Solomon," after Raphael; Garavaglia's "Meeting of Jacob and Rachel," after Appiani; Rosaspina's "Dance of the Cupids," after Albani; and Gandolfi's "Sleeping Cupid," from his own design.

The last of the great Italian engravers was Paolo Toschi, pupil of Bervic, who was himself a pupil of Wille. It remained for Toschi to discover in the lovely frescos of Correggio, at Parma, a mine of the richest ore, which his predecessors for more than three centuries had scarcely touched. The "Madonna della Scala," the "Incoronata," and the pair of groups of cherubs may be cited as examples of what Toschi has done for Correggio and for Art.

Before leaving Italy we must go back two centuries to consider an artist who was a "law unto himself," in that his prints are very different in manner and effect from all others. His countrymen, from Morghen to Toschi, loved to present the soft and sensuous beauty of the human face and form, but Piranesi devoted his life to etching the magnificent ruins and edifices of his native country. His plates are of large size, and are etched with so much picturesque boldness and ruggedness that he well deserves the sobriquet of the Rembrandt of architecture.

Nothing has yet been said of the British school. It has, however, produced at least two line engravers of the first rank-Sir Robert Strange and William Sharp and in the two departments of mezzotint and landscape it far excels the continental prints of the same period.

Strange had a style of his own - rich, soft, and peculiarly adapted to the rendering of flesh-tints. He has engraved more than fifty important plates, chiefly after the great Italian masters. All of his works have been highly esteemed by connoisseurs.

William Sharp, who was born in London in 1746, may be called the greatest English line engraver. In his excellent essay on "The Best Portraits in Engraving," the late Charles Sumner says of Sharp: "He ascended to the heights of art, showing a power rarely equaled; his works are constant in character and expression, with every possible excellence of execution: face, form, and drapery all are as in nature." And then he goes on to eulogize Sharp's famous portrait of John Hunter, the eminent surgeon, calling it "unquestionably the foremost portrait in British art, and the coequal companion of the great portraits of the past." Among other masterpieces by Sharp may be mentioned "The Doctors of the Church," after Guido, and the very striking print, after Salvator Rosa, of Diogenes looking for an honest man. In this we see the grim old cynic, lantern in hand, making his way through the market-place of Athens, apparently regardless of the sneers of the by-standers.

In London, more than a century ago, under the judicious management of John Boydell, the publisher, both mezzotint and landscape engraving reached their zenith. Of landscape engravers, William Woollett is facile princeps; his works have always been held in the highest estimation. His

ABEL FRANÇOIS POISSON DE VANDIERES, MARQUIS DE MARIGNY Size of the original print, 194 by 13 inches.

From the line-engraving by Johann Georg Wille (1715-1808), after the painting by Jean Louis Tocqué. Engraved in 1761. He was a brother of Madame de Pompadour.

Size of the original print, 27 by 203 inches.

From the line-engraving by Charles Clément Bervic (1756-1822), after the painting by A. F. Callet. This masterpiece is described on pages 17 and 18.

print of "Roman Edifices in Ruins," after Claude, is perhaps the finest landscape in engraving. Contemporary with Woollett were John Brown, Mason, Peake, and Vivares, who have all left us excellent landscapes.

Americans of a former generation made a great mistake in disparaging all mezzotint engraving as something very inferior. This general opinion was probably occasioned by the wretched mezzotints which were produced in this country; but in England the finest prints in this style are, and have always been, highly esteemed, and a fine engraving by Earlom, Green, or Pether would convince any one that a good mezzotint is in no respect a second-rate production.

While in our day high-class line engraving has become almost a lost art, a school of artist-etchers has arisen in France which has done great things. These etchings come directly from the hand that designs them while the art idea is yet warm and fresh, and such eminent painters as Millet, Meissonier, and Daubigny have not disdained to resort to the etching-needle. In no other way can so much really good art be owned at so small an outlay as in a portfolio of well-chosen modern etchings. Hamerton's admirable book Etching and Etchers has done much to advance the taste for these beautiful works.

A word of suggestion as to the selection of engravings. It is not essential that they must be "proofs," though proofs, being the very earliest impressions taken from the plate, are naturally