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ILLUSTRES

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 325 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ILLUSTRES , the Latin name given to the highest magistrates of the later See also:

Roman See also:Empire. The designation was at first its help being probably those of See also:Gillot, at See also:Paris, in the See also:early 'eighties. The next See also:stage was to be the invention of some means of reproducing See also:wash drawings. To do this it was necessary for the See also:surface of the See also:block to be so broken up that every See also:tone of the See also:drawing should be represented thereon by a See also:grain holding See also:ink enough to reproduce it. This was finally accomplished by the insertion of a See also:screen, in the See also:camera, between the See also:lens and the See also:plate—the effect of which was to break up the whole surface of the negative into dots, and so secure, when printed on a See also:zinc plate and etched, an approximation to the desired result. See also:Half-tone blocks (as they were called) of this nature (see See also:PROCESS) were used in the Graphic from 1884 and the Illustrated See also:London See also:News from 1885 onwards, the methods at first in favour being those of Meisenbach and Boussod Valadon and Co.'s phototype. See also:Lemercier and See also:Petit of Paris, Angerer and Goschl of See also:Vienna, and F. Ives of See also:Philadelphia also perfected processes giving a similar result, a block by the latter appearing in the See also:Century See also:magazine as early as 1882. Processes of this description had, however, been used for some years before by See also:Henry See also:Blackburn in his See also:Academy Notes. ' During the See also:decade 1875–1885, however, the See also:main See also:body of See also:illustration was accomplished by See also:wood-See also:engraving, which a few years earlier had achieved such splendid results. Its See also:artistic qualities were now at a rather See also:low ebb, although See also:good facsimile engravings of See also:pen-drawings were not infrequent. The two See also:great illustrated See also:periodicals already referred to during that See also:period relied more upon pictorial than journalistic See also:work.

An increasing tendency towards the illustration of the events of the See also:

day was certainly shown, but the whole purpose of the See also:journal was not, as at See also:present, subordinated thereto. The See also:chief illustrated magazines of the See also:time, Harper's, the Century, the See also:English Illustrated, were also content with the older methods, and are filled with wood-engravings, in which, if the value of the See also:simple See also:line forming the chief quality of the earlier work has disappeared, a most astonishing delicacy and success were obtained in the See also:reproduction of tone. Perhaps the most notable and most characteristic See also:production of the time in See also:England was See also:colour-See also:printing. The Graphic and the Illustrated London News published full-See also:page supplements of high technical merit printed from wood-blocks in See also:conjunction with See also:metal plates, the latter sometimes having a See also:relief See also:aquatint surface which produced an effect of stipple upon the shading; metal was also used in preference to wood for the printing of certain See also:colours. The See also:children's books illustrated by See also:Randolph See also:Caldecott, See also:Walter See also:Crane and hate See also:Greenaway at this time are among the finest specimens of colour-printing yet seen outside of See also:Japan; in them the use of See also:flat masses of pleasant colour in connexion with a bold and simple outline was carried to a very high See also:pitch of excellence. These plates were generally printed by See also:Edmund See also:Evans. In 1887 the use of process was becoming still more See also:general; but its future was by no means adequately foreseen, and the blocks of this and the next few years are anything but satisfactory. This, it soon appeared, was due to inefficient printing on the one See also:hand, and, on the other, to a want of recognition by artistsof the See also:special qualities of drawing most suitable for photographic reproduction. The publication of Quevedo's Pablo de See also:Segovia with illustrations by See also:Daniel See also:Vierge in 1882, although hardly noticed at the time, was to be a See also:revelation of the possibilities of the new development ; and a serious study of pen-drawing from this point of view was soon inaugurated by the issue of See also:Joseph See also:Pennell's Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen in 1889, followed in 1892 by C. G. Harper's English Pen Artists of To-day and in 1896 by Walter Crane's Decorative Illustration of Books. At this time also the See also:influence of See also:Aubrey See also:Beardsley made itself strongly See also:felt, not merely as a See also:matter of See also:style, but, by the use of simple line or See also:mass of solid See also:black, as an almost perfect type of the work most suitable to the needs of process.

Wider experience of printing requirements, and finer workmanship in the actual making of the blocks, in Paris, Vienna, New See also:

York and London, soon brought the half-tone process into great See also:vogue. The spread of See also:education has enormously increased the demand for ephemeral literature, more especially that which lends itself to pictorial illustration; and the photograph or drawing in wash reproduced in half-tone has of See also:late to a great extent ousted line work from the better class of both books and periodicals. Improvements in machinery have made it possible to See also:print illustrations at a very high See also:speed; and the facility with which photographs can now be taken of scenes such as the public delight to see reproduced in pictures has brought about an almost See also:complete See also:change in pictorial journalism. In addition, reference must be made to an extraordinary increase in the See also:numbers and circulation of cheap periodical publications depending to a very large extent for popularity on their illustrations. Several of these, printed on the coarsest See also:paper, from rotary See also:machines, sell to the extent of hundreds of thousands of copies per See also:week. It was inevitable that this cheapening process should not be permitted to develop without opposition, and the See also:Dial (1889–1897) must be looked on as a protest by the See also:band of artists who promoted it against the unintelligent See also:book-making now becoming prevalent. Much more effective and far-reaching in the same direction was the influence of See also:William See also:Morris, as shown in the publications of the Kelmscott See also:Press (dating from 1891). In these volumes the aim was to produce illustrations and ornaments which were of their own nature akin to, and thus able to harmonize with the type, and to do thin by pure handicraft informal, and not strictly differentiated from other marks of See also:honour. From the time of Valentinian I. it became an See also:official See also:title of the consuls, the chief praefecti or ministers, and of the commanders-in-chief of the See also:army. Its usage was eventually extended to See also:lower grades of the imperial service, and to pensionaries from the See also:order of the spectabiles. The Illustres were privileged to be tried in criminal cases by none but the See also:emperor or his See also:deputy, and to delegate procuratores to represent them in the courts. Sec O.

Hirschfeld in Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademee (1901), p. 594 sqq.; and T. See also:

Hodgkin, See also:Italy and her Invaders (See also:Oxford, 1892), i. 6o-6i.

End of Article: ILLUSTRES

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