DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0179
MANTEGNA.
175
matter at rest. If to Germany belongs the inven-
tion of engraving on wood, the art of copper-plate
engraving' was beyond all doubt first introduced
and practised at Florence; yet here again the in-
vention seems to have arisen out of a combination
of accidental circumstances rather than to belong of
right to one man. The circumstances, as well as
we can trace them, were these:—
The goldsmiths of Italy, and particularly of
Florence, were famous, in the fifteenth century, for
working in Niello. They traced with a sharp
point or graver on metal plates, generally of silver,
all kinds of designs, sometimes only arabesques,
sometimes single figures, sometimes elaborate and
complicated designs from sacred and profane his-
tory. The lines thus cut or scratched were filled
up with a black mass of sulphate of silver, so that
the design traced appeared very distinct contrasted
with the white metal: in Italy the substance used
in filling up the lines was called from its black
colour, in Latin nigellum, and in Italian niello.
In this manner church plate, as chalices and reli-
quaries ; also dagger-sheaths, sword-hilts, clasps,
buttons, and many other small silver articles, were
ornamented. In Sir John Soane’s Museum there
is an old MS. book, of which the binding exhibits
some beautiful specimens of niello-work of the
fifteenth century: those who practised the art were,
called niellatori.
i 2
175
matter at rest. If to Germany belongs the inven-
tion of engraving on wood, the art of copper-plate
engraving' was beyond all doubt first introduced
and practised at Florence; yet here again the in-
vention seems to have arisen out of a combination
of accidental circumstances rather than to belong of
right to one man. The circumstances, as well as
we can trace them, were these:—
The goldsmiths of Italy, and particularly of
Florence, were famous, in the fifteenth century, for
working in Niello. They traced with a sharp
point or graver on metal plates, generally of silver,
all kinds of designs, sometimes only arabesques,
sometimes single figures, sometimes elaborate and
complicated designs from sacred and profane his-
tory. The lines thus cut or scratched were filled
up with a black mass of sulphate of silver, so that
the design traced appeared very distinct contrasted
with the white metal: in Italy the substance used
in filling up the lines was called from its black
colour, in Latin nigellum, and in Italian niello.
In this manner church plate, as chalices and reli-
quaries ; also dagger-sheaths, sword-hilts, clasps,
buttons, and many other small silver articles, were
ornamented. In Sir John Soane’s Museum there
is an old MS. book, of which the binding exhibits
some beautiful specimens of niello-work of the
fifteenth century: those who practised the art were,
called niellatori.
i 2