John Baptist Jackson Part 4

The original gouaches have not been located, but from other examples in the same manner, in Buckingham Palace and in the Uffizi, it is plain that Jackson took certain liberties. Ricci's rather sharp colors were considerably modified and mellowed when they weren't changed entirely: witness the two sets in different harmonies in the British Museum. Peter A. Wick (1955) believes it most likely that Jackson did not copy specific paintings, and suggests that details from Ricci's etchings and gouaches were combined and freely amended to create Ricci-like designs.

Having determined his color scheme Jackson cut seven to ten blocks, each designed to bear an individual color which was to combine with others when necessary to form new colors. No outline block was used. To obtain variations from light to dark in each pigment Jackson sc.r.a.ped down the blocks with a knife; he thus lowered the surfaces slightly and created porous textures which would introduce the white paper or the underlying color. Examination of the prints clearly shows granular textures in the light areas. Sc.r.a.ping to lighten impressions was a common procedure in black-and-white printmaking, and was described by both Papillon and Bewick. In addition Jackson no doubt used underlays, that is, small pieces of paper pasted in layers of diminis.h.i.+ng size on the backs of the blocks where the color was most intense. The pressure was therefore greatest in the deepest notes and lightest in the sc.r.a.ped parts. The copper plate press enabled Jackson to get good register without making marks on the blocks. The paper was dampened and fastened to the chase at one end. After each impression the next inked block was slid into the chase and printed wet into wet. Problems of register were eliminated because the sheets were held in place at all times, the blocks fitting the same form. No doubt the paper was sprinkled with water on the reverse side after each impression to eliminate shrinking and to keep it soft for printing. This method would explain Jackson's transparent effects.

Although the Ricci prints were certainly the most ambitious and complexly planned prints of the century, the cutting is crisp and decisive and the effect fresh and unlabored. As in the Venetian set embossing is consciously applied. Most likely Jackson impressed the finished prints, specially redampened for the purpose, with one or two of the uninked blocks. Jackson interpreted Ricci's qualities with great spirit, and in doing so he liberated the color woodcut from its old conventions. The "true"-color prints he produced in the medium preceded the j.a.panese, if not the Chinese.[31] In j.a.pan, it must be remembered, simple color printing in rose and green supplanted hand coloring in about 1741, and rudimentary polychrome prints can be dated as early as 1745, but, as Binyon[32] puts it, "it was not until 1764 that the first rather tentative _nis.h.i.+ki-ye_, or complete colour-prints were produced in Yedo, and the long reign of the Primitives came to an end."

[Footnote 31: Altdorfer's _Beautiful Virgin of Ratisbon_, about 1520, (B. 51, vol. 8, p. 78) made use of five colors in some impressions (Lippmann describes one with seven colors) but these were used primarily for decorative, not naturalistic purposes.]

[Footnote 32: Laurence Binyon, _A Catalogue of j.a.panese & Chinese Woodcuts in the British Museum_, London, 1916, p. xx, introduction.]

In making his Ricci prints Jackson sought a method of color printing that would overcome the deficiencies of Jacob Christoph Le Blon's three-color mezzotint process. Le Blon, a Frenchman born in Germany, had begun experimenting with color printing as early as 1705. His idea was to split the chromatic components of a picture into three basic hues-- blue, red, and yellow-- in gradations of intensity so that varying amounts of color, each on a separate copper plate, could be printed in superimposition to reconst.i.tute the original picture. This was based upon a simplification of Newton's seven primaries. Later, Le Blon added a fourth, black plate. Incredibly, this is the principle of modern commercial color printing, the only difference being that Le Blon did not have a camera, color filters, and the halftone screen at his disposal and had to make the separations by hand. Le Blon came to London in 1719, produced an enormous number of color prints, published his _Coloritto, or the Harmony of Colouring in Painting_ in a very small edition about 1722 (it is undated), and shortly thereafter failed disastrously. About 1733 he returned to Paris, where he attracted a few followers. Most of his prints have disappeared, only about fifty being known at present.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Trial proof of the key block of center sheet of _The Crucifixion_, after Tintoretto. National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRIAL PROOF of the key block of _Christ on the Mount of Olives_, after Ba.s.sano. National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection).]

