Fine Arts, 4lt 



Mr. James Tassie, of London, with a view to 

 the further advancement of the imitative arts, has 

 discovered a method of transferring the figures and 

 heads of antique and modern engraved gems into 

 coloured glass and enamel, similar to the originals 

 in colour, durability and brilliancy. This has been 

 pronounced by some connoisseurs to be a discovery 

 of great value for perpetuating the works of minia- 

 ture sculpture. By means of it, many remains of 

 ancient genius which were lost to the world, in 

 general, may be universally diffused in all their 

 original beauty and excellence."' 



Tow^ards the close of the century under consi- 

 deration, a collection was made, in Paris, of all 

 the Monuments of Sculpture which France could 

 afford, from the eighth to the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, and arranged according to the order of cen- 

 turies. This is the first, and the only collection of 

 the kind ever made. It is the only school in 

 which the progress of sculpture during the middle 

 ages can be advantageously studied." 



ENGRAVING. 



This art, which was not known prior to the mid- 

 dle of the fifteenth century," v/as brought, in the 

 course of the eighteenth, to a degree of refinement 

 and perfection which forms one of the signal ho- 

 nours of the age. And although some specimens 

 of this art, of a very early date, display the spirit 

 o{ the painting they were intended to copy, with 



m Monthly Magazine, Lond. vol. vil. 



n Description Historique et Chronologique des JMonumens de Sculpture, reuni* 

 ou JWusc:; des Momimeus Franc^ais ; par ALEXANDRE Lenoir. 



o The ancients, it is true, practised engraving on precious stones and 

 chrystals, with very good success; but this is rather a species of sculpture. 

 The art of engraving on phtes of metal, and blocks of wood, from which 

 to take prints or impressions, was not known till the period above men- 

 tioned. 



3H 



