Summary
Because the illustrations themselves are central to the introduction of this sub-project, please use the attached presentation (PDF) in conjunction with the following text.
At the end of the 18th century, the wood engraving – the xylograph – develops out of the traditional woodcut. Wood engravings offer key advantages: firstly, like woodcuts but in contrast to copper or steel engravings, they are printed together with the typeset, thereby dispensing with a further, more expensive and error-prone work process. Secondly, wood engravings – like copper and steel engravings and in contrast to the really rough-textured woodcut – make it possible to use prestigious visual means of representation: for example, extremely fine lines, differentiated hatching and layers afford nuanced tonal values and pictorial light effects Fig. 1. Thirdly, it is possible to produce stereoplates from xylographic printing plates – i.e. copies made of printer’s metal –, the quality of which is continually improving; in this way, xylographically illustrated texts can be printed simultaneously from several printing plates, saving time and money, and wood engravings can be exported and repeated elsewhere, making a profit for the purchaser and at low cost to the customer Fig. 2. And ultimately, xylographs – the stereoplates at any rate, but also the wooden printing plates – can, in contrast to the woodcut, be quickly rendered fit for press.
The result of all this is a revolution in text illustrations around 1830-1850 – in fact, the ‘illustration’ was virtually invented in this period. Prior to this, text and image were only present together on a (double) page in exceptional cases, but now this is becoming standard in the mass media. With this in mind, sub-project 4 explores the internationally networked illustrated literature of this period with the aim of identifying specific illustration practices which effect the breakthrough of xylographic text. To this end, the project analyses German, French and English illustrated texts in books and journals, especially those which demonstrate interdependency. These are the texts that lend themselves to highly illuminating comparative studies. When, for example, images produced by wood engraving in a book travel into a journal via stereoplates Fig. 3; or when xylographs are adopted by one journal from another Fig. 4 – the analysis of such material then makes it possible to reconstruct the relationships between text and image specific to the respective media format.
The aim of the project is to define the journal-specific forms of the relationship between xylography and text, namely in the context of the interplay between typographic or typesetting, economic and local conditions, and publishing strategy and work policy related conditions. A few perspectives are outlined here.
In contrast to the illustrated book, the illustrated journal uses ‘alternating typesetting’ – i.e. illustrated and non-illustrated double pages that alternate with one another –, which reduces costs and promotes sales. Does the illustrated journal double page become, in this way, a unit of reception that communicates coherent, semanticised image/text arrangements Fig. 5?
In contrast to the book, the illustrated journal is usually typeset in several columns separated by a line or something similar. To what extent does this text layout influence the pictorial composition of xylographic journal illustrations Fig. 6? And to what extent does the composition of the wood engravings in turn affect their textual environment, e.g. by imparting to it iconic-mimetic features related to the pictorial content Fig. 7?
Illustrated journals purchase inexpensive pictorial stereoplates out of economic necessity. To what degree does this kind of illustrations market encourage meaningful rearrangements of elements of previous illustrated texts Fig. 8? Moreover, does only one Leipzig network of publishers use this export of illustrations in order to counteract – by means of the illustrated journal – the disruptive, fragmentary character of illustrated works in book form which in parts seem disconnected Fig. 9, Fig. 10?. Last but not least, wood engraving stereoplates enable us to make inferences about the reception culture: adopting stereoplates is an act of reception for recipients, giving us a more tangible sense of how illustrated texts are read and viewed in the contemporary society Fig. 11.
Under this key aspect, the sub-project focuses on how illustrated journals promote a closer cooperation between text and image that is specific to the media format, i.e. an approximation of both via the wood engraving due to the now well-established coexistence of text and image on one printed (double) page. The sub-project also, of course, takes opposing tendencies likewise into account: for example, the fact that wood engraving stereoplates and ‘alternating typesetting’ also help the ‘intrinsically’ subordinate image break away from, and become independent of, the illustrated text; or the possibility that printing text and image together may also produce incoherent textures, exposing the heterogeneous material they are made from Fig. 12; in other words: the fact that the wood engraving undermines former text/image hierarchies and promotes their inversion. In this sense, the sub-project traces the new juxtaposition, interwovenness and opposition between text and image that emerges with the implementation of xylographic illustrations in books and journals. To use a word that accommodates those elements: the analysis is focused on ‘rivalries’ between text and image, i.e. the contest between both, as well as forms of juxtaposition or cooperation – based on the etymology of the German word ‘Konkurrenz’ (‘rivalry’/‘contest’): ‘concurrere’ (‘to run together’) Fig. 13.