KICOTYL. 



NIMBUS. 



their salts; and dissolve recently precipitated alumina with facility. 

 The names and formula; of some of them are as follows : 



If *"P W 1 



Hydnted oxide of methTUnlcotinm ?|C ' H C '5'jf 



v*~* T> *"r* ii i 

 MUsofethyUaleoUam . . NC > H c ^' j 



ChloropUtin.te of amyl-nlcotloin . NC ' H " >C '^" } PtCl, 



[NlcotWE.] 



N 1 KLLO is a method of ornamenting metal plate*, practised chiefly 

 during the middle age*. Upon the plate which waa most commonly 

 of silver, but eomeiimea of gold or copper the design waa first 

 aketched with a style, and then somewhat deeply engraved with a 

 burin or graver. [EXUIIAVINO.] The lines thus incited were filled 

 with a composition called from its colour niyeltam (whence the 

 Italian XieUii), and, the plate being polished, an effect waa produced 

 something like that of a pen-and-ink drawing. The composition was 

 an rnl(^m o f quicksilver, silver, and lead, (with occasionally a little 

 copper) melted together, and blackened by the addition of sulphur. 

 When cold the nigellum was pounded and kept ready for use. Thin 

 powder was hud, with borax, on the incised lines, into which it was 

 melted by a gentle heat being applied to the back of the plate, which 

 when cold was polished and burnished, and the work was complete. 



This kind of engraving is of considerable antiquity. It appears to 

 have been practised in the early centuries of Christianity by the 

 goldsmiths who prepared the more costly articles for ecclesiastical 

 purpose*. Two small gold cups which had in the centre crosses in 

 niello were bequeathed by the Abbot Loodebode to the convent of St. 

 Aignan d'Orksans in the 7th century. At the beginning of the 9th 

 century a pectoral cross, of which one side was decorated in niello, 

 was sent by NiehephoniB, patriarch of Constantinople, to Pope Leo 

 III. ; and towards the end of the same century, various articles of 

 silver engraved in niello were made at Constantinople for the church 

 of St. Mark at Venice. The art in these early times seems to have 

 been chiefly practised by Byzantine artists; but in the 10th century 

 we find it practised both in Italy and Germany, though the workmen 

 may possibly have been G reeks. From the 1'JtU century niello seems 

 to have formed a regular part of the goldsmith's art, and it was applied 

 to the ornamentation of a great variety of articled, as well for secular 

 as for ecclesiastical purposes. The Italian goldsmiths especially 

 acquired great skill in the art, and produced works of exceeding 

 beauty of design and execution. 



As mentioned under ENUK.VVIM:, niello is regarded as the parent of 

 engraving in the modern sense of the term, that is, for taking impres- 

 sions on paper. The application is usually ascribed to Maso Fiune- 

 guerra, the most famous of the Florentine workers in niello. In order 

 to observe the progress of then- work the niellatori were accustomed to 

 take casts from it at various stages in clay, upon which they poured 

 melted sulphur, and thus obtained fac-similes of their engraving. 

 Into these hues in the sulphurs, as they are called, they rubbed a 

 composition of oil and lamp black, and were thus able to judge of the 

 appearance of the plate after the insertion of the nigellum. According 

 to Vasori, and other Italian authorities, it occurred to Finueguerra 

 that he might save himself much of this troublesome process by tilling 

 the lines in the original plate with a similar composition, and taking 

 impressions directly from it upon damped paper. Not only was his 

 experiment successful, but thi*c impressions on paper soon grew to be 

 so much in request that nicllatori found it a profitable occupation to 

 prepare plates especially for their production; ami their extension to 

 the imitation of jointings and drawings soon followed, and engraving 

 became a distinct profession. At the same time, however, the working 

 Ilo proper seems to have declined; since Beuvenuto Cellini 

 relate* that by 1515 the method of executing niello was nearly for- 

 gotten in Florence, when he, stimulated by the admiration expressed 

 lor the nielli of Finueguerra, applied himself with great diligence and 

 entire success to the restoration of the lost art. Of this period many 

 beautiful works, including suit* of armour and other Urge articles, 

 adorned with nielli are stul extant, as well as numerous smaller articles. 

 The art, however, gradually passed out of use, and old nielli are now 

 comparatively rare, and placed among the most precious articles of 

 public and private collections. Among the public museums, the 

 British Museum is one of the richest in nielli, and in impressions in 

 sulphur and on paper having about 70 silver platen, including some 

 of extreme rarity and beauty of style, several fine sulphurs, and above 

 a hundred proofs on paper, some of which arc unique. Reference has 

 been made to these last in the article ENKRAMNU : it will bo enough 

 therefore to add that a case has recently been placed in the King's 

 Library, o|wn consequently to public inspection, which contains some 

 of the nnect of nielli, sulphurs, and proofs, so arranged as to illustrate 

 UM history of the art, and its connection with that of engraving. The 

 national museums at Paris, Vienna, Uerlin, and Dresden, are also rich 

 in nielli. 



(Duchesne, Etni t*r lit Xitllti ; BarUch, Lt /' m; vol. xiii ; 



PatMvant, Lt Pn >-, vol. i. ; Ottley, JJiitory of Engrni-iiuj,) 



ML I.I. I. IN, a mm-azotued extractive matter, of unknown compo- 

 . obtoiutd from the seeds of Uio cultivated nigeUa. 



