A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . inedby several of the schoolmen of the twelfth and thirteenth tree of knowledge is without fruit, and the serpent, with a humanface, is seen twined round its stem. The form of the tree and the shapeof the leaves are almost precisely the same as those of the olive-trees inthe Aj)ocalypse, uprooted by Antichrist. The character of the designs,however, in the two books is almost as different as the manner of theengraving. In the Apocalypse there is no attempt at shading, while in WOOD ENGRAVING. 89 the book under consideratio
A treatise on wood engravings : historical and practical . inedby several of the schoolmen of the twelfth and thirteenth tree of knowledge is without fruit, and the serpent, with a humanface, is seen twined round its stem. The form of the tree and the shapeof the leaves are almost precisely the same as those of the olive-trees inthe Aj)ocalypse, uprooted by Antichrist. The character of the designs,however, in the two books is almost as different as the manner of theengraving. In the Apocalypse there is no attempt at shading, while in WOOD ENGRAVING. 89 the book under consideration it is introduced in every page, thoughmerely by courses of single lines, as may be perceived in the drapery ofChrist in the preceding cut, and in the trunk of the tree and in theserpent in the cut subjoined. In this cut the figure of Adam cannot beconsidered as a specimen of manly beauty; his face is that of a manwho is past his prime, and his attitude is very like that of one of thesplay-footed boors of Teniers. In point of personal beauty Eve appears. to be a partner worthy of her husband ; and though from her action sheseems conscious that she is naked, yet her expression and figure areextremely unlike the graceful timidity and beautiful proportions of theMedicean Venus. The face of the serpent displays neither malignitynor fiendish cunning ; but, on the contrary, is marked with an expressionnot unlike that of a Bavarian broom-girl. This manner of representingthe temptation of our first parents appears to have been conventional 90 PEOGRESS OF among the early German Fonnschneiders; for I have seen several oldwood-cuts of tills subject, in which the figures were almost precisely thesame. Notwithstanding the bad drawing and the coarse engraving ofthe following cut, many of the same subject, executed in Germanybetween 1470 and 1510, are yet worse.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectwoodengraving, bookye
