Response to Comment on Wood of Suicides :
There is a difference in woodcut and engraving that I found. A woodcut would be when the length of wood is cut along the grain, so it runs lengthwise. While a wood engraving is cut across the grain, making it harder to cut but able to produce finer details. What Doré’s works are most likely metal engravings, allowing for even finer detail than wood engravings. Vellutello on the other hand made woodcuts, in which the actual grain of wood can be seen within the image.
Woodcuts are older than engravings, but both use the same technique of cutting away what will be white. This is probably one of the reasons why many of Doré’s works, as well as Vellutello’s are so dark. The blocks are then inked, and then pressed, usually using a press, but hand pressure can work as well.
Also, I found that since cutting blocks of wood is an art in of itself, many artists hire woodcutters to actually make the blocks. Vellutello is not actually the artist, but the commissioner of all of these pieces, the artist is unknown.
In regards to using woodcut over metal or line engraving, I found that wood is more versatile and cheaper. In the beginning, wood was prefered over metal because it could be used in presses along with text. Since it was so much lighter than the metal blocks the wood could be placed next to the text, while the metal plates had to be printed separately. Or a heavier press was needed.
Woodcuts were gradually replaced by line engraving during the 16th century though, because the detail and subtlety of line engraving was far greater. This could be because presses were made heavier to support both metal text and image. Or because the want for higher quality images was now greater. Woodcuts also had the defect of not being lasting. They could rot, and more likely, they could not hold up to the pressure or the press. The wood becoming compacted, deteriorating the design, and eventually destroying it completely.
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Information from : The Oxford Dictionary of Art
IAN CHILVERS. “woodcut.” The Oxford Dictionary of Art. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Nov. 2011<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
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Dante's Inferno 