John W. Mollett

“ Sculpture (from sculpo, to carve) includes all carved work, in wood, ivory, stone, marble, metal, or other material; and also those works formed in a softer material not requiring carving, such as wax or clay. It includes Statuary, carved ornament, and Glyptics or incised gems and cameos. From the practice of preparing the model in clay, sculpture is also called the plastic art. A most remarkable incident in the history of sculpture, is the fact that the most ancient specimens are carved of the hardest stones, such as basalt, granite, and porphyry ”

“ The bronze-work of Britain and Ireland is as ancient as any; and, in beauty of form and perfection of casting, rivals the best modern work. Of the work in Greece we are told that Athens alone contained 3000 bronze statues in the year 130 B.C., and vast treasures of metallurgy have been discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii. In mediæval times Ireland was famous for metallurgy, and of its admirable copper-works of the 11th century many splendid relics remain, especially the so called Bell of St. Patrick. Oriental bronzes, of characteristic design, are plentiful from all ages ”

“ The Etruscans and Sabines wore rings at the foundation of Rome, 753 B.C., those of the former being remarkable for beauty and intrinsic value. The Lacedæmonians wore iron rings. The Romans also under the Republic were proud of wearing an iron ring; under the Empire the privilege of wearing a ring raised the wearer to the equestrian order. Greek and Roman rings were, generally speaking, massive and simple, and of obvious value in metal and stone, until in the degenerate times of the Empire luxury spread, and the lower classes began to disfigure themselves with cheap jewellery. ”

“ Sword, in Christian art, is a symbol of martyrdom; it is also the attribute of martyrs who were soldiers. In Heraldry, when borne as a charge, it is straight in the blade, pointed, and with a cross-guard. The custom of swearing on the sword, the hilt of which took the shape of a cross, or had crosses engraved on it, is mentioned in very ancient history. ”

“ A Greek temple was not originally intended for worshippers, but as a shrine for the gods. In the earliest times the Greek temples were made of wood, and the primitive origin of them was probably a hollow tree in which the image was placed as in a niche. The early Greek temples were dark and gloomy, having no windows, but lighted through the door, or by lamps. At a very early stage in history, temples of great grandeur and beauty are mentioned. All temples were built in an oblong or round form, and were mostly adorned with columns ”

“ For cremation the pyre, or rogus, was built like an altar, and the corpse in its splendid couch being placed on the top, the nearest relation, with averted face, fired a corner of the pile. Perfumes were forbidden by the Twelve Tables. Sometimes animals were slaughtered, and in ancient times, captives and slaves, but afterwards gladiators were hired to fight round the blazing pile. (Compare Bustum.) When the pyre was burnt down, the embers were soaked with wine, and the bones and ashes collected into urns. ”

“ Wings, from time immemorial, have been the Oriental and Egyptian symbol of power as well as of swiftness; of the spiritual and aerial, in contradistinction to the human and the earthly; also in Chaldaic and Babylonian remains, in the Lycian and Nineveh marbles, and on the gems and other relics of the Gnostics. In Etruscan art all their divinities are winged. ”

“ A general term to denote any work of art that is sculptured, chased, carved, or embossed, such as cameos, bas-reliefs, or other raised work, whether in metal, marble, or ivory. When such sculptures or chasings are incised or sunk, they are called Intaglios or Diaglyphs (q.v.) . According to St. Clement of Alexandria, anaglyphs were employed by the Egyptians when they wished to hand down a panegyric of any king under the form of a religious myth. ”

“ Egyptian Architecture and Sculpture can be studied in the monuments remaining from remotest antiquity to about A. D. 300. Great varieties of style occur, which can be easily attributed to their respective periods by the hieroglyphical inscriptions. The three primitive motives of all Egyptian buildings are the pyramid, caves, and structures of timber; all contemporary with the most ancient relics. In sculpture, the most ancient works of all are also those most remarkable for fidelity to nature. ”

