SCULPTURA:

OR, THE

HISTORY and ART

O F

CHALCOGRAPHY.

BOOK THE FIRST.

CHAP. I.

Of Sculpture, how derived and diftinguished, with the Stiles and Inftruments belonging to it.

T

HOSE, who have most refined and criticized upon technical notions, feem to diftinguish what we commonly name SCULP

TURE into three several arts, and to attribute specifical differences to them all for there is, befides Sculptura (as it relates to CHALCOGRAPHY) Scalptura (fo DIOMEDES*) and Cælatura; both which, according to QUINTILIAN†, differ from the firft [ratione materia]" in refpect of the materials."

* Lib. 1. + L. 3. c. 21.

For

For to make but a brief enumeration only: it was applied to several things; as to working in wood or ivory tomice, the artists defectores; in clay, plaftice, plafte; in plaifter paradigmatice, the workmen gypfochi; in ftone-cutting colaptice, the artists lithoxoi; and laftly, in metals glyphice: which again is two-fold; for if wax be used, agogice; if the figure be of caft-work, chemice; anaglyphice, when the image was prominent; diaglyphice, when hollow, as in feals and intaglias; encolaptice when lefs deep, as in plates of brafs for laws and monumental infcriptions; then the toreutice; and the encauftic for a kind of enamel *; proplaftice forming the future work [ex creta] "of clay," or fome fuch matter, as the protypus was of wax for efformation, and the modulus of wood: not to omit the antient diatretice, which feems to have been a work upon chryftal, and the calices diatreti (of which fomewhere the poet MARTIAL) whether emboffed or engraven, as now with the point of a diamond, &c. for I can only name them briefly, the field would be too luxurious to difcourfe upon them feverally, and as they rather concern the ftatuary-art, fufile and plastic head; which would ferve better to adorn fome design of architecture, or merit an exprefs treatise, than become the prefent, which does only touch the metals, and fuch other materials as had not the figure finished through all its dimenfions though we might yet fafely, I think, admit fome of the Greek anaglyptics; argentum afperum & poftulatum, and, as the Latins term it, ebur pingue; for fo the poet, expofitumque alte pinCEL. RHODOG. Antiq. Ject. 1. 29, f. 24.

gue,

gue popofcit ebur, &c*. MANUTIUS calls them dimidiæ eminentia, and the ITALIANS do well interpret by Basso and Mezzo Relievo. Hence the figure is faid ftare, or exftare: for fo MARTIAL, ftat caper; and JUVENAL, ftantem extra pocula caprum: as from the fimilitude and perfection of the work, vivere, fpirare, calere; it feemed "to breathe and "be living," as VIRGIL expreffes it

Excudent alii fpirantia mollius æra.

And HORACE,

Et ungues Exprimet, & molles imitabitur ære capillos. Ludit Acidalio fed non manus afpera nodo Candida non tacita refpondet imagine Lygdos. MART. For in this manner they used to celebrate thofe rare pieces of art, diftinct from the diaglyphice and encolaptic, more properly according with our purpofe; and which may haply be as well expreffed by cælatura, and from the fignification made a derivative ἀπὸ τὸ σκάπλειν, to dig or make incifion. I think VARRO may have fcaptus for cælatus; as CICERO fcalptus, and PLINY fcalpturatus; yet we rather follow them who derive fcalpo, fculpo, from γλάφω and γλύφω ; becaufe the beft origination is to preserve the foundation in the ancienter languages, if the mutation of letters be warranted, as here in ypaqw fcribo. The word in the holy tongue, n, which imports an opening, (becaufe the plate, ftone, or whatever else material they ufed, aperitur aliqua fui parte, is fomewhere opened when any thing is engraven upon it) attests rather to the former etymon and fignification, than

* EPIST. ad Mocenium.

C

to

to any other material affinity: befides, that 'tis alfo transferable to thofe who carve with the chiffel, or work in boffe with the puntion, as our ftatuaries goldsmiths and repairers do. In the glofs we meet with cælum Toros, &c. which though fome admit not fo freely in this fenfe, yet MARTIAL, fpeaking of emboffed cups, more than once calls them to

reumata;

Miratus fueris cum prifca toreumata multum. Lib. 8. And why may not the tori, brawn, or collops of fat, be expreffed by these raised figures, and they torofe plump, and (as the French has it) en bon point, as well as fufile and fictile ones? Some round chiffel or lathe perhaps it was; but we dare only conjecture. Others celum a cado, which is to beat, ftrike, cut or dig; but by what parallel authority of fuch a derivative, we know not. VARRO * yet e calo heaven itself, reaching its original from the very stars. cixos is another, more confonant and harmonious with the antienty kalangh, which imports to excavate and make hollow, as it is frequently interpreted, particularly 1 Reg. vi. 32, 35. where, what the vulgar Latin renders fculpfit, VATABLUS makes cælavit, and JUNIUS incidit, best of all correfponding with our purpose. And fo in the famous wrought fhield which Ulyffes purchased by his eloquence, QUINTILIAN† applies the word, in cælatura clypei Achillis, & lites funt & actiones : for fo it feems to have been much ufed on their harnefs; LIVY‡ reports of two famous armies fo reprefented or as more allufive yet to our plate, where 'tis faid, cælatura rumpit tenuem laminam; if L. iv. de L. L. ↑ Lib. ii. c. 18. Hift. 1. 9.

the

the question be not rather, whether thefe works, like the ancæfa vafa, were not raised and emboffed; thofe expreffions of PLINY fo much favouring their eminency, where he tells us, fpeaking of this very art, [ita exolevit, ut fola jam vetuftate cenfeatur, ujque adeo attritis cælaturis, ne figura difcerni pofit] it has now been fo long out of ufe, that it is "efteemed only for its antiquity, the graving being "so worn away, that the figures are no longer "difcernible;" time and age had fo greatly defaced them.

But may this fuffice for the divifion and denomination of the ART in general; fince the title which we have made choice of, is univerfally applicable for fo [loquendi confuetudine]" in ordinary "difcourfe," fculptura and fcalptura import but one and the fame thing, as SALMASIUS has well noted on Solinus; and, therefore, thofe, who wrought any of these hollow cut-works, were by fome called cavatores, and graphatores, fays that learned perfon; whence, doubtless, our gravers may have derived their appellation.

By this then it will not be difficult for any to define what the ART itself is; whether confidered in the most general and comprehenfive acceptation, or as it concerns that of CHALCOGRAPHY chiefly, and fuch as have most affinity with it; fince (as well as the rest) it may be described to be, “An "art, which takes away all that is fuperfluous of "the fubject matter, reducing it to that form or "body which was defigned in the idea of the ar"tift:" and this, as fufficiently univerfal; unless in favour of the plastic, (which yet does not come C 2

under