617 



MEZZANINE. 



MEZZOTINTO. 



618 



for the kings, or as tombs. Three of these still remain. The principal 

 one is nearly 130 feet long. A staircase leads to a subterranean apart- 

 ment 88 feet by 2r>, the walls of which, like the exterior, appear to 

 have been sculptured or tooled, in imitation of mat or basket-work a 

 species of decoration characteristic of Toltecan taste, and often found 

 in sepulchral chambers. This same building has also a spacious'hall 

 supported by six plain cylindrical columns of porphyry, without base 

 or capital, and in some respects differing from any found elsewhere. 

 The ceiling which they support is formed of beams and slabs of cypress 

 or savin wood of large size. Over the principal entrance is a stone 

 lintel 12 feet long and 3 feet deep. There is no appearance of windows. 

 The interiors of the chambers have been elaborately painted with repre- 

 sentations of sacrifices, trophies, weapons, &c. ; and with ornaments 

 resembling those found in Etruscan decorations. Other palaces, espe- 

 cially those in Central America, that at Zayi for instance, have the 

 terraces presenting successive architectural facades instead of mere 

 flights of steps. Some instances, as the Casa de las Monjas, at Uxmas, 

 occur where the buildings have been arranged around a central court- 

 yard. 



At Teotihuacan, about 8 leagues to the north-east of the city of 

 Mexico, are several hundred small pyramids, ranged in files or lines, 

 and two larger ones, which are believed to have been consecrated to the 

 sun and moon. Each of the latter is divided into four platforms, the 

 slopes between which consisted of steps, and on the summit was a 

 colossal stone statue covered with plates of gold, which were stripped 

 off by Cortes's soldiers, and the statues themselves destroyed. 



Besides monuments which are chiefly works of magnificence, others 

 exist which attest the high degree of civilisation attained by the 

 Tultecans, such as roads and bridges. The former of these were con- 

 structed of huge blocks of stone, and frequently carried on a continued 

 level, so as to be viaducts across valleys. There are also throughout 

 Central America numerous excavations or rock-hewn halls and caverns, 

 called by the natives " granaries of the giants." They resemble the 

 Pelasgic fabric near Argos known by the name of the Treasury of 

 Atreus, are generally dome-shaped, and the central apartment is lighted 

 through an aperture in its vault. Other poiuts of resemblance to 

 I'elasgic masonry may be found in the doorways to these subterraneous 

 galleries and apartments, which are to some extent similar to the gate 

 of Myceme ; and also in the peculiar triangular arch formed by courses 

 of stones projecting over each other. Arches of this mode of con- 

 struction are found in the cloisters of the building at Palenque. There 

 are also extensive works for defensive purposes, earthen sepulchral 

 mounds, &c. The remains of sculpture found in Mexico are numerous, 

 and of great variety both of form and material. 



(Lord Kingsborough, Antiquities of Ale.cico ; Stephens, Central 

 America, and Yucatan ; Catherwood, Ancient Monuments, Central 

 America; Fergusson, Handbook of Architecture, vol. i. ; Gailhabaud, 

 Sfonumtnt Ancieng et Modemes, torn, iv.) 



MK/EKKUM, OR DAPHNE MEZEREUM, Spurge-olive, is an indi- 

 genous shrub ; the bark obtained, in spring, from the root, is officinal. 

 It is covered by a thin epidermis, green within, brown without. It is 

 destitute of smell, but has a very acrid pungent taste, lasting for hours, 

 and causes vcsications. Its virulence even amounts to a poisonous 

 degree, but is said to be lessened by camphor. 



In the ' London Pharmacopoeia ' it only enters as an ingredient into 

 the decoction sarsap. comp. It consists of an acrid resin, and an acrid 

 volatile oil, and -daphnin, which is not active. [MEZEREON, in NAT. 

 Ilisr. Div.] 



The bark yields its properties to water, and still more perfectly to 

 vinegar. The simple decoction of the ' Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia ' 

 certainly possesses considerable power. Mezereon in a small dose acts 

 upon the secretions of the salivary glands, the mucous membranes, the 

 kidneys, and the skin. It also rouses the nervous energy of the brain, 

 as its action in many cases of coma and stupor proves. 



It may be employed locally to stimulate the salivary glands, or to 

 remove paralysis of the mouth or throat; when so employed it is to 

 be chewed, but the saliva must not be swallowed, as its acrimony causes 

 inflammation of the stomach and intestines ; and this may even be 

 fatal from the haemorrhage, vomiting, and purging which attend it. 

 The berries swallowed incautiously produce the same bad effects. 



The simple decoction, along with carbonate of ammonia, given in 

 proper doses every two or four hours, has in several instances rescued 

 patients from a state of imminent danger in the stage of collapse of 

 typhus fever, or that of coma and effusion at the base of the brain, 

 which sometimes occurs in scarlet fever. In torpor of the brain, in 

 leuco-phlegmatic subjects, and hi approaching amaurosis, it is also of 

 use. It has also been found serviceable in chronic rheumatism and 

 chronic cutaneous diseases. A portion of the bark macerated in 

 vinegar and applied to the skin, forms a powerful vesicant. [DAPHNE, 

 in NAT. HIST. LIIV.] 



MK/X.AN'INE (Italian, Mezzanini), in architecture, a low storey 

 between two higher ones : the same as ENTRESOL. 



