:[9]

... The poorest workman may suffice for an excellent chiaroscuro.
I do not depreciate the artistic value as chiaroscuros of the
various prints here noted nor underestimate the difficulty of
production; but my business has been solely with the not difficult
knifecutting and graver cutting of the same.

[Footnote 9: Linton, 1889, p. 215. A woodcut in the German manner
was far more difficult to manage than Linton imagined. Bewick
tried to imitate the cross-hatched lines of a Duerer woodcut
without success. He finally concluded (1925, pp. 205-207) that the
old woodcutters had used two blocks, each with lines going in
opposing directions, and had printed one over the other!]

_The Chiaroscuro Tradition_

The chiaroscuro woodcut was originally designed to serve a special
purpose, to reproduce drawings of the Renaissance period. These were
often made with pen and ink on paper prepared with a tint or with brush
and wash tones on white or tinted paper. Highlights were made and
modeled with brush and white pigment; the result had something of a
bas-relief character. Neither line engraving nor etching was suited to
reproducing these spirited drawings, but the chiaroscuro woodcut could
render their effects admirably. Its nature, therefore, was conceived as
fresh and spontaneous, as printed drawing, in fact.

Chiaroscuros were usually of two types, the German and the Italian. The
Germans specialized in reproducing line drawings made on toned paper
with white highlights. The woodcuts, however, could stand by themselves
as black-and-white prints; the tones required separate printing. The
typical German chiaroscuro was therefore from two blocks. The earliest
dated print in this style is Lucas Cranach's _Venus_, with "1506"
appearing on the black block. But the brown tint might have been added a
few years later. Jost de Negker, working after drawings by Hans
Burgkmair, cut blocks which are dated, on the black block at least, as
early as 1508, and work by Hans Baldung and Hans Wechtlin appeared
shortly after.

The Italian style originated with Ugo da Carpi, who in 1516 petitioned
the Senate in Venice to grant him exclusive rights to the chiaroscuro
process, which he claimed to have invented. For many years, until
Bartsch adduced proof in favor of the Germans, da Carpi was conceded to
be the founder of this process. His first work dates from 1518 but
obviously he produced prints earlier-- h