Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Some Early Italian Engravings Before the Time of Marcantonio
From the time of Raphael onward Italian engrav ing presents an overwhelmingly large proportion of reproductions of pictures, and loses on that account its primary interest. But in the fifteenth and the early sixteenth century, the engravers, though for the most part less accomplished craftsmen, were artists of real independence. We may in some cases exaggerate this independence through not knowing the sources Which they used, but the mere lack of that knowledge adds a particular interest to their prints. Treated not only in virtue of their special claim as engravings, but merely as designs, we find something in them which the paintings of the period do not offer us.
In general, the presence and in?uence of one of the greater artistic personalities of the time may be recog nized, but seldom definitely enough for us to trace the painter 's immediate direction. Mantegna is the mostbrilliant exception of a painter of first rank who is known to have handled the graver at this period. But forgetting the great names it is remarkable how in the early Renaissance in Italy even the secondary crafts men produced work of the same inexpressible charm that pervades the great masterpieces.
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