“ The whole theatre and orchestra were open to the sky. The cavea of the former accommodated about 50,000 spectators. The arrangements of the stage were elaborate and ingenious, and the art of scene-painting developed at a very early period. The Roman theatre differed from the Greek principally in the absence of an orchestra, that space (the modern pit) being used for the seats of senators, foreign ambassadors, &c. Remains of ancient theatres still exist in Greece, Italy, and France. The most perfect of these are the Colosseum at Rome, and the amphitheatre at Nismes. ”

“ In Christian art, a disc or plate, commonly golden, sometimes red, blue, or green, or banded like a rainbow, placed vertically behind the heads of persons of special dignity or sanctity as a symbol of honour. After the 8th century living persons were, in Italy, distinguished by a square nimbus, which sometimes assumed the form of a scroll partly unrolled. The nimbus is of heathen origin. Virgil describes Juno as “nimbo succincta.” The heads of the statues of the gods, and the Roman emperors, after they began to claim divine honours, were decorated with a crown of rays. ”

“ The gold jewellery of ancient India also excelled that of modern date, but none, before or since, ever equalled the great age of Greek art. Pausanias describes a statue of Athene, made by Pheidias, and kept in the Parthenon at Athens, of ivory and gold—chryselephantine—delicately worked all over; and a still larger statue of Jupiter, of the same materials. Native gold alloyed with one-fifth silver was greatly prized by the Greek artists, who gave it the name of electrum. ”

“ Flute, Gen. Said to have been invented by Apollo or Mercury. The simplest form of flute was made with an oat-stalk (avena) or a hollow reed (calamus) ; in the course of time it was made of ivory, bone, or the shin-bones of animals; whence its Latin name of Tibia (q.v.) . The Greek flute (aulos) was held like a flageolet, and a vibrating reed was inserted into the mouthpiece. The single flute was called monaulos; the double one diaulos. A specimen of the last in the British Museum was found in a tomb at Athens. ”

“ Encaustic, R. (lit. burning in) . The art of painting in encaustic. Pliny says, “The colours were applied with wax on marble, and transparent gum on ivory. Coloured wax was applied to the wall in the form of a paste, and in the manner of mosaic or enamels. This was then melted or fused with hot irons (cauteria) , a small fillet of a different tint being inserted between each flat tint.” Fairholt says, “There is no antique painting extant which is properly called ENCAUSTIC; all those supposed to be so have, on closer examination, proved to be in Fresco or in Tempera.”
Encaustic Tiles. ”

“ Black is the resultant of the combination in unequal proportions of blue, red, and yellow.
Black, in Christian art, expressed the earth; darkness, mourning, wickedness, negation, death; and was appropriate to the Prince of Darkness. White and black together signify purity of life, and mourning or humiliation; hence adopted by the Dominicans and Carmelites. In blazonry, black, called sable, signifies prudence, wisdom, and constancy in adversity and love, and is represented by horizontal and perpendicular lines crossing each other. ”

“ Wall Painting. The Greek temples were brilliantly decorated with painting and gilding internally. “The method has been investigated and is described to be the colouring of the body of the wall of a pale yellow or golden colour, the triglyphs and mutules blue, the metopes and the tympanum red, and some other portions of the building green, and varying these tints or using them of greater or less intensity as the judgment of the artist dictated.” (Hittorf, Essay on the Polychromy of Greek Architecture.) The colouring of the Egyptian bas-reliefs is familiar. ”

“ Hydra, Gr. (a water-serpent) . A hundred-headed monster of Greek mythology, sprung, like the Chimæra, from Typhon and Echidna; he was killed by Hercules. In Heraldry the hydra is represented with only nine heads. The illustration (Fig. 390) is of the device adopted by Curtio Gonzaga, an Italian poet, to symbolize the constancy of his love, with the motto, “If I kill it, more strong it revives.” ”

