856 



ENCAUSTIC PAINTING ENCHASING. 



have formed portions of the ornaments. The gold 

 cup given by king John to the corporation of Lynn, 

 in Norfolk, proves that the art was known among 

 the Normans, as the sides of the cup are embellished 

 with various figures, whose garments are partly com- 

 posed of coloured enamels. Enamels are vitrifiable 

 substances, and are usually arranged into tliree 

 classes; namely, the transparent, the semitransparent, 

 and opaque. The basis of all kinds of enamel is a 

 perfectly transparent and fusible glass, which is ren- 

 dered either semitransparent or opaque, by the ad- 

 mixture of metallic oxides. The art of colouring 

 glass seems to be of nearly the same antiquity as 

 the invention of making it ; which is proved, not only 

 from written documents, but likewise by the variously 

 coloured glass corals with which several of the Egyp- 

 tian mummies are decorated. White enamels are 

 composed by melting the oxide of tin with glass, and 

 adding a small quantity of manganese, to increase 

 the brilliancy of the colour. The addition of the 

 oxide of lead, or antimony, produces a yellow ena- 

 mel ; but a more beautiful yellow may be obtained 

 from the oxide of silver. Reds are formed by an in- 

 termixture of the oxides of gold and iron, that com- 

 posed of the former being the most beautiful and per- 

 manent. Greens, violets, and blues are formed from 

 the oxides of copper, cobalt, and iron ; and these, 

 when intermixed in different proportions, afford a 

 great variety of intermediate colours. Sometimes 

 the oxides are mixed before they are united to 

 the vitreous bases. All the colours may be produced 

 by the metallic oxides. The principal quality of good 

 enamel, and that which renders it fit for being ap- 

 plied on baked earthenware, or on metals, is the 

 facility with which it acquires lustre by a moderate 

 heat, or cherry-red heat, more or less, according to 

 the nature of the enamel, without entering into com- 

 plete fusion. Enamels applied to earthen-ware and 

 metals possess this quality. Enamels are executed 

 upon the surface of copper and other metals, by a 

 method similar to painting. Enameling on plates of 

 metal, and painting with vitrified colours on glass, 

 are practised with great success in England. 



ENCAUSTIC PAINTING (encausticus, Lat. ; 

 <>xaufrixri f Gr/). Painting in encaustic is executed 

 with the operation of fire. Ancient authors often 

 mention this species of painting, which, if it had 

 been described simply by the word encaustic, which 

 signifies executed by fire, might be supposed to liave 

 been a species of enamel painting. But the expres- 

 sions encavsto pingere, pictura encaustica, ceris pin- 

 gere, picturam inurere, by Pliny and other ancient 

 writers, show that another species of painting is 

 meant. We have no ancient pictures of this de- 

 scription, and, therefore, the precise manner adopted 

 by the ancients is not completely developed, though 

 many moderns have closely investigated the subject, 

 and described their processes. This species of paint- 

 ing appears to have been practised in the fourth and 

 fifth centuries.* Count Caylus, and M. Bachelier, 

 a painter, were the first of modern times who made 

 experiments in this branch of the art, about the year 

 1749. 



Pliny, in a passage relating to encaustic painting, 

 distinguishes three species : 1. that in which the 

 artists used a style, and painted on ivory or polished 

 wood (cestro in ebore), for which purpose they drew 

 the outlines on a piece of the aforesaid wood or ivory, 

 previously soaked or imbued with some colour ; the 

 point of the style or stigma served for this operation, 

 and the broad end to scrape off the small filaments 



* Vicenzo Requeno bas treated the subject in a very 

 masterly and scientific manner, in a work called tiaggj sul 

 Ristabilimento delf anlica Arte de' Grecie Romani Pitttrl, 

 published at Parma, 1787. 



Jiat arose from the outlines; and they continued form- 

 ing outlines with the point till they were finished. 

 2. The next manner appears to have been one in 

 which the wax, previously impregnated with colour, 

 was spread over the surface of the picture with the 

 style, and the colours thus prepared were formed into 

 imall cylinders for use. By the side of the painter 

 was a brasier for keeping the styles continually hot, 

 with the points of which they laid on the colours 

 when the outlines were finished, and spread them 

 smooth with the broad end ; and thus they proceeded 

 till the picture was finished. 3. The third manner 

 of painting was with a pencil, in wax liquefied by 

 fire. By this method the colours acquired a consider- 

 able hardness, and could not be damaged, either by 

 the heat of the sun or the effects of sea-water. In 

 this manner ships were painted, with emblems and 

 other pictures, and therefore it obtained the name of 

 ship painting. 



Few, of late years, have made more experiments 

 in tliis mode of painting than an English lady, Mrs 

 Hooker, who, for her very successful exertions in this 

 branch of the polite arts, was presented with a gold 

 palette by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 

 &c. of London. Her account is printed in the 10th 

 volume of the society's Transactions, for 1792, when 

 she was Miss Emma Jane Greenland. This subject 

 has also been deeply investigated by the chevalier 

 Lorgna, in a small but valuable tract, called Un Dis- 

 corso sulla Cera Punic.a. 



As the thing chiefly regarded in encaustic painting 

 was the securing of permanence and durability, by the 

 application of fire, the word encaustic has been ap- 

 plied, in a very general sense, to other processes, in 

 which both the material and the mode of applying 

 the heat, are entirely different from the ancient mate- 

 rials and modes. The word has been used, not only 

 of wax-painting on wood, stone, and ivory, but also 

 of painting on earthen vessels, of works in metal, 

 where gold and silver were inlaid, melted, or laid 

 on, and of every thing which was gilt or silvered by 

 fire ; which was called gold or silver encaustic. The 

 moderns have also used the term for painting on por- 

 celain, and work in enamel ; and in the same way it 

 was given to the painting on glass of the middle ages, 

 such as is now seen in the windows of some Gothic 

 churches. It is evident, that all these have nothing 

 to do with the wax-painting of the ancients. 



ENCHASING. Enchasing, or chasing, is the art 

 of enriching and beautifying gold, silver, and other 

 metallic works, by ornamental designs or figures re- 

 presented thereon in low relievo. See Sculpture, 

 Basso-relievo, &c. Chasing is the last operation, 

 or finishing process, performed on all figured works 

 of plate or jewellery. In general, these are all 

 cast in moulds of cuttle-fish-bone, from models made 

 in wax, and pass from the hands of the founder to 

 those of the enchaser. It is performed by a pe- 

 culiar manner of punching, or pressing out the 

 metal to form the finer lines of the figures, by making 

 them stand out more sharply from the plane, or sur- 

 face of the metal. The workman is furnished with 

 a number of fine steel blocks, and puncheons of divers 

 forms and sizes, and the general forms having been 

 already impressed upon the surface of the metal, the 

 blocks are applied inside the casting, directly under 

 the parts to be finished off ; while, by striking exter- 

 nally with a punch and a fine steel hammer, the metal 

 is made to yield and receive any form which the 

 workman wishes to communicate. Thus he proceeds, 

 in succession applying liis blocks, punches, and ham- 

 mers to the several parts of the design ; and, if he be 

 a good artist, it is surprising how much beauty and 

 delicacy he will be able to impart to his works. In 

 this way snuff-boxes, seals, watch-cases, tankards, 



