THE NEW -YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED.

Thorwaldsen, what is there in the department of sculpture but a series of variousfigures imitating various actions ? The veiled statuary is only a pretty trick of skill.The Girl Threading a Needle is a “cunning” and pleasant work. The eques-trian Washington is huge, and the Webster is ludicrous. The famous bronze Am-azon of Kiss is full of fire and a wild grace; and the bronze imitations of animalsand birds throughout the exhibition are admirable; but not one is superior inconception or workmanship to a house lizard in Dr. Abbott’s Egyptian museum,which is probably twice as old as the statue of the Apollo Belvidere.

We have surveyed the sculpture from the highest standard. It is our beliefthat Art , which is, in some form or other, contemporary with Nature, is suscepti-ble of many varieties. That some one of these varieties culminates with everygreat recognised epoch of historical civilisation, is peculiar to that period, and isonly to be successfully practised in a subsequent period, in a limited degree. That,as the race is progressive, so Art must be; and that each new form is more pliableand expressive than each of the preceding, and includes them as the greater in-cludes the less. That all forms of Art are mutually related, each new one beingsuperior in intent, as it is more various in execution, yet that all are necessary toan exhaustive survey of history. That Egypt, Greece, and Italy (to which maypossibly be added Germany, for music), represent the three great forms of Arthitherto developed. That Egypt was the fundamental, or the architectural.That Greece was the fulfilment of Egypt, in laws, manners, religion, and life, andthat consequently Egyptian Art received its last perfection in Greek architectureand sculpture. That Italy was the seat of the new element of Christianity in-troduced into history, and therefore produced a form of art adapted to the fit ex-pression of that spirit; necessarily more subtle and various than the precedingforms. That, in illustration of this theory, history shows sculpture to havetouched its prime in Greece, that all subsequent sculpture is successful only in thedegree that it represents ideas peculiar to the Greek civilization, and thereforesusceptible of a Greek treatment. That, consequently, all modern sculpture, bywhich we mean all since the Greek, is of no historical significance, and bears nointrinsic evidence that it was not executed two thousand years ago, having no re-lation to a different spirit of life, and that when it has aimed to represent a differ-ent spirit it has signally failed, thereby showing its inadequacy. That, in the sameway, contemporary painting is merely imitation; that it constantly reproduces anold story in the old way, or contents itself with portraiture, either of man or thelandscape; and this, necessarily, because we live under the Christian civilisation;nor can we look for anew art, until some more universal principle is deduced fromChristianity, and incorporated into the life of the race, which we are not inclinedto believe so distant as some other things. “ Good will to man ” is practicallyorganized in democratic forms of government, and must, at some time, appearin Art.

In the necessary limits of such an article, which we have already surpassed,we can do no more than suggest these principles. We have but partially appliedthem to the sculpture in the Crystal Palace. Let the reader measure the paintingsof the Exhibition, by them, and we have no fear that he will find a different result.

We cannot farther follow the thousand interesting thoughts suggested by thediscussion. It is one of the great triumphs of the Exhibition, that it will causeevery thoughtful man to meditate more and more deeply upon a subject whose re-lations, like its influences, are endless.

ENGRAVING.

W HAT typography is to the author, engraving is to the artist. The relation, ofGuttenburg and Faust to literature, is kindred to that which Finiguerra andthe unknown originator of wood engraving bear to art. It is scarcely more pos-sible that the mass of mankind should form an intimate and familiar acquaintancewith the masterpieces of art in their original forms of statues and pictures thanthe world should read Bacon and Scott in the original manuscripts of theauthors. Yet the value of art is almost proportionate to the diffusion of its pro-ducts, and to the existing extent of culture among men of a correct and refinedcapacity for appreciating art-creations. Not only do the pictorial arts contributeto the tasteful enjoyments of life, but they are steadily growing to be the habi-tual vehicle for an immense amount of knowledge relating to architecture, ma-chines, and apparatus, to natural scenery, natural history, and natural philosophy,to the incidents and surroundings of social and domestic life throughout theworld, to the events and accessories of history, and, indeed, to all learning whichinvolves external forms, whether of natural or human origin. So readily doesthe mind receive knowledge through the eye, that the wide prevalence of pic-torial illustration deserves to be ranked among the most powerful aids in promot-ing its diffusion and application. Whether viewed economically, socially, mechan-ically, or cesthetically, a high aggregate importance most rightfully belongs to thenumerous and rapidly increasing group of art processes having for their commonobject the production of imitative forms, whether actual or ideal. Restricting

ourselves to that portion of these arts included under the head of engraving, andexcluding all kinds of engraving except such as have for their object the procur-ing of ink impressions on paper, we shall still only find it practicable briefly toallude to the more important processes for print engraving and printing.

