of colours to manage the press for him, that he might devote his time wholly to the more intellectual parts of the art. The great merit of Marc Antonio lay in the correctness and beauty of his outline: so great is his excellence in this respect, that it is believed that Raphael himself assisted him with his own hand on the copper. The character of his heads is admirably preserved, and the extremities marked with the truest precision; but his lights are not enriched with that variety of fainter tones which indicate local colour, nor do his prints possess the harmony arising from the chiaroscuro or the beauty of reflex light. The consequence is somewhat of monotony in his darks and baldness in his lights, which produce an appearance of hardness; but the rude state in which he found engraving must be remembered in forming an estimate of his merits, nor should it be forgotten that the then recent disinterment of the great works of antique sculpture and the fame of Raphael and of Michel Angelo rendered form and character the great objects of pursuit, as they were indeed at that time, from these causes, thought to be the only ones worthy of consideration. Thus happily favoured with the patronage, instruction, and friendship of the 'divine Raphael,' he devoted himself almost exclusively to engraving after his matchless productions; and although, as we have seen, his prints want so many of the blandishments and conventionalities of more modern art, and are more deficient in these respects even than his contemporaries of the school of Germany and Holland, yet such was the truth and purity of his outline, that it is doubtful if the works of Raphael have ever since been rendered with so much justice to their author. M. Antonio died about 1527. Our space will not allow even a list of the engravers and painters who engraved or etched (a mode of engraving hereafter to be described) who flourished in Italy during the two centuries which succeeded the death of Mare Antonio: the principal of these however were Agostino de Musis, Marc de Ravenna, Caraglio, Giulio Bonasoni, and Enea Vico, all pupils of Marc Antonio; Georgio Ghisi of Mantua and his relatives Diana and Adam Ghisi, Cornelius Cort, &c. &c. But although by these and others the executive part of the art was continually though slowly improved, their powers in design or drawing, (in which the chief excellence of the school at all times consisted) declined, at least as fast as they advanced in mechanical skill, until at length in the 18th century the intellectual and mechanical excellencies of the art were united in the works of Jacomo Frey; and from that time the credit of engraving in Italy has been well maintained by succeeding artists. The names of the principal painters who have practised engraving in Italy are Agostino Carracci, Stephano della Bella, Spagnoletto, Guercino, Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorraine, Swaneveldt, Canaletti, Piranesi, &c. &c. In Germany engraving made more rapid strides towards excellence, in the mechanical parts of it; and at the commencement of the 16th century appeared Albert Dürer, a man whose universality of talent extended the boundaries of every department of art, and carried all to a degree of perfection previously unknown in that country. The defects of Albert Dürer, who was a painter as well as an engraver, were the defects of the school to which he belonged; the dry and Gothic taste of which is equally observable in their paintings and engravings. But in all that relates to the executive part of the art of engraving the works of Albert Dürer deserve the highest praise. The Italian artists having the finest specimens of antique sculpture constantly before their eyes, appear to have been very early impressed by them with a sense of the beauty of flowing lines; and perhaps nothing is so well calculated to convince us of the advantages to be derived from the study of the antique sculptures as a comparison of the works of German and Italian artists. The draperies, for instance, in the German works, are represented by abrupt rectangular forms, and have been well described as snapt, rather than folded; reori-sembling the appearance of crumpled-up paper more than drapery. The pains which they evidently bestowed upon their works forbid us to ascribe that to want of attention which was certainly the result of a vitiated taste in design. Marc Antonio, like so many of his predecessors, was ginally a worker in niello, in which art he was instructed by Francesco Francia, and acquired considerable skill; but quitting it for engraving on metal, he at first copied some . formed their style on that of Goltzius, improved themselves under the instruction of Rubens. Etching, at this period, was practised by many of the painters in the Low Countries with great success; and we need scarcely say, that it is principally to this process that we are indebted for those treasures of art, the engraved works of Rembrandt: not that in his finished works he confined himself to etching; he also called in the assistance of the graver and the dry point. His etchings being very numerous, are of unequal merit; and many, the subjects of which are of a sacred or dignified nature, are debased by the vulgarity of the characters introduced: but notwithstanding these and other defects, his best works are greatly and deservedly prized, for they are inimitably fine, and possess the excellencies of the best paintings, even by his own hand, in a degree not equalled by the works of any other engraver. 