“ A native carbonate of copper, forming a beautiful and permanent green pigment, used for oils and water-colours. Incrusted upon other materials it is used for articles of ornament. Blue malachite is pure carbonate of copper; green malachite is green carbonate of copper; emerald or royal malachite is dioptase of copper, a still rarer green and the best of all, which is a mixture of copper and silica; false or pseudo-malachite is phosphate of copper, soft and silky, and of a rich velvet green marred by black spots or lines, and not so rich as the three kinds of true malachite. ”

“ The façade of a temple or building, and sometimes the porch of a church.
Profile. The side view of the human face. It is observed by Fairholt that “a face which, seen directly in front, is attractive by its rounded outline, blooming colour, and lovely smile, is often divested of its charms when seen in profile, and strikes only as far as it has an intellectual expression. Only where great symmetry exists, connected with a preponderance of the intellectual over the sensual, will a profile appear finer than the front face.” ”

“ A rich brown pigment.
Rubiate. A name for Liquid Madder Lake (q.v.) .
Rubicelle. An orange-coloured stone, a variety of the spinel ruby.
Rubrica, R. Red ochre; and thence rubric, an edict or ordinance of the Civil Law written in red ochre, while the ordinances and rules of the prætors were written in black on a white ground on the Album (q.v.) .
Ruby, in Christian art. (See Red.)
Ruby or Red Sapphire. A corundum, the most valuable of all gems; when perfect and large, exceeding even the diamond in value. The colour varies from the lightest rose tint to the deepest carmine. ”

“ Among the Greeks, the heavy-armed warrior wore the greaves, cuirass, with the mitra underneath, and the zone or cingulum above; his sword, ensis or gladius, hung on his left side, and the large round shield, sacus, aspis, clipeus or scutum, hung from his shoulder; his helmet, corys, cunea, cassis or galea; his spear, enkus, doru or hasta, or two spears. The defensive armour, the shield and thorax, were called hopla, and the man hoplites. The light-armed, psiloi, anoploi, gymnai, gymnetai, had a slighter covering of skins, or cloth, and fought with darts, stones, bows and arrows or slings. ”

“ The Roman women anciently dressed their hair very plainly, but in the Augustan period adopted some extravagant fashions. Each of the gods is distinguished by his peculiar form of hair: that of Jupiter is long and flowing; Mercury has close curling hair, &c. The Danes, Gauls, and Anglo-Saxons wore long flowing hair, and the shearing of it was a punishment: when Julius Cæsar conquered the Gauls, he cut off their long hair. Among the early Frankish kings long hair was the privilege of the blood royal. ”

“ Ideal and Real. “Any work of art which represents, not a material object, but the mental conception of a material object, is in the primary sense of the word ideal; that is to say, it represents an idea, not a thing. Any work of art which represents or realizes a material object is, in the primary sense of the term, un-ideal.” (Modern Painters, vol. ii. chap. 13.) In a practical sense an ideal picture or statue (e. g. the Medici Venus) is not the portrait of an individual model, but the putting together of selected parts from several models. ”

“ Greek Lace. A kind of cutwork, described under Lace (q.v.) .
Green, in Christian art, or the emerald, is the colour of spring; emblem of hope, particularly hope in immortality; and of victory, as the colour of the palm and the laurel.
Green. (See Carbonates of Copper, Oxides of Copper, Scheele’s Green, Sap Green, Chrome Green, &c.)
Green Bice. Green cinnabar. (See Chrome Green.)
Green Earth (burnt terra verde) is a brown pigment, very useful for landscape painting in oil colours; it is not affected by exposure to strong light or impure air.
Green Lakes. (See Purple Lakes.) ”

“ The art of chasing out lines or forms, and inlaying a black composition called nigellum or niello, was probably well known to the Greeks. The Byzantines compounded for this purpose silver, lead, sulphur, and copper, and laid it on the silver in a powder; being then passed through the furnace, it melted and incorporated with the solid metal. A process producing a similar result of black tracery is practised in porcelain painting, and called Niello-enamel. ”