The idea of full-color printing, then, was in the air, although later, in the _Enquiry_, Jackson took pains to state that he had not been following in the footsteps of the Frenchman, who, he claimed, had made serious mistakes.

The Curious may think that this Tentamine was taken from the celebrated Mr. _le Blond_; I must here take the Liberty to explain the Difference.... Numbers are convinced already, that the printing Copper-plates done with _Fumo_ or _Mezzotinto_, are the most subject to wear out the soonest of any sort of Engraving on that Metal. Had this one Article been properly considered, _le Blond_, must have seen the impossibility of printing any Quant.i.ty from his repeated Impressions of Blue, Red, and Yellow Plates, so as to produce only Twenty of these printed Pictures to be alike. This is obvious to every one who has any Knowledge, or has seen the cleaning of Copper-plates after the Colour was laid on; the delicate finis.h.i.+ng of the Flesh must infallibly wear out every time the Plate is cleaned, and all the tender light Shadowing of any Colour must soon become white in proportion as the Plate wears. The Nature of Impression being overlooked at first, was the princ.i.p.al Cause that Undertaking came to nothing, notwithstanding the immense Expence the Proprietors were at to have a few imperfect Proofs at best, since it is evident they could be no other. The new invented Method of printing in Colours by Mr. _Jackson_ is under no Apprehension of being wore out so soon.... Whatever has been done by our _English_ Artist, was all printed with Wood Blocks with a strong Relievo, and in Substance sufficient to draw off almost any number that may be required.

What Jackson neglected to mention was the difficulty of repeating transparent color effects with large planks of wood. Few existing impressions match each other and some prints are off register. What saved him was his fine color sense, his brilliance as a woodcutter, and his disinclination to make literal color reproductions.

The work that Jackson left behind became a part of the cultural heritage of Venice, valued on its own account as well as for its connection with the city. Zanetti[33] describes the Venetian set and Zanotto,[34] in his _Guida_ of 1856, urges a visit to the Chiesa Abaziale della Misericordia, which evidently had on permanent exhibition a "perfectly unique collection of woodcuts in various colors by Jackson, quite unmatched."

[Footnote 33: Zanetti, 1792, pp. 689, 716.]

[Footnote 34: Zanotto, 1856, p. 320, note 3.]

Gallo[35] says that some of Jackson's blocks found their way to the printing house of the Remondini and were used to strike off new impressions, after which they became the property of the Typografia Pozzato in Ba.s.sano. This might explain some of the inferior examples of the Venetian set which could hardly have come from the presses of Jackson or Pasquali.

[Footnote 35: Gallo, 1941, pp. 23-23. Jackson's blocks are not listed in the Remondini catalog of 1817.]

_England Again: The Wallpaper Venture_

Jackson was married in Venice-- whether to an Italian we do not know-- and when he left the city in 1745 to return to England he took a family along. He mentions "an impoverish'd Family" in the _Essay_, but beyond this we know nothing of his personal life.

As soon as he arrived in England he was invited to work in a calico establishment, where he remained about six years. But making drawings to be printed on cloth failed to give him the scope he required. At the back of his mind was the pa.s.sion to work with woodblocks in color. This led him to take a bold and hazardous step-- to leave his position and attempt, obviously with little capital, the manufacture of wallpaper, not to please an established taste but to educate the public to a new type of product.

Wallpaper had come into popular use in England in the late 17th century, having been obtained from China by the East India Company. These hand-painted wall hangings, imported at great cost and in small quant.i.ties, were correspondingly expensive. The subjects were gay and fanciful-- birds, fans, Chinese kiosks, paG.o.das, and flowers. Highly desired because they offered an escape from the heavy grandeur of the Baroque style, they were subsequently imitated by a.s.sembly-line methods.

They fitted naturally into the developing _rocaille_ style (corrupted into Rococo outside of France), and it is not surprising that they were also produced extensively in Paris. In England these imitations, which formed a subst.i.tute for expensive velvet and damask hangings, completely dominated the wallpaper field.

