THE EMPEROR CHARLES V

Size of the original print, 8 by 5 inches.
Designed and engraved by Barthel Beham in 1531.

The extremely rare First State, before the monogram. Sir Seymour Haden, who was hostile to line-engraving, declared that this portrait is a masterpiece.

interesting to the studious connoisseur; they include nearly all the famous "painter-engravers" those who engraved their own designs. Among the critical books of reference on this class of artists one work is pre-eminent; it is Le PeintreGraveur, in twenty-one volumes, by Adam Bartsch, who was the curator of the great collection at Vienna. Bartsch's work, which is written in French, is indispensable to every collector of the older engravings; it is a marvel of critical research, giving a minute description of all the works of each engraver, and describing the earlier and later "states" of each plate, as well as designating the numerous counterfeits that have been made upon the most admired old prints; but as the work only treats of the artists who engraved their own designs, it has no information upon the great line engravers who have reproduced the masterpieces of painting. As a general book of reference upon the famous engravers as well as upon the great painters, Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers is considered the best.

To commence with the earliest engravers of whom we have any record, Finiguerra, who has been already mentioned as the discoverer of the art of printing from engraved plates, took impressions on paper about the year 1440. One very beautiful print of his is preserved in the great public collection in Paris; it is a small composition representing the Nativity, and is crowded with figures. His immediate followers in Italy were Andrea Mantegna, who was born at Padua

in 1431, and Baccio Baldini, who was his contemporary. Fifty years later appeared the greatest of the old Italian engravers in Marcantonio Raimondi, who was born at Bologna in 1487, and died in 1536. Among collectors of the oldest engravings, Marcantonio is a great name, ranking almost with Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt. Early in his career he attracted the attention of Raphael, and that master, recognizing the value of engraving as a vehicle for multiplying his own designs, gave Marcantonio employment under his own supervision. So exquisitely correct is the drawing of his figures that connoisseurs profess to see the magic hand of Raphael himself in these faultless outlines. A fine impression of the engraver's portrait of the poet Aretino, the friend of Titian, has been recently sold at auction in London for £780 sterling. Marcantonio was the founder of a renowned school.

Of contemporary German engravers, Martin Schongauer comes earliest. His prints, which are very scarce and high-priced, show force and originality, as well as great technical skill in the use of the graver; but the work of all these early German masters is a little stiff and Gothic in style, though indicating an admirable sincerity and directness of purpose.

But the greatest name in this connection is that of Albrecht Dürer, who was born in the quaint old city of Nuremberg in 1471. Dürer found the art of engraving in its infancy, and carried the technical fineness of it to a perfection that has

PORTRAIT OF REMBRANDT LEANING UPON A SABRE

Size of the original print, 7 by 6 inches.

From the original etching by Rembrandt, etched in 1634. First state of the plate, before the copper was cut to an oval. In this state of the plate, four proofs only are known. This illustration was photographed from the proof in the old royal collection of the kings of France. At the auction sale in London of the Holford collection another proof of this etching sold for the enormous price of £2000, or about $10,000. The buyer was Lord Rothschild.

CLEMENT DE JONGHE

Size of the original print, 8 by 63 inches.

From the original etching by Rembrandt, etched in 1651. Clement de Jonghe was one of the most celebrated publishers of his time in Holland. Many of the best plates of the best etchers - Cornelis and Jan Visscher, Rogman, Zeeman and Paul Potter - bear his name as publisher. The beauty of effect and felicity of pose of this portrait are very remarkable. Rembrandt, by his art, has given to the portrait of this unpretending print-seller an air of melancholy and reverie that would not ill become a philosopher in meditation.