Wood-Block Printing | Page 2

them stimulus in his own work and hints for new developments.
The following account of colour-printing from wood-blocks is based on
a study of the methods which were lately only practised in Japan, but
which at an earlier time were to some degree in use in Europe also. The
main principles of the art, indeed, were well known in the West long
before colour prints were produced in Japan, and there is some reason
to suppose that the Japanese may have founded their methods in
imitating the prints taken from Europe by missionaries. Major Strange
says: "The European art of chiaroscuro engraving is in all essentials
identical with that of Japanese colour-printing.... It seems, therefore,
not vain to point out that the accidental sight of one of the Italian
colour-prints may have suggested the process to the Japanese." The
Italians aimed more at expressing "relief" and the Japanese at flat
colour arrangements; the former used oily colours, and the latter fair
distemper tints; these are the chief differences. Both in the West and the
East the design was cut on the plank surface of the wood with a knife;
not across the grain with a graver, as is done in most modern wood
engraving, although large plank woodcuts were produced by Walter
Crane and Herkomer, about thirty years ago, as posters.

The old woodcuts of the fifteenth century were produced as pictures as
well as for the illustration of books; frequently they were of
considerable size. Often, too, they were coloured by stencil plates or
freely by hand.
At the same time the printing in colour of letters and other simple
devices in books from wood-blocks was done, and a book printed at St.
Albans in 1486 has many coats of arms printed in this way; some of the
shields having two or three different colours.[1]
About the year 1500 a method of printing woodcuts in several flat tones
was invented in Germany and practised by Lucas Cranach and others.
A fine print of Adam and Eve by Hans Baldung in the Victoria and
Albert Museum has, besides the bold black "drawing," an over-tint
printed in warm brown out of which sharp high lights are cut; the print
is thus in three tones.
[1] See R. M. Burch, Colour Printing, 1900.
Ugo da Carpo (c. 1480-1530) working in Venice, introduced this new
type of tone woodcut into Italy; indeed, he claimed to be the inventor of
the method. "This was called chiaroscuro, a name still given to it, and
was, in fact, a simple form of our modern chromo printing." His
woodcuts are in a simple, vigorous style; one of them after Raphael's
"Death of Ananias," printed in brown, has a depth and brilliancy which
may remind us of the mezzo-tints of Turner's Liber Studiorum. This is
proudly signed, "Per Ugo da Carpo," and some copies are said to be
dated 1518.
Andrea Andreani (c. 1560-1623), a better known but not a better artist,
produced a great number of these tone woodcuts. Several prints after
Mantegna's "Triumphs of Caesar" have a special charm from the beauty
of the originals; they are printed in three tints of grey besides the
"drawing"; the palest of these tints covers the surface, except for high
lights cut out of it. A fine print of a Holy Family, about 15×18 inches,
has a middle tone of fair blue and a shadow tint of full rich green.
Copies of two immense woodcuts at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
of Biblical subjects, seem to have been seems to cramp the hand and

injure the eyes of all but the most gifted draughtsmen. It is desirable to
cultivate the ability to seize and record the "map-form" of any object
rapidly and correctly. Some practice in elementary colour-printing
would certainly be of general usefulness, and simpler exercises may be
contrived by cutting out with scissors and laying down shapes in black
or coloured papers unaided by any pattern.
Finally, the hope may be expressed that the beautiful art of
wood-cutting as developed in Western Europe and brought to such
perfection only a generation ago is only temporarily in abeyance, and
that it too may have another day.
W. R. LETHABY. September 1916.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
This little book gives an account of one of the primitive crafts, in the
practice of which only the simplest tools and materials are used. Their
method of use may serve as a means of expression for artist-craftsmen,
or may be studied in preparation for, or as a guide towards, more
elaborate work in printing, of which the main principles may be seen
most clearly in their application in the primitive craft.
In these days the need for reference to primitive handicrafts has not
ceased with the advent of the machine. The best achievements of
hand-work