The first notice of Jackson's venture appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of February 1752.[36] A letter signed "Y. D." praised the editor "Sylva.n.u.s Urban" for attempting to revive the art of cutting on wood. It mentioned that this art was in decline for more than a century, but noted that--

Two of our countrymen, _E. Kirkall_ and _J. B. Jackson_, ought to be exempted from this general charge; the former having a few years ago introduced the _Chiaro Oscuro_ of _Hugo de Carpi_ into England, though he met with no extraordinary encouragement for his ingenuity; and the art had died with him had not the latter attempted to revive it, but with less encouragement than his predecessor. _Mr. Jackson_, however, has lately invented a new method of printing paper hangings from blocks, which is very ornamental, and exceeds the common method of paper-staining (as it is termed) by the delicacy of his drawings, the novelty of his designs, and the masterly arrangement of his princ.i.p.al figures.

[Footnote 36: Vol. 22, pp. 77-79.]

The next notice appeared in the _London Evening Post_ of April 30-May 2, 1752:

New invented PAPER HANGINGS, printed in Oyl, which prevents the fading or changing of the Colours; as also Landscapes printed in Colours, by J. B. Jackson, Reviver of the Art of printing in Chiaro Oscuro, are to be had at Dunbar's Warehouse in Aldermanbury, London; or Mr. Gibson's, Bookseller, opposite the St. Alban's Tavern in Charles-street near St. James's-Square, and no where else.

Several months afterwards, in the September 1752 issue of _Gentleman's Magazine_, publication of the _Enquiry into the Origins of Printing in Europe_ was announced.

The _Enquiry_ is an odd book. It combines rewritten versions of two Jackson ma.n.u.scripts, a study of the origins of printing in Europe and an autobiographical journal covering, we suppose, the years from about 1725 on. The writer, in his introduction, says that he had been attracted by the two notices mentioned and went to see Jackson, whom he already knew by reputation. As a "Lover of Art" he considered it his duty to acquaint the public with Jackson's ideas concerning the origins of printing.

These ideas, he felt, were an important contribution. After devoting half the little book to a rambling account of this subject, including a short history of woodcutting from Durer onward, the author suddenly s.h.i.+fts to the journal. It is regrettable that he condensed it because we do not know what was left out. It is possible that much autobiographical information was excluded, as well as a picture of woodcutters and woodcutting of the time. The book concludes with the statement that Jackson intended to print in October of that year (1752) a paper hanging in two sheets after an original painting "by _F. Simonnetta_ of _Parma_"[37] representing the battle fought near that city in 1738.

[Footnote 37: There is little doubt that Jackson meant Francesco Simonini (1686-1753), a painter of battle subjects who was born in Parma and lived in Venice in the 1740's.]

This print was to be in full color, 3 feet 6 inches long by 2 feet high, and was to serve as a specimen for a series of four of the same size, the others being "History, Pictures and Landscapes." They were to be done by subscription:

No Money will be required of the Subscribers till the Prints are finished, and only at the Delivery. It is to be hoped the Curious and the Public will encourage this Undertaking, by a Man who has spent the greatest Part of his Life in searching after and improving an Art, believed by all to be lost, and has restored it to the Condition we now see it in his Works.

The only known copy of this battle picture, made from about seven blocks, is in the Print Room of the British Museum. It is a magnificent piece. Probably nothing with this breadth of handling had ever been done in woodcut before. The color is grave and beautifully harmonized, although the paper has deteriorated and the colors have darkened somewhat. The blocks were cut with ardor, almost fury; everything is brought to life with masterly a.s.surance. Martin Hardie, who made the only previous comment on this print, which he could only surmise was Jackson's, says:[38] "Jackson's supreme achievement is a large battle scene, with wonderful ma.s.ses of rich colour superbly blended, reminiscent of Velasquez in breadth, in dignity, and in glory of tone."

[Footnote 38: Hardie, 1906, p. 23.]

There were compet.i.tors in London, among them Matthias Darley, who produced papers in the Chinese style; Thomas Bromwich, who was patronized by Walpole; and Robert Dunbar, Jr., of Aldermanbury, who in addition sold Jackson's papers. They lacked both Jackson's gifts and his unreasonable standards but they produced more generally acceptable wallpaper with greater facility. These compet.i.tors did not work in oil colors, like Jackson. Transparent tints were too difficult to control, especially when applied with inking b.a.l.l.s (composition rollers did not come into use until well after 1800), and effects were too heavy. They used distemper-- powdered color mixed with glue and water, with chalk added to give body. This was sometimes applied with woodblock or stencil but most often it was simply painted in by hand over a blockprinted outline. Often the painting was done directly on the wall after the paper was hung. These wallpapers were weak when examined critically, but n.o.body worried as long as a light bright pastel effect was obtained.

