gn changed in
consequence, and mother-of-pearl, ivory, tortoiseshell, silver, and
other materials were used. The first Tuscan, or one of the first who did
so was Andrea Massari of Siena. A few works in tarsia were still
executed, but none of much importance. The choir of S. Sigismondo,
outside Cremona, commenced by Gabriel Capra and finished by his son
Domenico in 1605, is one of the principal, and the choir of S.
Francesco, Perugia, where Fortebraccio was buried, but this latter no
longer exists. Marquetry was produced in Florence, Venice, Milan, and
Genoa down to a still later date, but the fashion for ivory and ebony
carried all before it. The Italian work of this kind is often most
beautifully engraved, but less accurate than that produced in France.
The later Italian marquetry does not lose decorative effect though the
figure drawing becomes very conventional, and the curves of ornament are
often cut with a mechanical sweep. A good deal of it is in only two
colours, a return to the simplicity of earlier days.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] There were nineteen subjects, divided by channelled pilasters with a
carved frieze, above a bench which ran round the circular wall from one
doorpost to the other, the whole work crowned with a cornice also carved
with foliated ornament. The first subject on the right was an open
cupboard with architects' and joiners' tools. The second was the
portrait described above. The third showed a cupboard half open, worked
with a grille of pierced almond shapes and divided. "In the upper part
is a naked boy, standing with a ball in his left hand, below is a large
circle with a bridge within and without in the form of a diamond. Within
the closed part of the grille one sees a ewer above and a basin below.
The fourth is a figure of S. Ansano, half-length, below whom is the head
of a man who receives baptism with joined hands, and the saint with a
vase in his hand pours water on his head, holding in his right hand a
standard. The fifth shows a cupboard open and shelved in the
middle--above is a chalice and paten, below is a salver with fruit
within and falling from it. The sixth contains an organ case with a man
who, with raised head, enjoys the sweetness of the sounds, on the side
of the organ are the arms of the Opera and below are the arms of the
rector Arringhieri. The seventh is a cupboard half open with pierced
doors, in the upper half a censer, and an incense boat, with a label
above with these w
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