European enamels . who wrought best therein ; and withthe knowledge of their lovely creations before ussee what is beautiful and what is difficult in thisart, and get to understand the difference betweenwhat is really good and what is indifferent. As Isaid in the first chapter of my book, this art waswell practised in Florence, and I think, too, that inall those countries where they used it, and pre-eminently the French and the Flemings, and cer-tainly those who practised it in the proper manner,got it originally from us Florentines. And becausethey knew how difficult the real way was, and tha
European enamels . who wrought best therein ; and withthe knowledge of their lovely creations before ussee what is beautiful and what is difficult in thisart, and get to understand the difference betweenwhat is really good and what is indifferent. As Isaid in the first chapter of my book, this art waswell practised in Florence, and I think, too, that inall those countries where they used it, and pre-eminently the French and the Flemings, and cer-tainly those who practised it in the proper manner,got it originally from us Florentines. And becausethey knew how difficult the real way was, and thatthey would never be able to get it, they set aboutdevising another way less difficult. In this theymade such progress that they soon got, accordingto popular opinion, the name of good enamellers. 1 From The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Metal Work andSculpture, made into English from the Italian of the Marcian Codex, byC. R. Ashbee, and printed by him at the Guilds (of Handicraft) Press atEssex House. BAS-RELIEF, BASSETAILLE It is certainly true that if a man only works at athing long enough, all his practising makes hishand very sure in his art: and that was the waywith the folk who lived beyond the Alps. As for the right and proper way, about whichI intend to talk, it is done in this wise : First youmake a plate either of gold or silver, and of thesize and shape that your work is to be. Then youprepare a composition of 1 pece greca (Greek pitch),and brick ground very fine, and a little wax, accord-ing to the season ; as for the latter, you must addrather more in cold than in hot weather. Thiscomposition you put upon a board, great or smallin accordance with your work, and on this you putyour plate when you have heated it. Then youdraw an outline with your compasses in depth ratherless than a knife-back, and, this done, ground yourplate anywhere within this outline, and with theaid of a four-cornered chisel to the depth which theenamel is to be; and this you must
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