when Milan, Verona, and Ferrara vied with Venice and Florence in their presses, the latter city late in the century producing Savanarola's tracts illustrated with some fifty woodcuts.
There is a monotonous level in much of the old wood-cutting. The art as practised in early days was not to be compared with contemporary work on metal. It is cruder, coarser, and limited in its range. Among the most noticeable of the early work is that of Dürer's cutters, as, for instance, Hans Springinklee, of Nuremburg, who resided at Dürer's house; Altdorfer and Burgkmair, pupils of Dürer; Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Hans Baldung (1472-1553), and Lützelburger, of Basle, who worked for Holbein. Of Jost Amman, who came from Zurich to work at Nuremburg from 1560 till his death in 1591, we give a spirited design. (Facing p. 84.)
Lucas Jacobsz, called Lucas van Leyden, a contemporary of Dürer, painter, engraver, and woodcutter, performed the same mission for Holland that Dürer was doing for Germany in art, and Dirk de Bray, of Leyden, carried on the old traditions in the middle of the seventeenth century.
To descend to prices the beginner need not be afraid of the smaller, or rather of the lesser, known men. It was at one time fashionable to collect the great masters, but there is still room for the amateur who loves and appreciates his subject to procure good specimens at a low figure. Lützelburger's cuts are all rare, the others we have named have mostly found their way into well-known collections, but Jost