The origin of engraving is remote and obscure. The ancients engraved gems,seals and medals, in high beauty and perfection. But engraving for printing pur-poses dates back only to the origin of wood engraving, which is believed, thoughon slender evidence, first to have existed in China, and then to have been eithertransported to, or invented in Germany, as early as 1285; so obscurely, however,that a rival Italian claim to its invention is maintained, though no record prior to1441 testifies to its having been there practised. The invention of movablotypes would appear to have resulted from printing engraved wooden blocks, typo-graphical and woodcut printing being in fact essentially one discovery. ThoughGermany also claims the origination of printing from engraved metal plates, itappears most probable that there were two distinct discoveries of this art, andthat the first to apply metal engraving to printing was Maso Finiguerra, a gold-smith and sculptor in Florence. lie practised niello work, in which designs areengraved on metal plate, vases, &c., the engraved lines being finally filled with ablack fusible mixture of silver, lead, copper, sulphur, and borax, which brings outthe design strongly. To preserve copies of their designs, niello artists were wontto fill the engraved lines with black earth, and run over them a layer of fusedsulphur, which took up the earth and thus formed a species of impression. Fini-guerra used a mixture of oil and soot, and substituted paper for sulphur; thusoriginating the art of printing engravings, and of engraving for printing. Hence,through a natural progress, the art has advanced by successive additions to and per-fectings of its methods up to its present full expansion. Plate engraving, woodengraving and etching attained respectively to a high degree of perfection in thehands of Martin Schoen, and Albert Durer, in Germany, and of Raimondi, inItaly, early in the sixteenth century. The dawning history of engraving shows thata higher order of artists applied their talents at the first to developing the powersand resources of the graver and etching point, than is found in the list of latermasters and practitioners. Albert Durer, Goltzius and Rembrandt, in Germany,Parmigiano and Della Bella, in Italy, and Oallot, in France,-practised engravingdirectly on plates without previous painting, and many of the most spirited modernetchings are drawn first on the plate. Indeed, the power with which lines wereused by those early master hands makes the mere dexterities and mechanicalperfections belonging to the present routine of engraving practice, appear but veryunsatisfactory substitutes for the rough, bold vigor, which they have in greatpart superseded. The excessive subdivision which now restricts each engraverto a special mode of working, and to a special line of subjects, while it exalts thefinish and style of execution has the effect to cramp the engraver’s faculties, andto produce in his work a confirmed mannerism, which ignores the spirit of theparticular subject in hand, and prostrates its peculiar significance before technicalrules. The truly good engraver unites finish of style with a soul for meanings,and hence knows how to suit each to the other.

The arts of engraving are reducible to the classes of engraving in relief, andengraving in basso, or in sunken lines and points. Zincography and the severallithographic processes (except stone engraving), present 'their subjects on flatsurfaces without enough either of relief or depression sensibly to affect the print-ing. Relief engraving is chiefly limited to the tw r o styles of woodcuts, in oneof which the lines of the subject are printed dark on a light ground, and in theother they are left light on a dark printed ground. Cerographic lines in relief arealso used for coarse maps. The processes in which the parts to be printed darkare cut into the plate, and then filled with ink for printing, are more numerous.They are, copper plate line engraving, steel plate line engraving, stippling or dotengraving, etching copper or steel through a laid ground or coating, aquatinting,mezzotinting, and lithographic dry-point engraving. A.wide difference prevailsin the mode of printing relief, flat and sunken engravings. Relief lines are chargedwith ink by merely passing the ink roller over them, as in distributing ink to anordinary type form, the process being the same throughout for both, except thatwoodcuts are sometimes printed against a backer, so patched or underlaid as tothrow the greatest pressure on the parts intended to be darkest, while the lightestportions are relieved. In Zincographic and lithographic flat surface printing, thelight parts require to be wetted between successive impressions, as the water coat-ing protects the lights, while the printer rolls his charged ink roller over the lines,and dots, to be inked and printed. In printing basso,^r sunken line and point en-graving, the method pursued is to roll a charged ink roller over the face of theplate, so as to fill its depressions with ink, the plate being heated to facilitate thisend. The surplus ink is then wipod from the plane face by rags, and by thepalms of the hands. This hand wiping enables the printer in part to regulate theamount of ink with which the portions of the plate are supplied when printed,and the control over the shade of his proofs thus obtained, nothing but thehand palm has yet sufficed to give; hence, however begriming and distasteful thisuse of the hands may be, they are likely always to continue as tools for fine print-ing. When the wiping is completed, the plate is laid on the bed of the press,covered with a sheet of printing paper, and drawn by a crank movement under a