Jackson's vigorous drawing and woodcutting were out of place in this field. They were, like his tonal exact.i.tude that made holes in the wall, a distraction and an offense against interior decoration.

Jackson's business, therefore, did not prosper. In a last effort to stir up public interest he published, in 1754, his well-known little book, _An Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro Oscuro_, ill.u.s.trated with eight prints in "proper colours." It sold for two s.h.i.+llings and sixpence. The style was rather florid but his arguments were presented with such vigor that it is easy to see why critics have found it difficult to refrain from quoting at length. The main body of text is only eight pages long, with an additional eight pages of subsidiary descriptive material attached to the pictures.

On the t.i.tle page appeared his favorite pa.s.sage from Pascal, used previously on the t.i.tle page of the _Enquiry_: "Ceux qui sont capables d'inventer sont rares: ceux qui n'inventent point sont en plus grand nombre, et par consequent les plus forts." The first few pages of the _Essay_ enlarge on this theme:

It has been too generally the Fate of those who set themselves to the Inventing any Thing that requires Talents in the Discovery, to apply all their Faculties, exhaust their Fortune, and waste their whole Time in bringing that to Perfection, which when obtained, Age, Death, or Want of sufficient Supplies, obliges them to relinquish, and to yield all the Advantages which their Hopes had flattered them with, and which had supported their Spirits during their Fatigues and Difficulties, to others; and thus leave behind them an impoverish'd Family incapable to carry on their Parent's Design, and too often complaining of the projecting Genius of that Father who has ruin'd them, tho' he has enriched the Nation to which he belonged, and to which of Consequence he was a laudable Benefactor.

He proceeds in this bitter vein for a time, then brings into the open the main purpose of the book:

Another Reason perhaps is, that the Artist being totally engaged in the Pursuit of his Discovery, has but little Time to apply to the Lovers and Encouragers of Art for their Patronage, Protection, and Supplies necessary for the carrying on such a Design, or he has not Powers to set the Advantage which would result from it in a true Light; nor communicate in Words what he clearly conceived in Idea: for certainly there are Men enough, who from the mere Desire of increasing their Wealth, would give him that a.s.sistance, which, like the artificial Heat of a Greenhouse, would bring that Art to a Ripeness, which would otherwise languish and die under the Coldness of the first Designer, and which in this Union of Riches and Invention would yield mutual Advantage to both.

There are besides this amongst the Great, without Doubt, many who would gladly lend their Patronage to rising Arts, if they knew their Authors....

He gives as example the Duke of c.u.mberland, who had just sponsored a tapestry plant at Fulham, and follows with an outline of the honorable traditions of the woodcut, pointing out that Durer, t.i.tian, Salviati, Campagnola, and other painters drew their work on woodblocks to be cut by woodcutters, and adds that "even _Andrea Vincentino_ did not think it in the least a Dishonour, though a Painter, to grave on Wood the Landscapes of _t.i.tian_." He builds up to the statement that Raphael and Parmigianino drew on woodblocks to be cut in chiaroscuro by Ugo da Carpi.

After having said all this, it may seem highly improper to give to Mr. _Jackson_ [he speaks of himself throughout in the third person]

the Merit of inventing this Art; but let me be permitted to say, that an Art recovered is little less than an Art invented. The Works of the former Artists remain indeed; but the Manner in which they were done, is entirely lost: the inventing then the Manner is really due to this latter Undertaker, since no Writings, or other Remains, are to be found by which the Method of former Artists can be discover'd, or in what Manner they executed their works; nor, in Truth, has the _Italian_ Method since the Beginning of the 16th Century been attempted by any one except Mr. _Jackson_.

We cannot help concluding that Jackson was falsifying here. Taking advantage of the public's ignorance, he was puffing up his historical importance in order to sell wallpaper. If the _cognoscenti_ complained that he had buried the chiaroscurists after da Carpi, he always had the explanation that others did not work in the Italian style, which he neglected to describe. Jackson knew what he was doing; he was not as ignorant of art history as Hardie and Burch have surmised, although it is true that he was not always certain as to dates, since he believed Andreani worked as a contemporary of da Carpi. In the _Enquiry_, published only 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 astonis.h.i.+ng 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...."