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Caelatura, Antique Plate

Argentum, Silver Page of 453 Caelatura, Antique Plate Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
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CŒLATURA.
CAELATUKA: Tορευτική.
All decorative metal-work was originally executed with the hammer alone : hence its designation σφνρηΧατον. So made were the first statues seen in Greece, ascribed to the mythical Deedalus, or his pupil Learchus, the several parts being ham­mered out separately and then put together by means of rivets, the art of soldering not being as yet invented. Somo of these were seen by Pausanias, as the Jupiter in Sparta, " the most ancient statue in Greece " (' Laconica,' iii. 17).
Long after the art of casting statuary in moulds with cores had superseded this primitive and tedious process, the hammer continued the sole instrument for works in the precious metals, whether statuettes or bas-reliefs. Everything belonging to the Assyrian, the Etruscan, and the Greek schools (as long as the period of fine art lasted), is wrought by the hammer. The sub­stance is the thinnest possible plate of the metal ; the small intrinsic value of the object, and the infinite taste and skill expended upon it, convincingly bespeak the times when gold and silver were extremely rare, but skilled labour very abundant.
This kind of work, aptly termed by the French repousse, was thus done : the plate, being laid upon a yielding substratum (a kind of cement), was beaten with blunt punches of various forms into a series of hollows roughly making out the intended figure. When the metal was taken up, these indentations formed a rude relief on the other side, which by dexterous manipulation and the finishing touches of the graver produced a complete work ; and that speedily, under the hand of a master. Figures in full relief, like the exquisite tiny Cupids so frequently depend­ing from the Greek earrings, were made in two halves, and then
Argentum, Silver Page of 453 Caelatura, Antique Plate
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