. Ariadne florentina; six lectures on wood and metal engraving, with appendix; given before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas term, 1872. . roper means for it. The quantity of it whichis needful for his story, and will not, by anysensational violence, either divert, or vulgarlyenforce, the attention, he will give; and thatwith an unrivalled subtlety. Therefore I mustask you for a moment or two to quit the subjectof technics, and look what these two woodcutsmean. 84. The one I have first shown you is ofa ploughman ploughing at evening. It is Hol-beins object, here, to express the diffused
. Ariadne florentina; six lectures on wood and metal engraving, with appendix; given before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas term, 1872. . roper means for it. The quantity of it whichis needful for his story, and will not, by anysensational violence, either divert, or vulgarlyenforce, the attention, he will give; and thatwith an unrivalled subtlety. Therefore I mustask you for a moment or two to quit the subjectof technics, and look what these two woodcutsmean. 84. The one I have first shown you is ofa ploughman ploughing at evening. It is Hol-beins object, here, to express the diffused andintense light of a golden summer sunset, sofar as is consistent with grander purposes. Amodern French or English chiaroscurist wouldhave covered his sky with fleecy clouds, andrelieved the ploughmans hat and his horsesagainst it in strong black, and put sparklingtouches on the furrows and grass. Holbein scorn-fully casts all such tricks aside; and draws thewhole scene in pure white, with simple outlines. 85. And yet, when I put it beside this secondvignette, (Fig. 3,) which is of a preacherpreaching in a feebly lighted church, you will. THE TWO PEE AC HERS.{Fig, 3,) Fac-simile from Holbeina woodcut. WOOD ENGRAVING. 85 feel that the diffused warmth of the one subject,and diffused twilight in the other, are complete ;and they will finally be to you more impressivethan if they had been wrought out with everysuperficial means of effect, on each block. For it is as a symbol, not as a scenic effect, thatin each case the chiaroscuro is given. Holbein,I said, is at the head of the painter-reformers,and his Dance of Death is the most energeticand telling of all the forms given, in this epoch,to the Rationalist spirit of reform, preachingthe new Gospel of Death,— It is no matter whe-ther you are priest or layman, what you believe,or what you do : here is the end. You shallsee, in the course of our inquiry, that Botticelli,in like manner, represents the Faithful?ind Catho-lic temper
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