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. Berghem, Cuyp, Karel du Jardin, Paul Potter, Ruysdael, Ostade, Waterloo, Adrian Van de Veldt, with many others, have all enriched the portfolio of the collector with works of great taste and skill. Among the more professedly engravers not already noticed we must mention Count Goudt as possessing extraordinary skill, although he cultivated the art less as a profession than for pleasure. The family of the Visschers produced many and excellent works, from the pictures of various masters; and Cornelius Visscher stands particularly dis tinguished for the accuracy of his drawing and the fidelity with which he has rendered the character of the pictures after which he engraved. Albert Dürer had great command of the graver, and carried his plates to a much higher degree of finish than his Italian contemporaries, as his print of St. Jerome in the Room,' as it is called, the execution of which has scarcely ever been exceeded, will sufficiently attest. To his other honours we have little hesitation in adding that of being the inventor of etching by corrosion, an art which has contributed most powerfully to the perfection of engraving. We are aware that the discovery of etching has been by some attributed to Michael Wolgemut, the master of A. Dürer, but we never heard of any etching from his hand having been seen; nor do we know of any etching by any other hand which bears date so early as the celebrated Cannon landscape, by Dürer, which is 1518; while from his own hand we have two others still earlier, viz. Christ praying on the Mount, 1515; and the Rape of Proserpine, 1516. All these were evidently performed in the very infancy of the art, before the discovery of stopping out, as it is called, an expression which will be intelligible to the reader on a reference to our account of the process of etching. On examining the etchings of Albert Dürer, we see that they have all been corroded at one biting in; which sufficiently explains their monotonous appearance, and proves that stopping out was not understood, or it would have been had recourse to, as its advantages could not have been overlooked. It is most probable that the defective and monotonous tone occasioned by the want of this knowledge is the reason that so few corroded etchings were executed by Albert Dürer, who must have been otherwise fascinated by the facilities which this mode of engraving offered; as it is, his corroded etchings are much inferior to his other works, both on copper and wood. The principal German engravers, after Albert Dürer, are his pupil, Henry Aldegraver, together with Bartholomew and Hans Sebald Beham, Albert Altdorfer, James Bink, George Penz, Virgil Solis, &c. &c. But the history of pure German art is very short, for most of these German engravers travelled to Italy for improvement, attracted by the fame of Marc Antonio; several of them are indeed his reputed disciples: and the consequence is, that the two schools may be said to have immediately, in some measure, blended; as under the influence of Italian taste the peculiar characteristics of German art in a great measure disappeared. From the small size of most of the works produced by these German engravers, they are generally distinguished as the 'little masters, although many large plates were executed by them. In France engraving has been practised with pre-eminent Lucas Jacobs, best known by the name of Lucas Van Leyden, was the father of the Dutch and Flemish schools, and the contemporary and friend of Albert Dürer, whose defects he fully possessed, while he fell short of his excellencies. The same vulgarity of form, and general want of grace and propriety of design, which has been noticed in the German school, is equally observable in the works of Lucas Van Leyden; while they are deficient in the spirit and firmness which characterize the works of Dürer. But notwithstanding_these drawbacks he was a man of great abilities. After Lucas Van Leyden the art was maintained in the Low Countries by the Wierinxes, the Sadelers, whose works are multifarious, and embrace every class of subject; the elder and younger Jode, Cornelius, Theodore, and Philip Galle, and Abraham and Cornelius Bloemart. The latter, perhaps less actuated by the commercial spirit in which the art was at this time practised, attempted improvements with success; and by working delicate tints on the lights, which had hitherto been left only as so many white spots, he brought his works to a degree of finish and harmony not previously attained. This artist studied and indeed died at Rome, whither also Goltzius travelled for improvement, who imparted a boldness to engraving which forms a striking contrast to the neat stiff manner of his predecessors. Goltzius was a man of great abilities, and drew the human figure admirably; but in endeavouring to avoid the dry Gothic taste of his countrymen, he went into the opposite extreme, and aiming at the sublime of Michael Angelo, took the one step beyond, and occasionally fell into the ridiculous. The same observations will apply to the works of Sprangher; and these faults were exaggerated and carried to the extreme of bombast by the disciple of Goltzius, Müller; but the freedom with which he handled the graver is truly surprising. To these succeeded Lucas Killian, Matham and Saenredam; and at the commencement of the seventeenth century the two Bolswerts, who had Gerard Edelinck, although born at Antwerp, may be fairly considered of the French school, and was an engraver of the highest order. In portrait Nanteuil is no less celebrated than his contemporaries: the beauty and clearness of his style has perhaps never been exceeded. The Drevets (Peter Drevet in particular) are scarcely less distinguished: nor must we omit the name of John Louis Roullet, whose engraving of the Dead Christ with the fainting Virgin,' after Annibal Carracci, is one of the finest specimens which the art has produced. In addition we can only notice the names of Le Clerc, Simoneau, Chereau, Cochin, Dupuis, Beauvais, Balechou, Le Bas, John George Wille, &c. &c. The modern and existing French school has produced very able engravers, whose chief defect is, that, deviating from the course pursued by Gerard Audran and all the first artists, they allow that which is merely mechanical to predominate in their works; and aiming at great dexterity in the use of the graver as the chief objects, they make an ostentatious display of lines, the uniformity and regularity of which is offensive to the eye of true taste, imparting, as it often does, even to the flesh, the appearance of net-work, when viewed closely. 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