by a series of ovals, spoken of
in a previous chapter, becomes really of practical value: the method of
hollowing the stone or metal in cutting the gem or making a die and
the character of the tool leading naturally in that direction.

[Desiderio di Settignano]

Perhaps the most delicate and beautiful kind of sculptured or modelled
relief is to be found in the work of the Florentine school of the
fifteenth century, more especially that of Donatello and Desiderio di
Settignano, who seem indeed to have caught the feeling and spirit of the
best Greek period, with fresh inspiration and suggestion from nature and
the life around them, as well as an added charm of grace and sweetness.

It is difficult to imagine that marble carving in low relief can be
carried to greater perfection than it is in the well-known small relief
by Desiderio di Settignano of the "Madonna and Child," now in the
Italian Court of the South Kensington Museum. The delicate yet firmly
chiselled faces and hands, the smooth surfaces of the flesh, and the
folds of drapery, emerging from, or sinking into, the varied planes of
the ground, for refinement of feeling and treatment seem almost akin to
the art of the painter in the tenderness of their expression.

CHAPTER VIII

Of the Expression of Relief in Line-drawing--Graphic Aim and
Ornamental Aim--Superficial Appearance and Constructive
Reality--Accidents and Essentials--Representation and Suggestion
of Natural Form in Design--The Outward Vision and the Inner
Vision.

I have already said that when we add lines or tints of shadow, local
colour or surface, to an outline drawing, we are seeking to express form
in a more complete way than can be done in outline alone. These added
lines or tints give what we call relief. That is their purpose and
function, whether by that added relief we wish to produce an ornamental
effect or simply to approach nearer to the full relief of nature, for of
course the degrees of relief are many.

[Relief in Line-Drawing]

What may be called the natural principle of relief--that system of light
and shade by which a figure or any solid object is perceived as such by
the eye--consists in each part of the form being thrown into more or
less contrast by appearing as dark on light upon its background, more
especially at its