RELATION OF ENGRAVING TO OTHER ARTS. 287 



entirely undisturbed ; into that, furrows are cut with a chisel 

 as much under command and as powerful as a burin. The 

 effect of the design is trusted entirely to the depth of thes? 

 incisions here dying but and expiring in the light of the 

 marble, there deepened, by drill holes, into as definitely a 

 black line as if it were drawn with ink ; and describing the 

 outline of the leafage with a delicacy of touch and of percep- 

 tion which no man will ever surpass, and which very few have 

 rivalled, in the proudest days of design. 



71. This security, in silver plates, was completed by filling the 

 farrows with the black paste which at once exhibited and pre- 

 served them. The transition from that niello-work to modern 

 engraving is one of no real moment : my object is to make 

 jou understand the qualities which constitute the merit of the 

 engraving, whether charged with niello or ink. And this I 

 hope ultimately to accomplish by studying with you some of 

 the works of the four men, Botticelli" and Mantegna in the 

 south, Durer and Holbein in the north, whose names I have 

 put in our last flag, above and beneath those of the three 

 mighty painters, Perugino the captain, Bellini on one side 

 Luini on the other. 



The four following lectures * will contain data necessary for 

 such study : you must wait longer before I can place before 

 you those by which I can justify what must greatly surprise 

 some of my audience my having given Perugino the captain's 

 place among the three painters. 



72. But I do so, at least primarily, because what is com- 

 monly thought affected in his design is indeed the true re- 

 mains of the great architectural symmetry which was soon to 

 be lost, and which makes him the true follower of Arnolfo and 

 Brunelleschi ; and because he is a sound craftsman and work- 

 man to the very heart's core. A noble, gracious, and quiet 

 labourer from youth to death, never weary, never impatient, 



* This present lecture does not, as at present published, justify its 

 title ; because I have not thought it necessary to write the viva-voce 

 portions of it which amplified the 69th paragraph. I will give the sub- 

 stance of them in bettor form elsewhere ; meantime the part of the 

 lecture here given may be in its own way useful. 



