credited with the introduction of more expressive gradations of tone, for the production and emphatic suggestion of light and shade. The character of this, too, has been retained in present day engravings. Rembrandt was more directly associated with etching than with line engraving, but his influence was far from exclusive. Encouraged by the influence of his example, the line engraver endeavoured to add to the expressive power of his pictures by the introduction of more daring perspectives, more suggestive form, and infinitely greater diversity of texture.

CHAPTER IV

ENGRAVING IN ENGLAND—INTRODUCTION OF METAL ENGRAVING—NOTABLE BRITISH ENGRAVERS—SUMMARY

"When applied to objects of their proper destination, the arts are capable of extending our intellect, of supplying new ideas, and of presenting to us a view of times and places, whatever their interval or difference."—Dallaway.

Engraving as a decorative art was well advanced in this country during the reign of Alfred the Great, when the Anglo-Saxon metal-workers were known to be skilful engravers. The art was still further developed under the Norman rule, and during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Wood engravings were printed by William Caxton in 1481, but there is no proof that they were the work of English engravers.

Introduction of Metal Engraving.—The exact date of the introduction into England of metal engraving as a reproductive art is doubtful. There is a record of a book published in this country in 1545, which was illustrated with copper engravings, cut by Thomas Gemeni. It was a work on anatomy by Vesalius, and was at first printed in Latin. In the preface to a translation of this work the following quaint note appears: "Accepte, jentill reader, this Tractise of Anatomie, thankfully interpreting the labours of Thomas Gemeni the workman. He that with his great charge, watch and travayle, hath set out the figures in pourtrature will most willingly be amended, or better perfected of his own workmanship if admonished."

It was probably not until Queen Elizabeth's reign was well advanced that metal engraving obtained any substantial recognition as a fine art which might be practised with some hope of commercial success.

Archbishop Parker, a powerful prelate of this time, extended his patronage to the art, and for a time, at least, kept a private staff of engravers. A portrait of this archbishop was executed by Remigus Hogenberg, and is the first record of an engraved portrait produced and printed in England.

For about a century the work of English engravers was uninteresting, and almost devoid of artistic feeling. Their pictures possessed but little merit, either as works of art or as pictorial records of that eminently progressive period.

During the seventeenth century engraving became intimately associated with literature, and then, as now, the combination was a felicitous one. Another fortunate circumstance was the settling of the Passe family in this country. They came from Utrecht, and were engravers of considerable skill and repute. The elder Passe was a friend and admirer of the famous painter Reubens, whose style he, to some extent, copied.

John Payne—the first English artist to distinguish himself with the graver—was a pupil of Passe. Payne was an undoubted genius, and, but for his indolence and dissipated habits, might have accomplished a great work.

His most noteworthy engraving was a picture of "The Royal Sovereign," made on two plates, which, when joined together, measured 36 in. × 26 in.

Vertue succeeded Payne. His engravings were chiefly of historical value; as works of art they displayed no unusual merit. Many were portraits of personages of high degree, in which Vertue evidently copied the style of Houbraken, a Dutch artist, who some time previously engraved a similar series of portraits, the commission being given to him because "no English engraver was capable of executing it."

Vertue's writings on English Art were profuse and thoughtful. They were afterwards collected and published by Horace Walpole.