592 On the Art of fainting 



pofTible method appears to me to be this. With 

 the ceftrum (or viriculum) the defign was traced 

 pretty deeply in the ivory itfelf, fomething like 

 the outline of the ancient frefque : the colours 

 mixed up with wax, were ufed fo warm as to per- 

 mit them to enter into and fill up the fcratches 

 or incifiojis made with the viriculum, and the 

 fupierfluous colour thus mixed up with wax, 

 whea cold and hard was taicen off, leaving the 

 furface of the painting even with that of the 

 ivory.— -This method would hardly need any 

 fubfequent varnilh. 



Pere Harduin, Boulenger, and Durand* fup- 

 pofe the ceftrum was ufed hot, and the defign 

 thus burnt in : but I do not fee the neceflity for 

 this fuppofition. Dr. Parfons, thinks that as 

 cera in the fingular, is ufed where modelling in 

 wax is intended, and cerse in the plural, where 

 encauftic painting is fpoken of, the latter jnuft 

 mean fomething different from the former, and 

 from the properties afcribed to this method he 

 conjedlures it was enamelling. But I can eafily 

 conceive the propriety of the fingular number in 

 the firft cafe, where one uniform fubftance was 

 employed, and the plural in the fecond, when 

 there muft of courfe have been many different 

 preparations of wax, according to the colours 

 mixed up with it. The method of Count Cay- 



* Vid. Dr. Parfons' Paper, Phil. Tranf. vol. XLIX. 

 p. 655. 



lus 



