Identifier: shorthistoryofen00hinduoft (find matches)
Title: A short history of engraving (and) etching : for the use of collectors and students; with full bibliography, classified list and index of engravers
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Hind, Arthur Mayger, 1880-1957
Subjects: Engravers Engraving Etchers Etching
Publisher: London : A. Constable
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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of astrological lore, must have been very popularat the time, if we may judge by the existence of a set of copieswhich appeared very soon after the original publication (in conjunc-tion with a calendar starting with the year 1465). The Alerairy isof special interest to the student of engraving, as it depicts the shopof a goldsmith such as we may picture Finiguerras to have been(Fig. 12). In all these engravings there is a considerable technicaladvance upon the coarse cutting of the earlier group, but the linestill lacks clearness of definition, though this may be due in part 1 Now in the Opera del Diiomo. Baldovinetti also supplied designs for the panels.Formerly the Salamanca Collection. Reproduced : G. W. Reid, London, 1869.Per lavorare di bit lino e fare di niello. MASO FINIGUERRA 41 to imperfect printing. The main characteristics of style in dressare still the long trailing skirt, and the two-peaked hat with heavyveil borrowed from the costume of Burgundian society/ which figures
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Fig. 12.—Maso Finiguerra. The Planet Mercury (part). SO prominently in Florentine cassone paintings between about 1440and 1460. In Italy for half a century or more after 1450 the art of niellowas a popular branch of the goldsmiths craft (far more so than in 1 Cf. in Northern art the work of the Master of the Gardens of Love. 42 THE EARLIEST ENGRAVERS the North), and its close connexion with the development of engrav-ing will warrant a slight digression. Niello may be described as the method of treating an engravedsilver (or gold) plate by filling the furrows with a black substance(rjigellum) formed by the fusion of copper, silver, lead, and sulphur,which gives the art its name. Powdered niello was laid on thesurface of the plate, melted by the application of heat, and so runinto the lines. The substance being allowed to cool and harden,the surface of the plate was burnished, and the design would appearin black on a bright ground. The art was no doubt known togoldsmiths several centu

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