two years earlier, he had shown familiarity with the
prints of Goltzius, Coriolano, Businck, Nicolas and Vincent Le Sueur,
Moretti, and Zanetti, all of whom had worked to some extent in the
Italian manner.

Some writers have reacted strongly to this paragraph. Losing their sense
of proportion, they have been led to the conclusion that Jackson was
little better than a charlatan and that his work as a whole reflected
his low ethics. In some instances his culpability has been magnified:
Benezit has even charged him with claiming to have invented color
printing.

The worst result of Jackson's insistence on re-inventing the Italian
manner was that it made a major issue of what was at best a minor honor.
It minimized such technical contributions as the following, which did
not follow traditional recipes:

... Mr. _Jackson_ has invented ten positive Tints in _Chiaro
Oscuro_; whereas Hugo di Carpi knew but four; all of which can be
taken off by four Impressions only.

This technical system was used for the Venetian chiaroscuros, the
portrait of Algernon Sidney after Justus Verus, and others. He did not
mention that he needed a greater range of tones because he was working
after oil paintings, not drawings. The introduction of full color from a
series of blocks to translate water colors is also mentioned in the
_Essay_, but with no greater emphasis than in the _Enquiry_. Since his
wallpaper was to be done in color as well as in chiaroscuro, and since
the _Essay_ included four plates in color, it is astonishing that
Jackson failed to make stronger claims for his originality in this
development.

He proceeded to describe his plan to replace wallpapers in the Chinese
style with his papers, which, he stated, would have no "...gay glaring
Colours in broad Patches of red, green, yellow, blue &c ... [with] no
true Judgment belonging to it ... Nor are there Lions leaping from Bough
to Bough like Cats, Houses in the Air, Clouds and Sky upon the
Ground...."

He proposed, instead, to use as subjects many of the famous statues of
antiquity; the landscapes of Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorrain, Poussin,
Berghem, Wouwerman, the views of Canaletto, Pannini--

Copies of the Pictures of all the best Painters of the _Italian_,
_French_ and _Flemish_ Schools, the fine sculptur'd Vases of the
Ancients which are now remaining; in short, every Bird that flies,
every Figure that moves upon the Surface of the Earth from the
Insect