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‘METAL-WORKING, PRINTING AND ENGRAVING. 187
the finest compositions, being full of a melancholy grandeur; some of the figures, l
especially the Virgin and St. John, are most majestic. His ‘ St. Sebastian,”
on the contrary, is a model of youthful elegance.
Mantegna formed a large school of engraving, but his scholars are more
§- remarkable for close adherence to their master’s style and peculiarities than for
any originality. They excelled, however, in ornamental engraving, their scrolls
and arabesques being surprisingly beautiful: the antique models and casts of i
Squarcione’s school no doubt gave them inspiration in this branch. The practice ab
spread to Venice, through Mantegna’s artistic intimacy with Giovanni Bellini,
and it became a custom for Venetian artists to make engraved copies on |
copper of their own paintings. yp tee
In the cabinet of engravings in —_
Paris are several early Venetian
prints by Girolamo Mocetto and
by Giulio Campagnola, father of
Titian’s pupil, Domenico.
While the art of steel engraving
was thus making progress in Italy,
the Germans were not behindhand.
From the early date of some of
their prints—those of Erhard Schén
bearing the dates 1466 and 1469—
we may judge that the art developed
itself there independently of the
Florentines.
Martin Schongauer (born after *
1420) was a contemporary of Fini-
guerra, and gained fame by his fine
engravings, not only in his native opel
country, but also in Italy, where he was called ‘Il Buon Martino ;’’ his fellow- i ye poe
countrymen called him Martin Schén. Indeed, it seems doubtful whether the oF
rise of the art in Italy was not influenced as much by his works as by Finiguerra’s *
niellos. A certain Martin van Cleef sent a great number of prints to Florence in b
, the fifteenth century, which Vasari attributes to Martin Schongauer, but the
signature M.C. is sufficient to identify them, Schongauer always signing his
M.a.S. The prints described by Vasari were chiefly Scriptural subjects, one of
which, the “Crucifixion,” was so beautiful that Gherardo, a Florentine artist,
engraved a fac-simile. Another,a St. Anthony carried in the air by a number of
devils, so pleased Michelangelo for its d/zarre originality that he painted it.
After Schongauer came that king of engravers, Albrecht Diirer, artist and
BB 2
MADONNA AND CHILD.
Fac-simile of an Engraving by MANTEGNA.
——w + —