t yourselves thoroughly of the
idea that ornament should be decorated construction; and, secondly, as
the noblest type of the intaglio ornamentation, which developed itself
into all minor application of black and white to engraving.

69. That it should do so first at Florence, was the natural sequence,
and the just reward, of the ancient skill of Etruria in chased
metal-work. The effects produced in gold, either by embossing or
engraving, were the direct means of giving interest to his surfaces at
the command of the 'auri faber,' or orfevre: and every conceivable
artifice of studding, chiseling, and interlacing was exhausted by the
artists in gold, who were at the head of the metal-workers, and from
whom the ranks of the sculptors were reinforced.

The old French word 'orfroiz,' (aurifrigia,) expresses essentially what
we call 'frosted' work in gold; that which resembles small dew or
crystals of hoar-frost; the 'frigia' coming from the Latin frigus. To
chase, or enchase, is not properly said of the gold; but of the jewel
which it secures with hoops or ridges, (French, _en_chasser[O]). Then
the armorer, or cup and casket maker, added to this kind of decoration
that of flat inlaid enamel; and the silver-worker, finding that the
raised filigree (still a staple at Genoa) only attracted tarnish, or got
crushed, early sought to decorate a surface which would bear external
friction, with labyrinths of safe incision.

70. Of the _security_ of incision as a means of permanent decoration, as
opposed to ordinary carving, here is a beautiful instance in the base of
one of the external shafts of the Cathedral of Lucca; thirteenth-century
work, which by this time, had it been carved in relief, would have been
a shapeless remnant of indecipherable bosses. But it is still as safe as
if it had been cut yesterday, because the smooth round mass of the
pillar is entirely undisturbed; into that, furrows are cut with a chisel
as much under command and as powerful as a burin. The effect of the
design is trusted entirely to the depth of these incisions--here dying
out and expiring in the light of the marble, there deepened, by drill
holes, into as definitely a black line as if it were drawn with ink;
and describing the outline of the leafage with a delicacy of touch and
of perception which no man will ever surpass, and which very few have
rivaled, in the proudest days of design.

71. This security, in silver plates, was completed by filling