XI H IL ALBUM, an oM alchemical name applied to the exce. 

 light oxide of sine obtained by burning the metal in air. 



NIMBUS. The terms Nimbus, Aureole, and Glory are often used 

 indifferently for the marks of divinity or sanctity which encompass the 

 person or encircle the head of figures in early art ; but 

 well-marked distinction, the observance of which is iiuprt.-int in 

 Christian iconography. The term Nimbtu is strictly confined to the 

 disk or halo which surrounds the head ; AttrrtJe to that 

 enveli>|>es the entire person; while Glory is by the best null, 

 applied to the union of both. 



The nimbus, or a corresponding attribute, U of great antiquity. It 

 is found alike hi the art of India, Egypt, and Greece. Its or 

 supposed to be the East. Ciampini and Wilki- 

 on the head of the Egyptian god Re, or the sun, mi < 

 nimbus. A nimbus or aureole is seen surrounding the H 

 Maya, From the Egyptians the nimbus was i 



for their sun-god Apollo. It occurs also on Kin: .ml in 



paintings found at Hercnlancnni ami l'nmpe:i, KOM.III divinities and 

 heroes are seen with nimbi almost identical with those of the sacred 

 personages in meditcval art. 



It is frequently said that the nimbus was derived from a custom 

 which prevailed in classic times of placing a disk of metal over the 

 head of statues of the gods to save t! :cfilpinent 1 j 



but, as we have seen, both the nimbus and aureole 

 anterior to the classic period, and it is only in late exam; 

 nimbus is placed above the head like a protecting disk. There can be 

 little doubt that, as M. Didron suggests, the ori.- 

 nimbus and aureole was that of an em l:ght or H.v 



signification that of power. The same idea seems to hav, 

 common to all the Arian races, and was probably derived from I ho 

 primitive worship of the mm. Thus, as we have seen, in its oldest 

 known form it was the attribute of the Egyptian sun-god Ro, as it was 

 afterwards of the Greek Apollo. The same conception is 

 sanctioned in the sacred Scriptures, where we in various great mani- 

 festations find the presence of the divine power expressed by an 

 emanation of light. David, for example (Ps. civ. 1-4). speaks of the 

 Lord as "clothing himself with light as with a garment," t!> 

 evidently intended to be conveyed by the am ice of Moses, 



when he came down from Mount Sinai (Ex. zxxiv. 'Jli -:',;">. when- 

 unbearable light an idea sought to be conveyed by the nimbus ; whil 

 in the New Testament (Luke ix. 31, 32) we are told that our s 

 at his Transfiguration appeared "in his glory, his raiment wh;' 

 glistering," to the disciples who accompanied him on the moun: 



Passages like these, as they are quoted to sanction the 

 one or other forms of the glory to the holy personages of the ( 'i 

 Church, might almost seem to have suggested their use, had v 

 evidence that they were generally employed in pagan times, and i hat 

 they were in fact mere appropriations by Christian artists from pagan 

 art. Neither the nimbus nor the aureole is seen in the . 

 Christian iconography. The nimbus first appears in miniatures of the 

 latter part of the Sth'ccntury ; the aureole not till some time later. 

 Both continued in use in miniatures, mosaics, sculpture, ami i 

 windows throughout the middle ages, only giving w.iy bcf. 

 revival of classic art in the 15th century, and disappearim; in the 

 16th ; the aureole, as it had been latest introduced, being the first to 

 be abandoned. 



By the medkcval ecclesiastics and artists, a great extension was given 

 to the use of the nimbus, and much importance attached to it. No 

 longer was it merely the emblem of deity, but the general attribute of 

 ecclesiastical apotheosis. The broad distinction was however mail 

 that, whilst the nimbus was common to all who were thus distinguished, 

 the aureole was confined to the three persons of the Trinity and the 

 Virgin Mary : the varying forms and symbolism of these attributes are , 

 among the most important points in the study of Christian icono- 

 graphy. 



The nimbus is most commonly circular ; but it occurs in a great 

 variety of tornn. depending partfy mi the time or country, partly on 

 the symbolic idea, often no doubt only on the individual taste or fancy 

 of the artist : sometimes (in the Father and the Son . or as 



a double triangle; hexagonal; lozenge-shaped; as a i 

 mil' 'Id'-d ; like a triptych ; and even square, but this only in the case of 

 bishops and other churchmen represented whilst yet a! 

 times the nimbus of the three persons of the Trinity consist 

 emanation of light without a circumscribing outline, the rays forming 

 the three arms of across; but usually the outline is added. These 

 cruciform rays are confined to Deity. Sometimes the nimbus is 

 opaque, with a broad ornamented border (that of the Virgin, for 

 instance, is often very richly adorned), or the border cont.iinx tin 

 of the person represented; sometimes, H it was 



passing out of the region of nyml>ii-m. it wa 



its entire disappearance, as in some of the pictures of Kaflaelle and his 

 contemporaii' i lintcst. indication of a i 



that, instead of encircling the hood, in placed above it. 

 is usually of gold, that of the divine personages and of this Virgin 

 almost invariably so, but sometimes it is otherwise coloured (blue, 

 red, purple, white) in the case of apostles, saints, and other holy 

 persons. The colour is regarded in many of these instances a 



