Prints: A Brief Review of Their Technique and History

by Emil H. Richter

The new awakening in French engraving in the seventeenth century is especially notable in portrait engraving. Germany has lost its leadership in the graphic arts; the great days of Italian engraving are likewise over, though Italy continues a source of inspiration to painters of all nations, she can add no vital, helpful impulse to engraving. Such life-giving influences could only come from the Netherlands, where the great tide of art is now at its height, where painting and the graphic arts have unfolded all their glory. Here the etcher’s and the engraver’s technique, very highly developed, is growing yet in perfection. What could be more natural than the powerful stimulus exerted by such excellence on French engraving? Its greatest triumphs coincide, in point of time, with the period of political supremacy of France during the reign of Louis XIV. The “Grand Monarque” infused grandeur into all the arts. The stately graver is the medium aptly chosen for numerous portraits of the “roi soleil” himself. In this period of teeming fertility in portraiture, we find an abundance of likenesses of statesmen, generals, princes, nobles, of leaders in art, science, literature, and of distinguished churchmen. One cannot look through these prints without being struck by the prevalence, among them, of an element of stately aloofness which removes these men and women from the everyday sphere of life. They lack some of the freedom, some of the lifelike appearance, which characterize the achievements of the Netherlanders.

DUC DE GUISE

Claude Mellan

In glancing through the ranks of the French engravers, we come upon Claude Mellan, an artist-engraver of striking originality. He departs from the beaten track of cross-hatching, and develops a manner of shading which relies—for the rendering of shadows—solely on the swelling line peculiar to graver-work. His technique is seen in the portrait of the young Duc de Guise here reproduced. Lines very lightly traced in the lighted portions, grow in strength and swell proportionately to the depth of shadow to be expressed. The direction of the line and its degree of heaviness are the means of expression used by Mellan. The difficulties inherent in such a technique are evident, and it is equally evident that the elimination of cross-hatching is a heavy handicap to an engraver. Naturally enough, Claude Mellan did not have any following to speak of among engravers.

ANTOINE VITRÉ

Jean Morin

From this peculiar but fascinating artist, we pass on to another engraver of marked individuality, Jean Morin, an excellent technician who studied with profit the works of his Dutch and Flemish predecessors. He combines etching and graver-work in his plates, modeling the flesh exquisitely by means of minute stipple-like touches. Among his best productions the portrait of Antoine Vitré stands forth as a plate of great effectiveness and power, with rich, dark tones of shadow and brilliant lights.

The school of Philippe de Champaigne, which disciplined the powers of Morin, set upon his way the greatest of French portrait engravers, Robert Nanteuil. A finished draughtsman, known by his pastel portraits, and an engraver who carried the technique of the graver to perfection; he knows how to blend delicacy and strength in plates like this portrait of Pompone de Bellièvre. The longer one studies such a print, the more one realizes the unerring faculty of this master in the selection of line; each stroke fits the substance which it is meant to express. The eloquence of the graver is a matter too subtle for language, and far transcends the possibilities of reproduction, however skillful; a half-hour spent with some good, early impressions of Nanteuil prints will prove the truth of this assertion. Everything is expressed there, and wondrously well expressed, yet one is quite unconscious of any display of virtuosity. Nanteuil was too great an artist not to subordinate the beauty of line, the marvelous finish of elaborate detail, to the main consideration, namely, the beauty of a well-balanced, well-harmonized ensemble. He was an artist-engraver in the true sense of the word, since many of his finest plates have been drawn from life, as well as engraved by him.