MEZZOTINTO, in engraving, a peculiar mode of engraving designs 

 of any description upon plates of copper or steel, with the view of 

 obtaining impre-sins therefrom. In this style of engraving, which 

 essentially differs from every other, the surface of the plate is first 

 indented or hacked all over by the action of an instrument something 

 like a chisel, with a toothed or serrated edge, called a cradle, or tnezzo- 



tinto grounder. This tool being rocked to and fro in many directions, 

 indents or barbs the plate uniformly over its face, and produces what 

 is called the mezzotinto grain or ground. 



The barb, or nap, thus produced retains the printing ink ; and if in 

 this state of preparation an impression were taken from the plate upon 

 paper, it would be uniformly of a deep black colour. 



The directions, or ways, as they are technically called, given to the 

 grounding-tool, are determined by a regulated plan, and for this 

 purpose an ingenious sort of scale is used which enables the work- 

 man to pass over the plate in almost any number of directions without 

 repeating any one of them. The mezzotiuto ground being thus laid, 

 it is at this period that the business of the artist properly commences. 

 Having traced or drawn, with a pencil or other instrument, his out- 

 line upon the paper (unless indeed, as is sometimes the case, this 

 should have been etched by the ordinary process, previous to the 

 mezzotint ground having been laid), he proceeds to remove the nap or 

 ground, in conformity with the design, from all those parts which are 

 not intended to be perfectly black in the impression. The instruments 

 required for this purpose are scrapers and burnishers; with the 

 former he scrapes away more Jvud more of the ground in proportion to 

 the brightness of the light, and the burnishers are used to produce 

 perfect whiteness where it is required, as the high lights on the fore- 

 head or tip of the nose, or white linen in a portrait, &c. As the work 

 proceeds it may be blackened with ink, applied with a printer's ball or 

 otherwise, to ascertain the effect ; after which the scraping may again 

 be proceeded with, the artist taking care always to commence where 

 the strongest lights are intended to appear. 



The great facility with which ruezzotiutos are executed, as com- 

 pared with line-engravings, will be obvious, seeing that it is much 

 easier to scrape or burnish away parts of a dark ground corresponding 

 with any design sketched upon it, than it is to form shades upon a 

 white ground by an infinite number of strokes, ha'ches, or points, 

 made with the yraver or etchiiuj-needle. Herein consists the leading 

 difference between this and all other modes of engraving ; for while 

 the process in each of these is invariably from light to dark, in mezzo- 

 tinto it is from dark to liyht ; and even the very deepest shades are 

 produced, as we have seen, before the design is commenced. The 

 characteristic or distinguishing excellence of mezzotinto engraving 

 would seem to consist in the richness, depth, mellowness, and harmony 

 of its shadows, the obscurity of which especially sympathises with fine 

 effects of chiaroscuro. 



Having mentioned what we conceive to be the characteristic excel- 

 lence of mezzotinto, namely, the richness and profundity of its 

 shadows, it is but fair to add that its chief defect seems to be a corre- 

 sponding poverty in the lights ; and this objection will be felt to have 

 much weight, when it is considered that it is to the lights in a picture 

 that the eye is invariably attracted. Un the lights therefore the line- 

 engraver displays all that delicacy and beauty of line which agreeably 

 irritates the eye and compensates for the absence of colour, by render- 

 ing the lights more interesting than the shadows. The lights in 

 mezzotinto, on the contrary, where they occur in broad masses, have 

 been ever felt by the judicious to be comparatively cold and poor. 

 This objection has been partly obviated by a judicious admixture of 

 ttrhimj with the mezzotinto, which, by enriching the lights, has done 

 much towards uniting the energies of both styles. Objection has also 

 been taken to mezzotinto on account of the limited number of good 

 impressions which an engraving in this style would yield, in conse- 

 quence of the very superficial nature of the ground. A work of this 

 sort, however, was always more susceptible of renovation by retouching 

 than one produced by any of the other modes ; and the introduction of 

 steel plates, which are now commonly substituted for those of copper, 

 has removed the objection almost entirely, a very large number of 

 good impressions being thus ensured without the necessity of retouch- 

 ing. A copper-plate will seldom furnish above one hundred and lifty 

 good prints before requiring retouching. When the plate begins to 

 wear, the practice is to work it over again, partially, with the cradle, 

 and afterwards to again have recourse to the scrapers ; and in this way 

 impressions of fifty at a time may be taken ; so that by alternately 

 retouching and printing by fifties, five hundred prints are frequently 

 obtained from one copper-plate. But from a sterf-plate eight or ten 

 times that number may be obtained. The process is the same in the 

 one case as in the other, but heavier pressure on the grounding-tool 

 is requisite on a steel-plate. A greater number of ways also is 

 desirable, and these may be effected without rendering the subsequent 

 engraving liable to more rapid deterioration, as would be the case 

 upon copper. As many as ninety ways are frequently used on steel, 

 while the number on a copper-plate varies from twenty-four to forty, 

 which latter is rarely exceeded. 



The discovery of the art of engraving in mezzotinto has been a 

 subject of some controversy. The account commonly given of its 

 discovery is, that Prince Rupert observed one morning a soldier 

 engaged in cleaning from his musket the rust which the night-dew had 

 occasioned, and perceiving upon it, as he thought, some resemblance to 

 a figure, it occurred to him whether or not, by corroding or grounding 

 a plate all over in a manner resembling the rust, he might not after- 

 wards scrape away a design upon it, from which impressions might 

 be obtained. He tried, it is said, and succeeded, and thus became 

 the inventor of mezzotinto engraving. The merit of the discovery 



