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CŒLATURA.
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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after the art of casting statuary in moulds with cores had superseded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
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